With Saudi Arabia announcing plans for a major restructuring of the kingdom’s economy and Iran gearing up to become a regional hegemony, women’s sports are emerging as a benchmark of reform, and one that so far is less than promising.

Kill Hisham Geneina or get rid of him, you’ll never be free to practise corruption the way you like”. The announcer was attacking the man nervously asserting that the head of the Central Auditing Organisation should be dismissed.

An Egyptian philosopher friend advised me to watch The Three Faces of Eve (1957) as a guide to the abysmal status of women here in Egypt, and boy, did I discover a thing or two watching this black and white classic on multiple personality syndrome. Not just about the kind of twin tracks modern-day Egypt and ultra-conservative America are on, but a whole lot about the plight of women throughout the ages and some of the misguided attempts to correct the balance of the sexes.

A few days before President Francois Hollande’s visit to Cairo last week, the French ambassador invited me to meet with Hollande, as part of a small group of Egyptian writers and politicians. The purpose of the meeting, ambassador Andre Parant said, was to discuss the political and economic situation and explore ways to strengthen ties between Egypt and France. Parant made a point of inviting a diverse group of independent thinkers, perhaps to ensure that the meeting was not reflective of any one political and ideological view.

The regime has its back to the wall. Egypt’s president, reputed for his hyper-nationalism, has made concessions about what is viewed by many as Egyptian land. The transfer of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir, which control the straits of Tiran, has angered many Egyptians, particularly in light of what seems like a covertly negotiated deal.

In 1975, at the Mexico City First World Conference on Women, Vandana Shiva, the Indian scholar and environmental activist, introduced the issue of women’s relationship to the environment. At the time, concern was raised about the depletion of forestry resources and women’s role in agriculture and a connection was made between environmental development and its impact on women.

State repression has been one of the main characteristics of Egypt’s post-30 June regime. Repression in the post-30 June era has taken on various forms and has been carried out through multiple means, such as direct state violence, despotic legislation, random mass arrests and constitutional violations.

I imagine some senior state officials breathed a sigh of relief once last Friday was over, and with it demonstrations protesting the border agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Except for some commotion downtown, the day seemed to have passed in peace, with no worrying consequences for the future, and the vast majority of the Egyptian people held their silence and did not participate in the protest, which was limited to overzealous (or paid) youth.

Sice the parliament started holding its initial sessions, problems and disagreements arose among its members. The first problem arose during parliament’s opening session, due to explicit violations of Articles 104 and 127 of the amended 2014 Egyptian Constitution that relate to the constitutional oath.

Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud’s visit to Egypt on 9 April caused a startling disturbance. Chatter across different social media platforms has peaked. The cause behind all this is Egypt’s decision to transfer the sovereignty of Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia.

In New York, I am following the incredibly detailed accounts that have been revealed by the Panama Papers about the money laundering conducted by many of the current and former world leaders and international figures including Russian President Putin, the father of the prime minister of Britain, David Cameron, Alaa Mubarak and others.

One could index the Facebook reactions surrounding Egypt’s effective sale of Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabi as follows: Islamists are posting videos of Abdel-Nasser, revoutionaries are posting videos of Mubarak, and Sisi supporters are posting videos of El-Baradei, and everybody is cursing everybody else.

King Salman’s visit to Cairo last week was of exceptional importance, not only for Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but the entire region. The visit offered the opportunity to get past the chill in relations that emerged due to differences on key regional issues, reinvigorate economic ties, and restore balance in the Arab region.

The last few years have witnessed — and are still witnessing — dreary regional disturbance due to Arab-Arab infighting, whether directly or by proxy, in Libya, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

Why is it that the Egyptian elite suffer from a continuous state of funk? Why do these people have to go out of their way to present fabricated stories or half-truths to make us feel good about ourselves? Besides Egypt’s interesting history and rich culture, is it not possible for Egyptians to have pride in themselves for the mere fact that they are human, without waiting for someone from the so-called elite to raise our national self-esteem through falsehoods? Is it not enough for Egyptians to feel proud of their heritage, knowing they belong to the only nation on earth that has a science named after it, namely Egyptology.

I have no idea how President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will justify his government’s unacceptable management of the country’s crises during his expected speech on Wednesday. I hope the regime is not betting on the public’s short memory span; our memory may seem to easily float from an issue to another, but this occurs only in relation to transient issues that do not undermine the dignity of citizens, and in those cases that end with a just punishment for wrongdoers. This was evident in the case of Tawfiq Okasha, as he was sent to the dustbin of history and memory, never to return.

Mohammad Hassanein Hiekal’s life was not an ordinary one, nor was it a lifetime of an ordinary thinker. It stands out as a vision for a nation and a strategy for governance. Although Hiekal has always been calling for a conscious modernity that takes into account the specialty of the Arab countries, his talk had no scientific basis. He played the mentor, and he indeed had to, but he mentored only the end results without discussing their causes—these causes in which he himself was an influential factor.

In the age of Twitter, the media are having a hard time influencing public opinion. Let’s take John Kerry’s recent visit to Egypt, where he expressed the US’s concern over Egypt’s human rights situation. The American government’s position towards Egypt has, admittedly, been seriously confused in recent years. But I think that most of us would agree that it is in everyone’s best interests to get positive relations back on track instead of cultivating more negativity.

I am not inclined to believe in conspiracies and interpret events from one angle — that the country’s enemies are plotting against us in order to make us stumble and fail. This way of thinking led to justifying despotism and failure in all our life’s facets, disavowing any responsibility and putting blame on an external culprit that is the conspiracy. Unfortunately, this way of thinking is widespread and has its own writers and broad audience.

Less than a year separates us from the fortieth anniversary of the January 1977 demonstrations. After two decades of socialism, economic transition towards capitalism and liberating markets began.

In the lives of nations, there are many dual concepts that arise in public debate and stir much controversy whereby the relationship between them is a zero-sum game. If one issue supersedes, then the other is obliterated.