Wow, you don’t use sugar,” is a statement that I often hear after ordering a cup of tea or coffee and declining the waiter’s request to add sugar. The fact that I am an Egyptian who does not put sugar in caffeinated drinks is often a cause for surprise and admiration among fellow citizens, known for their sugar cravings. It took me about a week to adapt to the taste of non-sweetened caffeinated drinks when I decided to kick the habit a while ago. However, the ultimate benefits of consuming unsweetened drinks are significant.

Both Nasser and Sadat had strong and powerful enemies, but Mubarak was different – and Western diplomats were often impressed by his abilities to sum up issues in simple yet clear and deep terms. In other words, great leaders are both a great resource and a great liability.

I, like many others, was surprised by the sudden decision taken by Saudi Aramco to stop supplying Egypt’s needs of petroleum products, despite the agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia stating that the latter will secure Egypt’s requirements for petroleum products at 700,000 tonnes per month for five years. The value of the agreement between the two countries amounts to $23bn to be repaid over 15 years. The agreement came to spare Egypt from the fuel crisis, while cancelling it puts Egypt in a difficult position and may cause a severe crisis similar to that we suffered during the era of the Muslim Brotherhood government.

By saving change for six months, I once bought my husband an Omega watch as a birthday gift. Sure it was many years back, and sure it was the least expensive watch in the store, but an Omega is an Omega. Just married, having not yet begun my teaching career, and living overseas, I couldn’t come up with the money to buy any gift, let alone an Omega watch, except by saving change. My husband still cherishes the watch as the gift that surprised him the most.

I can’t find the words to express my esteem for the legal profession and the Egyptian Lawyers Syndicate, which I’ve been a member of since 1987, and the decades-long role it has played in protecting rights, liberties, and the rule of law.

Sunni scholars in Saudi Arabia and their Shi’a counterparts in Iran may be at war over who is a Muslim, but there is one thing they agree on: soccer detracts from religious obligations. Iran, in the latest skirmish between soccer and Islam, is debating the propriety of playing a 2018 World Cup qualifier against South Korea on 11 October, the day Shi’a celebrate Tasua, the ninth day of the month of Moharram, one of the holiest days in the Shi’a calendar on which the faithful commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.

I can say with a great deal of certainty that several years after the start of the Arab Spring, it has turned out to be a bitter winter. We would wake up every day as if nothing was around us except a dreadful nightmare. I call on you to look carefully at the economic conditions of the Arab Spring countries and think about the tragic scene before you. Sadly, the lower- and middle-class segments have been the most impacted. The stunning questions are: did the revolutions achieve their goals? Do we now have social justice as was expected? Do we now have more sound economic indicators than before? If you are not skilled in distortion, then the answer must be a big, fat “no”.

The story of 28 Christians who were killed under the tanks or by the bullets of the Egyptian military the night of 9 October 2011 has already been told. Demonstrators moved from the Cairene neighbourhood of Shubra and along the shore of the Nile before they were violently dispersed in front of the state television building. After five years, 9 October has become a reutilised ritual observed only by a few. For the majority, however, it is seen as a waste of time and amounts to a “pile of rubbish”.

As is true in every country that accepts the terms of an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, it is often said in Egypt these days that the IMF is seeking to impoverish the Egyptian people and burden the country with foreign debt, and that price hikes are a consequence of the agreement. The only problem with this narrative is that it’s wrong. The simple, regrettable truth is that our economic policy—or rather, the lack thereof—is what brought us to this point, compelling us to seek foreign loans and institute austerity measures.

It is clear for those visiting Germany, reading about it, or working in or with it over recent years, that the refugee issue is no longer an internal matter only related to experts or whoever is interested. The issue seems to be an obsession, illness, or symptom of an incurable illness that will sweep all the other problems under the rug.

It seems that nearly seven years after the 25 January Revolution, some forces, elites, and platforms still have not absorbed the learned lessons. They have not given themselves the chance to reconsider their options in terms of dealing with the developments of the Egyptian political situation, as well as its security and objective aspects. Moreover, they have not absorbed the nature of the relationship of these developments with the vast majority of Egyptian citizens. They are the majority that does not belong to political or ideological currents. They have no loyalty towards any of the forces fighting in the political arena.

Who among us did not suffer when hearing the news of the over 200 souls who drowned in the sinking of an illegal migrant boat off Egypt’s coast? Most of them were young men who were desperate to realise the dream of becoming rich in Europe. In the end, they did not come to realise anything except death at the bottom of the sea. This tragedy is repeated from time to time and we have become accustomed to hearing news of illegal migrant boats and death tolls without the presence of effective actions to identify the causes of these tragedies and find solutions to them.

“Going native” is the blight of any foreign correspondent reporting to his Western media outlet from a “foreign land”. And yet “non-native” foreign coverage rarely provides the kind of complex and nuanced understanding of the highly complex and nuanced foreign realities it seeks to cover. Which raises the question: is the “foreign correspondent” the right way to go in a profoundly interconnected world of complex, global stories, or has the time come to move on towards a new realm of cross country/region conceived and executed journalism?

Again and for the umpteenth time I tell myself not to give Western media any undeserved attention and to ignore those who intentionally belittle from our efforts and tarnish what we hold dear and precious. And yet no matter how hard I try, sometimes I get so indignant that I must rebuttal, first to abate my anger, and second to illuminate those who care for the truth.

In the last few weeks, three important government policies have run into a hitch or been reversed entirely. The disarray this reflects should give us pause, especially since the policies had ramifications for the economy, which is at a critical point and cannot withstand more government ambiguity and unpredictability.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused world soccer body FIFA of allowing FIFA-sanctioned matches to be played on occupied land in the West Bank in violation of FIFA rules and has demanded that the group ensure that future games be staged within the borders of Israel prior to the 1967 Middle East war.

It is film festival season in Egypt, and it is the time when lots of disgruntled people begin to express their frustration, disappointment, and dissatisfaction with these events' organisation, programming, and priorities. Many of these concerns are certainly legitimate, and indeed call for concrete action and solutions.

During the liberal years that started in 1919, the civil Coptic Society used to strongly participate in the charitable construction of schools, hospitals and non-governmental organisations.

Several years ago, even before the two revolutions, I was in a cab in Heliopolis minding my own business when the cab driver said something that translates to, “This is fishy!” “What?” I asked anxiously. He pointed to a man carrying a carton of bottled water walking out of a store. “That’s the fifth person I see in the last few hours buying bottled water,” he exclaimed.

Democracy and violence have disparate missions and routes that are not comparable. Yet, this reality should not keep us from admitting that while western countries, led by the United States, have failed to promote the spread of democracy to the Arab World, a small number of Arab terrorists have successfully managed to extend their violent activities beyond their countries’ borders and into the west. The philosophy, according to which democracy is not exportable and cannot be imposed on nations, is based on a true and valid argument. Nevertheless, the soundness of this viewpoint should not leave us empty-handed; numerous soft strategies that can be used to advocate for democracy (while evading the silly accusation of “interference in domestic affairs”) exist. Meanwhile, the perpetrators of terrorist acts, universally condemned by almost all civilians, have had more success carrying out quite a few terrorist activities not only within the Arab region, but also in many western countries.

After much wavering, the state finally announced an economic plan with a set of concrete fiscal and monetary measures designed to staunch the hemorrhage of the public budget and restore balance to the currency market.