Some winning candidates have considered the results of the first round of parliamentary elections a “slap” in the face of the January 25 Revolution.

The first round of the elections has ended with the following remarks: 1 - A low turnout of just a quarter of the total number of voters. This is a serious phenomenon. Among the reasons why this happened are that the youth is angry with the regime and the government deliberately issued an unfair election law so as to produce a weak parliament. Also, although the “For the Love of Egypt” list included some good people, it had other figures that are disliked. Actually, the absolute electoral list is an authoritarian system that should not be applied in any country with even the slightest margin of democracy. Add to this that people were bored from the long period in which the elections were postponed.

The topic of the day remains the economy because it is understandably what causes the most concern. Even the ongoing parliamentary elections fade in importance compared to citizens’ preoccupations with the current economic crisis.

The year 2015 is a defining and transformational moment in the history of sustainable ‎development. Generations will be shaped by the important decisions made by today’s global ‎community.‎

Fatwas, patriotic songs, pleas through loudspeakers and appeals by the media and state agencies have all failed to motivate frustrated and disappointed citizens to participate in the parliamentary elections.

The Arab War on Terror is in full swing. Never has the region seen as many terrorist networks, guerrilla groups and militias fighting against governments as now. In Egypt, Iraq, Algeria and Yemen, central governments are struggling with insurgencies of one type or another, with Western governments providing tacit or overt support.

The Nour Party, which is the largest entity representing the Salafis, fell dramatically in the elections. The fall was so hard that the sound of collision with the ground could be heard all over Alexandria, its very stronghold.

Two weeks ago, talk show host Ahmed Mousa of the Sada Al-Balad channel played a videogame called Apache Attack and claimed it was the Russian military air strikes in Syria, which caused an international scandal.

It’s hard to call Egypt’s current economic woes ‘a rough patch,’ amenable to the same fixes used by the government of late, which have only exacerbated the crisis.

I do not belong to those who justify administrative underdevelopment and failures of the state using terms like ‘The Deep State’, taboos on the absence of qualified people, and continues accusations of corruption and laziness against employees. This is because there is a manager, or a minister, or a prime minister, who has for decades neglected the leaps and developments witnessed by the world in all fields.

Speaking on the occasion of October 6th, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ended the weeks-long debate about amending the Constitution, declaring that it’s not on the table at the current time. But as the campaign to change the charter abates, we shouldn’t stop there. There’s an urgent need to continue the dialogue over the 2014 Constitution and its future and restore its standing.

Since 1980, the United States has intervened in the affairs of fourteen Muslim countries, at worst invading or bombing them. They are (in chronological order) Iran, Libya, Lebanon, Kuwait, Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Kosovo, Yemen, Pakistan, and now Syria. Latterly these efforts have been in the name of the War on Terror and the attempt to curb Islamic extremism.

Sometime before the Ministry of Agriculture corruption incident was revealed, I wrote on my Facebook page that if the frequent reports were correct concerning waging a real war against corruption, the whole of Egypt would stand behind President El-Sisi.

Obscenity and nothing but obscenity is what that talk show kept broadcasting until five in the morning, with the host Wael al-Ibrashi exchanging insults with film producer Al-Sobky.

I warn of yet another failure for the Egyptian renaissance, which has not really picked up much since 1805. Today, we have but the modest economic objective of avoiding a recession.

Of the most enjoyable books I have read in my life was “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom” by Thomas Edward Lawrence, the famous Lawrence of Arabia. It was also made into a film starring Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole, and directed by David Lean in 1962.

Of the most enjoyable books I have read in my life was “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom” by Thomas Edward Lawrence, the famous Lawrence of Arabia. It was also made into a film starring Omar Sharif and Peter O'Toole, and directed by David Lean in 1962. The spark of the revolution against the Turks in the 1920s began in Syria, financially supported by the princes of Hijaz. The Turks used all means of repression to thwart the Arab revolt from the beginning. Then the revolution gradually moved from Damascus to Hijaz, where Lawrence of Arabia played a major role in helping Prince Faisal against the Turks, while the British and the French were occupying many parts the Arab world.

It is the military who know best the advantages and disadvantages of the peace with Israel. Therefore, it is a strategic, political and military mistake for the president of the largest Arab country, with his military and intelligence background, to say that peace with Israel should include other Arab countries as well.

With surprisingly muted fanfare, the government of Egypt launched two new social pension/transfer programmes in December 2014.After decades of "wanting" to address deprivation and poverty, the current government finally did do something!

I have often stared at a blank page recently, just as blankly as the uniform whiteness looked back at me, as I thought how to smear it with something meaningful. My words sometimes flow, but most times I’m filled with the thought of what little they will do. Even now, the futility of addressing those that refuse to be addressed persists in the back of my head as I try to write.

It has been exactly five years since Greece joined the European Support Mechanism with the close cooperation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). At that time, key and critical financial data were the following: GDP amounted to US$222.151 billion at the end of 2010, public debt was 148.3 percent of GDP, unemployment stood at 12.5 percent and the percentage of Greeks who were living below the poverty line (earning less than 60 percent of the national median disposable income) was 27.6 percent.