Lately the church announced to cancel all trips and visits to monasteries due to security reason as mention in the brief statement released by the church lately. What clear is for me that Copts pay the price of their belief in the peaceful time and in the time that the country suffers from political tension.

After the government raised recently the prices of the gas and the electricity, the only thing everyone ask who should take care of the poor people in Egypt? Everyone understand that Egypt face a tremendous Economic problems but at the same time there are many direction the political regime take to improve the poor people life not to increase the burden and increase the poverty of Egyptian. We can see president Sisi impose only one policy to improve the Egyptian economic which is lifting the subsidies on everything which could be a step from many to improve the economy.

While we are close to June 30th, we still have the same argument about this date and if it was revolution or military coup and because I don’t want to go further in this argument I want to focus in more deep thoughts related to both terms. For those who consider it as revolution, I want to ask them many question, are we better than before? Is our economic, social and political life is better than before, Did Egyptian get what they demonstrate against?, did we achieve any progress during 3 years from June 30th until now?

Reforms in General shouldn’t take one shape. Reforms shouldn’t be only by increasing the prices especially on the poor classes. It’s very understandable that any reform will affect without any doubt the poor class but if we didn’t work in lighten these affects that might lead to social tension and may be troubles in the short and long term. One of the main problem that face Egypt right now that the political regime doesn’t even talk to the people or tell Egyptian what are they willing to do and why, on contrary they deal with the Egyptian as sub-ordinate. Egyptian should be Number one in any decision made by the government or the president, however, this is not the case and it seems that Sisi didn’t learn from the previous lessons. In conclusion I want to assure that any reforms will not be effective unless the society and community accept it and feel that they are part of the process not objectives.

Recently the parliament agreed on Terran and Sanafi treaty which will give the right to Saudi Arabia to have the sovereignty on these two Islands. Sisi in many occasions accused all Egyptians that they don’t have honor and dignity and he is the only one have it among Egyptian. We back as always to the king authority who believes that he is the best and the right person in all cases.

The terrorism that we see growing among the Western part of the world is equally heartbreaking and troublesome, but for different reasons that I want to explain here. First off, let s be clear. In Egypt, you have 90% of the population that is Muslim. The other 10% is Christian/Other denominations. The victims, as mentioned previously, are the Christians. The West, on the other hand, is primarily made up of Christians and Atheists. A large amount of the population, I can say maybe 35% is Atheist/Mixed. In this group, I do also include “apathetic” Christians that are not practicing Christians. Christians who do not have the first clue about the teachings of the Church, or of peace etc… The other 55% I can say are Christians and then 5% Muslim. The Muslim population is growing, but is still relatively small. The Western mentality is not that of “Christianity” although that s the foundation for these countries, it s more about, “let everyone just do their own thing and mind your own business”

I m sure by now everyone has heard about the multiple acts of terrorism that have been happening not only over in the U.K, but also in the States and across the world. The enemy is showing their true colours, and Westerners are showing theirs as well. In Egypt, we are faced with many difficulties when it comes to persecution of the Copts. First of all, we are a vulnerable minority. Many will disagree with that statement. We, the Copts are strong! We are fearless! We defend our faith! Before we all jump over each other in protest, I want to clarify, by means of reason, we are a vulnerable minority. We make up 10% of the population. We are faced with 80 million non-Christians. We are vulnerable, why? I don t mean we are not strong in our faith. I mean, whenever there is unsettling, anger, civil unrest, the first ones to suffer are the Copts. How easy is it for an aggravated Muslim to walk into a Church with a bomb nowadays? Families look for any reason to start trouble with their Christian neighbours. This is a fact. Copts have been, and will always be the first target when the Egyptian population is faced with any kind of turmoil.

There are a few flowers that have been known to be very hardy. Hardy means that it can survive many different conditions. Cold or extreme hot climate, drought, being cut down. No matter what happens to these flowers, for example, the daisy, they keep growing and becoming stronger. What any gardener will tell you is this: if you cut the beautiful flowers that daisies produce, a new one will grow in its place. You may even see more blooms by cutting the flowers off. Since we are in the heat of summer, and flowers are beginning to grow and take place, I can’t help but think about what happened to our poor little flowers that were killed on the bus from the St. Samuel Monastery recently. You hear about innocent lives being taken by acts of terrorism and murderers, and wonder when will this end? How many more lives have to be lost before this world changes? I’ve mentioned before that in order for us to see peace in this country, and among the people, we need to grow a new culture, a new understanding, a new respect for each other. It only takes 1 Sheikh to tell a Mosque that to make “Allah” happy, go an slaughter innocent Christian children. 1 Sheikh is all it takes to infect the minds of hundreds of people.

Education in Egypt needs to be amended sooner than later. Sisi always keep asking to renew the religious speech but never mentioned to renew the education method and approaches. Education for Egypt should be the first priority not the last one. Sisi started to spent Billions of Egyptian pounds in building the new capital and different projects and forget that to build a new society you have to start with building their brain.

Among the turbulence and political instability, I would like to take the time to focus on another aspect of our country, tourism. Only recently, a group of archeology students discovered 17 new mummies in central Egypt. Using radar technology, the students were able to locate the burial chamber of mummies, which they believe go back as far as 1500 years, the time of the Roman Empire. Why is this important? I'm focusing on this, because I read something quite interesting in the news. A writer was discussing the implications of this find, and that perhaps Egypt itself has means to try and lure tourists back to it's natural heritage. The country is basically advertising for itself and trying to get back on the world stage but for different reasons. Currently, all people hear about and speak about is the political instability, the persecution against the Copts, the rising prices and inflation. This is the first positive thing to emerge from Egypt for a long time.

It seems that we will keep talking about the Egyptian Economy for long time. Lately the Central bank of Egypt has decided to raise the interest rate again for the third time in a row. The president of the central bank and its committee seems insisting in not listening to any advice from the economists except from international monetary fund. The measurements that the central bank tries to take, I believe will lead Egypt to declare Bankruptcy sooner or later. It’s impossible and insane to increase the interest rate to curb the inflation, while you don’t have any other source of foreign currency after tourism stopped and the productions decreased.

We can’t ignore the visit of Pope Francis without pausing and thinking about the implications of this visit, and what this visit could do for Egypt in general, and more specifically for the Christians around the world. We can’t deny that this visit will open many doors that were closed before. One of these doors, is “hope.” I consider hope the most important door for Egyptians and for everyone around the world. When I say hope, I mean the hope for living in peace, not clashing between civilizations as Samuel Huntington was trying to portray in his book by the same name, “Clash of Civilizations.”

Tomorrow President Sisi will be going to Saudi Arabia for an official visit, after along time of tension between the two countries, especially after the Egyptian situation that occured with the UN by supporting the Russian and French Revolution relating to the Syrian War. The question we need to answer here is as follows: Are there any benefits from the Saudi Arabia - Egypt relationship? It's difficult to say that the relationship between Egypt and Saudi Arabia has reached to a level we can call "strategic". Basically, Saudi Arabia wants to have Egypt as a support system in case any other country attacks. It is well-known that the Egyptian Army is the only army tha remains now among all the Arab countries.They are the only force that we can consider organized enough, and ready enough, to participate in any war that may occur in the region.

Although Easter is tomorrow, I want to express my condolences, not my congratulations to all the loved ones and friends of the martyrs of Tanta and Alexandria, after terrorists bombed the two churches on Palm Sunday, leaving more than 50 dead hundreds injured. Also, I believe that cancelling the Easter Celebration was the right decision from Pope Tawadros. I don’t think that celebrating Easter shows respect and sorrow for the people enduring this horrible attack.

After the horrible Palm Sunday terrorist attack, I've noticed many people attacking our beloved Pope Tawadros for supporting Sisi and sharing in the responsibility for what is happening to the Copts in Egypt. It Is irrational to attack Pope Tawadros especially in this time. We need to show our solidarity, not attacking our Pope becuase he has chosen to support the State not the Regime, regardless of who becomes president after this.

Lately, many accidents involving poison has been happening to Egyptian children after eating their school meal. However, the Egyptian Parliament has been dealing with this accident as if nothing happened. It appears the children are not important enough to question the Minister of Education, or at least investigate the incident. As an avid follower for all Parliament-related news, I believe this is incredibly horrible, and something that will stain Egyptian’s history as a terrible occurrence, and shame. This Parliament is composed of security personnel hand-picked, not by

As I have mentioned in the previous article that President Sisi should focus on four main topics which are as follows: The first important topic is the economic issue, which from my point, needs to take a lot of time and more effort to discuss than any of the other topics. As we can see now, Egypt is suffering from many economical problems especially after floating the Egyptian Pound which has led the Egyptian Pound to drop dramatically in the past few months, leading to huge inflation, which means simply, an incresase in the price of goods.

In just a few weeks Sisi will be flying half way across the world to meet the worlds most controversial leader, President Donald Trump. This guy has been the headline of all western tabloids for all the outrageous decrees, interviews, and troublemaking caused by the newly elected U.S. president. Trump has managed to upset literally the Mexicans, Canadians, Arabs, and most recently refused to shake hands with the ambassador to Russia during talks regarding all of the money owed to the U.S. In some weird turning of events, Egypt managed to not make the list of banned countries from entering the U.S. I would not be surprised at all if Sisi was seriously interrogated at airport security even though Trump himself invited him over for discussions.

I can’t understand why. But maybe I shouldn’t be asking “why” but asking “how.” How are they so happy? How do have this joy that fill a room? Is there some kind of secret that I don’t know about? I don’t know what the answer is. Maybe the key to joy is not in what happens to us, but how we happen to life. Does that make sense? Not so much, right? Think of this: the most impoverished people are the happiest people. Tragedy hits everyone equally, it does not discriminate. In one way or another, you will face disasters in your lifetime. So maybe since heartbreak is a known factor in the equation of happiness, we need to change a different variable, which is our attitude.

Let’s paint two pictures. The first, a family that has a roof over their heads, food in the fridge, money in the bank. The second, a family that is struggling to find food, who lives in poverty, not a piaster to their name. These are very basic pictures, because as you know, each family faces many obstacles in their lifetime. Going more in-depth, we could factor in family issues, self-fulfillment, serious illness, death, mental diseases, tragedy, and the list can keep on going because this life is filled with the absolute best and absolute worst situations anyone could encounter. One minute you could be happy beyond belief, the next minute you could be completely devastated, through no fault of your own, but simply by living.

Recently, Copts have been forced to leave their homes in Arish because of the threats they face. 6 Copts have been killed by the Islamic State in Sinai. This is not the first incident to happen against the Copts, and not the first time for them to be forced out of their homes and community. However, I want to point out that this displacement in Sinai is not only from terrorism. It's also as a result of authorities agreeing with the general public that forced displacement in Upper Egypt is appropriate. Forced displacement of the Copts is not just an isolated incident, it is something that happens often when Muslim people want to force their rules on others including the law and the legislation. This serious situation, as I mentioned and written many times earlier, will not be solved by security measures only, it needs more efforts than that. As long as our children keep getting the same education in schools and mosques, calling for Muslim kids to hate others because they are "infidels" we will continually be dealing with these types of incidents in Egypt all the time, and in alot of places. When you plant seeds in chilren to hate others becuase they are Christian, don't except to have angels when these children finally become adults. Unfortunately, Sisi is still running Egypt with the same old rules and same old approach. The president still hasn't recognized that Egypt is in need of a new and creative approach that not only comes through security measures. In conclusion, I want to call for the Pope and for all Christians to pay attention to their brothers and sisters who have become displaced lately, and to do their best to help, where possible, in this horrbile situation.