Since our beloved newspaper Watani cares a lot about political party reform in Egypt and was named among our major concerns, we held a meeting with representatives of political parties to discuss their problems and future. The most recent editorial was published on 22 April 2018 under the title: “Time for Party reform”. It will also be the theme of a series of sessions of Watani Forum, the first of which was held some two weeks ago. The forum will be hosting representatives of Egypt s political parties with the aim of exploring the current party scene and figuring out the measures and moves needed to reform it in order to boast robust, effective parties in the future.

As everyone imagined that smart phones were driving us apart and making us isolated, other people decided to use and benefit from smart phones. One of those smart people is the actress Hend Sabry who launched a campaign during the holy month of Ramadan through a mobile application called Share The Meal .

Traveling or living abroad teaches you a lot of things in life. You not only learn new lessons, but also allows you to discover taboos or ideas that other nations have, which could be right or wrong. One of things you will find out when you live or travel abroad, is that people are not innocent angels as the media tries to frame it. Having said that, you will find that most people are law-abiding citizens, or if not, they at least try their best to obey the law.

As Muslims in Egypt are fasting during the Holy Month of Ramadan, Coptic Christians are getting ready to fast the apostles fasting. It is great that Egyptians realize they have too many things in common. Yet, many people insist on exposing and increasing the differences. One of those people who want to concentrate on the differences and even ignite them and turn them into disputes and hatred is Dr. Rabie Anwar Fateh al-Bab, Professor of Constitutional Law and Undersecretary of the Faculty of Law, University of Ain Shams, who insulted Christianity and the church in his book at the university and ordered the student to repeat the same insults while answering the exams will indeed fail.

There is no doubt that cultural dialogue and rooting for it is an important deal, especially as we are living in the era of construction where we learn and benefit from successful experiences in the world. This should show us how to maximize that benefit and reduce the losses. Communication with others is a necessity regardless of our individual desires, but we care more about effective communication since we fear new experiences.

All the earthly pleasures of the life are seen and touchable, but pleasures of eternal life are unseen and unheard. The late Pope Shenouda III in his article Resurrection and the enjoyment of the unseen talked about things that we do not see that God promised in eternal life.

President Al-Sisi called the political parties lately to combine in three big parties to be able to compete in any future election. In fact this is not the first time that someone suggests that Idea especially after the 25th January revolution.

Today is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, which is celebrated by Muslims worldwide, but in Egypt is celebrated by both Muslims and Christians. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, and is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting to commemorate the first revelation of the Quran to Prophet Muhammad according to Islamic belief. This annual observance is regarded as one of the Five Pillars of Islam. The month lasts 29–30 days based on the visual sightings of the crescent moon, according to numerous biographical accounts compiled in the hadiths.

What happened on Monday, May 14, 2018 at Cairo International Airport is the last part of the wonderful national Egyptian epic that began on the evening of Sunday, February 15, 2015 on the coast of Sirte in Libya. This sent a message from the Egyptian state to the world in general, and to some Copts who accuse the Egyptian state of neglecting and oppressing the Copts. These claims match the conspiracies of sectarian strife supported and planned by the intelligence services of several countries with the Muslim Brotherhood against the homeland.

Egypt has restored the bodies of martyrs of the homeland and church who have been martyred in Libya in February 2015 by the terrorist organization of ISIS. Those who don t deserve to die were killed by those who don t deserve to live. These martyrs are our role model since they became the heroes of the Christian faith. They impressed the whole world by their courage, strength and steadfastness. They manifested the history of Coptic martyrs that we ay glorify God in his saints and martyrs.

On the occasion of our church s celebration of the half-century anniversary of the apparition of our lady on the domes of her church in Zeitoun. Some Coptic leaders made statements to provoke other dominations in an unacceptable absence of the spirit of love according to the teachings of the Bible. Therefore, I present this form of love proclaimed by a Japanese philosopher more than a century ago. He said: Unless love is rooted in the soul of human being, it cannot understand God s love…love knows all including sadness, laughter, tolerance, work, hunger, accepting danger, respect. It knows almost everything. Love accepts suffering and pain and can make wonders. Thus, it is able to do everything.

Recently, the Minister of Transportation announced that there will be an increase in the price of Metro tickets. The new pricing structure is between 3 and 7 pounds depending on how many stations the passenger takes. Generally speaking, any increase in public transportation fees is normal. However, there are rules for these increases to take place. Last year, the Government also put through an increase on ticket prices to be 2 pounds instead of 1.

It was a nice coincidence that couple of days after I decided to pay respect to donkeys that the whole world decided to do the same thing by celebrating a world day for donkeys. This is the first time I hear about this celebration. World Donkey Day celebrations were held for the first time in Egypt on May 8th, 2017 where many people starting to call for decent treatment for such nice animals.

God is light and He is the creator of light. Those who love God may live in this light away from darkness of sin. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men . (John 1:4) Bishop Takla of Dishna, talked in his article The Resurrection... The feast of lights about how man should walk in light away from darkness of sin.

Rain in most countries rain is considered a blessing and not a catastrophe. It is a blessing since it waters thirsty lands and plants, and is used and stored in reservoirs for use according to need. The exception to the rule is when rain comes as a natural disaster such as in a hurricane, storm, or torrential flood. Egypt is a different story as rain is concerned a sign of suffering and destruction. It brings on fluster, chaos and complications that amount to disaster. The catastrophic outcome cannot be attributed to nature s wrath; rather, it is the result of gross negligence by authorities which they fail to control.

The homeland is not necessarily a land, water, sky, or human being with the similar skin color and the same language. It could be a doctrine or a religion or even goal or a dream. People may feel isolated by retardation or political regimes. This may lead a citizen to live marginalized and not belonging to his or her homeland. There is no doubt that the media, as much as they represent a measure of belonging in any society, it may affect it negatively or positively in supporting belonging and citizenship. I can see a number of positive attempts of media in that account, but the majority of examples are unfortunately negative.

Lately the minister of education announced a new system for all education stages, once he announced it and all parents started to reject the new system and claiming that the new system will lead their children to be less competitive in the labor market. In fact, the history if amending the education system was never successful in Egypt and thatss why the parents dont trust the process from their previous experience and we all remember when “ Fathy Sorour” the ex-minister of education cancelled the sixth year in the primary school before they return it again.

Though they are very important for the Egyptians, donkeys never receive the due respect in Egypt. They are known for being hard working, and thus, we call the hard working people donkey-like-worker but even this idiom has become more of an insult to the hard working people. Being important and hardworking was not enough for the Egyptian culture to preserve the dignity of the donkeys. Many times do the donkey owners hit them and describe them as idiots and many times they are slaughtered to end their miserable life as false beef meals.

The Holy Resurrection is a fact that can be believed through various evidences. Moreover, it is a spiritual experience and life. Abba Bakhomius, former acting Patriarch, said in his article The Experience of Resurrection explained to us that the truth of the resurrection is confirmed by the prophecies of the Old Testament in all Holy Books that are read during the Holy Week.

Three years ago, there was a great advertising posted on more than 800 buses roaming the streets of London carrying the words God may not be there, stop worrying and enjoy your life The words of course belong to atheists who disbelieve the existence of God. It also carries a message that life away from God Almighty can be better and fun. Even though we refuse such message, 800 Christian associations moved followed by Islamic societies to demand the ban of these advertisements. The media watchdog has received 110 claims to stop it. The British Humanitarian Society, which contributed to the funding of the advertising campaign, said the watch dog has a big responsibility to rule whether or not God existed.

The recent heavy rain that hit Egypt revealed the administrative corruption that led to lack of drainage for the rain or even the construction of new cities on the wrong places. It was also clear that those responsible for crisis management in our country can do nothing or do not even exist. We have to acknowledge we don t have a good management in order to have good crisis management. Were they surprised by poor drainage and bad pavement quality of the roads? A lot of money is wasted just like the water drops that the government is crying over now and trying to protect through negotiations with Ethiopia and the Sudan.