Imagine this: you are sitting, sipping a cup of coffee in the morning and sifting through the pages of a literary weekly, Akhbar Al-Adab, and you happen upon this excerpt from a book. You read it and you are shocked. It has indecent sexual content and the characters are also smoking hashish! You can’t handle this, the words are physically assaulting you; you are literally falling ill. You experience heart palpitations and a drop in blood pressure. How can this be published? It offends public decency! It threatens the very fabric of our society.

The fact that the vast majority of Egyptians live in impoverished areas working insecure jobs and earning meager incomes that barely allow them to survive discredits, by default, the Egyptian state’s “stability argument”! At the same time, the tiny portion of wealthy Egyptians who is supposed to be enjoying a stable, luxurious life, still has to deal with various unexpected challenges that make their lives vulnerable as well. The Egyptian state is attempting to advocate a state of ‘stability’ that – even before the outbreak of any revolutions – hasn’t existed for several decades.

A tough political attack is a terrible thing to waste, but that is what Donald Trump has squandered by launching vague, sweeping accusations against Hillary Clinton at precisely the moment when newly released emails raise valid, specific concerns about whether Clinton improperly mixed her public and private interests while serving as secretary of state.

Abu Otaiba, the nom du guerre of a self-taught imam and Islamic State (IS) recruiter in Jordan, uses soccer to attract recruits. “We take them to farms, or private homes. There we discuss and organise soccer games to bring them closer to us,” Abu Otaiba told The Wall Street Journal in a recent interview.

The only authentic attempt to establish democracy in Egypt—the revolt against Mubarak in 2011— was a complete failure. There is no doubt that Mubarak’s entourage played a major role in bringing Egypt back to square one. Nevertheless, Egyptian politicians and revolutionaries should admit that they too bear a large part of the responsibility; a proper understanding of their shortcomings and limitations will better enable us to avoid further failure. Our key political weaknesses and faults are presented below.

War has raged in Yemen for over 500 days. The international community seems to be indifferent to the suffering there. This is detrimental to the credibility of the United States and Europe, DW’s Matthias von Hein writes. Since March 26, 2015, the richest country in the Arab world has bombed the poorest country into ash and rubble – and mostly without any outcry from the rest of the world. What’s worse, Saudi Arabia does not operate on its own: It leads a coalition of nine nations and receives logistical support from the United States and UK. Of course, conflicts between Yemen’s factions are older than 500 days, and lives had previously been lost in the conflict that has pitted Houthi rebels and allied supporters of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against forces loyal to his replacement, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who had fled to Saudi Arabia when the uprising began. But the massive deterioration of the humanitarian situation was certainly caused by the Saudi-led military coalition’s bombing campaign.

It has been just over three years since the dispersal of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya and Nahda sit-ins. It has been over three years since one of the biggest state perpetrated and sanctioned massacres in modern human history, as described by Human Rights Watch, and unless you marked the day of the anniversary­—14 August—you probably haven’t even noticed. There were no huge demonstrations in the streets, no large yellow banners with the Rabaa sign, no pictures of the dead lingering over an angry mob yelling that the current regime is made of murderers and predicting the return of the “rightful”, “legitimate” president—almost nothing.

Mohamed Khan has died?! This was the question of denial that followed the tragic news of his death. His death was followed by nothing but the silent sneaking of absence.

Private sector development is still a huge challenge for Egypt’s economy. The business climate should be one of the prime targets for the government, particularly as Egypt dropped down in the Doing Business ranking for 2015–2016. There could not be a better time to take the necessary legal steps to improve the business climate in Egypt. This is particularly relevant knowing that Egypt finally has a parliament after years of absence, but it will take more than amendments to the current legislation to stimulate business. New laws that meet the requirements of this era of Egypt’s history and restore investors’ confidence in the Egyptian market are a must.

Three years ago, on 14 August, the last thing anyone expected to watch on television in an Edinburgh pub was live coverage of the Rabaa Al-Adaweya sit-in dispersal in Egypt. The act had been brewing for quite some time by then and approved by people like myself. I belong to those who saw the necessity of confronting all forces who use religion politically in an attempt to gain wide social acceptance and superiority. In other words, I am against those forces with fascist orientations, claiming to be the representatives of God on Earth, and the sole fighters for righteousness. The events that unfolded at the 2012 Ittihadiya presidential palace clashes were vitally significant for revealing how far the Muslim Brotherhood was willing to go and what they were capable of doing to preserve their status in the new regime.

A recent UN report said that 18 countries in the Middle East will suffer a great deal by the year 2025 because of a serious water shortage. Some experts suggest that Israel is at the forefront of countries facing this problem, and that the 1967 war was actually aimed at gaining access to water resources in the West Bank. Today, Israel is fostering relations with Nile Basin countries in the hopes of getting a share of Nile water – something that late Egyptian president Anwar El-Sadat was inclined to facilitate had it not been for public outrage in Egypt.

Politics’ incestuous relationship with soccer came full circle this week with the mass resignation of executives from the Turkish football federation and the firing of scores of officials, including referees, as part of the government’s witch-hunt against followers of controversial Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen and other government critics. Intended to facilitate the weeding out of any Gulen supporters, the executives tendered their resignations five years after the conflict between Gulen and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan first erupted in a match-fixing scandal that masked a battle for control of Fenerbahçe SK, the political crown jewel of Turkish soccer. Two days following the executive resignations, the federation said that it had fired 94 other officials it linked to July’s failed military coup.

It didn’t take long for the regime to crack down on Islamist and secular opposition after the military takeover on 3 July 2013. Anyone speaking out against regime injustices was discredited as a Muslim Brotherhood member and loyalist to the deposed president Mohamed Morsi. In a sense, a great opportunity was afforded to Coptic Christians to speak out against regime practices without drawing similar accusations. That opportunity was squandered. Instead of silence, which would have been understandable, the church sided with the regime and actively supported its military-led violations.

Everything and every action counts. It is not up to you to make decisions; you are restricted. You were placed behind a heavy metal door, which leaves a heavy impact on your soul. You move in a narrow space and have nothing but your bedding, which is used for all your activities, whether sleeping, sitting, or reading.

Inspired by their own logic and aided by their talent in justifying their sins, Egyptians tend to transform their disgraceful acts into morally acceptable practices. Living in a country where honour and integrity have been declining steadily over the years, has led many Egyptians, unconsciously, to acknowledge immorality as a cultural norm. Unfortunately, this kind of ignorance has led to a situation where many citizens tend to believe that they are strictly abiding by moral values, while accusing others of misbehaving. However, fact is that society as a whole is witnessing a serious decline in moral virtues.

Last week the government announced that it was in advanced negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and expected an agreement to be signed before year’s end for $21 billion in loans over the next three years, including $12 billion from the IMF and another $9 billion from other international institutions and financial markets

In March 2016, when the supporters of Islamic State (IS) wanted to establish a base in Ben Guerdane, Tunisia—a town along the Libyan border—it was the local population that rose up against them and worked with the security forces to defeat and oust them. They all vehemently worked against radicalism because they felt that it was a threat to their future, their newly founded freedom, and self-rule that they all support.

Adopting a democratic and fair law that ends discrimination among citizens will certainly open the door for the social cohesion that the state and citizens aspire to.

This week marks the anniversary of Yousef Shahin’s death. His death was quiet and simple, not reflective of the minutes of our lives which he had vociferously filled with his works. Works Shahin had inferred from the depths of his soul, and had run with, in order to build bridges between contradicting interpretations, without easing the pain and mystery of realising that everything within us is emotional.

In 1957, a young romantic with no social standing, depending solely on his wits, became a journalist earning just EGP 6 at Al-Gomhoria. Many dictators later, angels doing the sky’s bidding rushed to usher him to a place far better than the dusty environs of Cairo where he was born and where he died. In a shroud of personal tragedy this writer, 48 hours after his father’s passing, was afforded the opportunity to have a sit down with his beloved Cairo. And what a sit down it would be.

A dear friend, hours into the Turkey coup d’état, wrote, “How many articles are being written right now on Turkey entitled ‘the Egyptian Model’?”