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.

In our life, we meet both good and bad people. When I say “good” or “bad” I don’t mean to judge people, I mean to express people who have left a negative impact in your life and those who have left a positive one. The key part that I want to discuss here is that sometimes you find yourself weak in the face of negative people, and your resistance towards them may be weak in the beginning. Nevertheless, you have to learn how to overcome these negative mindsets and push them out of your life.

Kidnapping, seduction, temptation, love stories. Different classifications of crimes concerning kidnapping of Coptic Christian girls in Egypt. Many people refuse to admit and continue to deny the crystal clear fact. In actual fact, we are facing a case of burn out of a country and its splitting between an offender and a victim, a Muslim offender and a Christian victim. This constitutes a sorrowful end for families involved. In the meantime, it constitutes a sad result also for the offender and every one participating in it as such offender would be referred to as the rapist. The Egyptian law has defined the age of maturity as 21 years old. In case a girl disappears and her age is more than 18 but less than 21, the offender will be punished only if he sexually assaults her by force. However, this may be classified as assault of an underage girl with her consent. The judgment in this case would be incarceration for a period ranging from 5 to 18 years. If the girl is less than 18 years old, the offender will be punished by life imprisonment or execution as law stipulates. However, the situation is actually different on the ground. State institutions welcome

Couple of days ago, the Egyptian Parliament passed a legislation banning cultivation of crops that require high volumes of water, as concerns increase that the upstream Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will negatively impact water flow for agriculture in Egypt. And today, Egypt was flooded by unexpected rain that its streets couldn t take and police were forced to shut down the highway for several hours. The unexpected heavy rain reminded me of the weather in some European and American cities, especially as it should be summer at that time of the year in Egypt. I know that such rain wouldn t solve our problems with the Ethiopian dam or the decrease of water; however, it may reveal other solutions and should prove that heavens have more solutions than we think.

In a great movement towards improving the relations with Africa, Egypt s Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri opened one of the two Egyptian dialysis centers in Burundi this week. The center is funded by the Egyptian Agency for Partnership for Development of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The opening ceremony was attended by the Minister of External Relations and International Cooperation of Burundi and a number of senior officials of the State.

The Lord has bought us with His blood on the cross, so we have become His own people after he overcome the kingdom of Satan. Pope Shenouda III, in his article Christ is King , explained to us that God owned us since the beginning of the creation, but in sin we have separated from his kingdom. Therefore, death reigned over us till Jesus saved us from death and the kingdom of Satan.

Deir Al Ahbash (or the monastery of the Ethiopians) is one of the oldest monasteries in Wadi Al Natroun. It is located in the south-west of the Armenian monastery and south-east of the monastery of St. Abanoub or Nubia. To its west, lies the monastery of Yhans (Kama) Al-Qusair. The monastery, which is about 3,300 square meters, has been called several names, such as Deir al-Ahbash or Deir al-Habash, or the Monastery of Elijah the Prophet or the monastery of St. Elias. The monastery is mentioned in the book of the work of the Holy Chrism at the time of Pope Benjamin II, Patriarch No. 82 (1327-1339).

In a statement this morning, the Australian-Egyptian journalist and political commentator, Ashraf Helmy, congratulated the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces, General Sedki Sobhy , the Minister of Defense, and the Egyptian people of all sects on the occasion of Sinai Liberation Day. Sinai is currently witnessing a war against terror led by the extreme terrorist organisations (ISIS) which are supported by some Arab countries. Several hundred have fallen from the army, police and hundreds of civilians.

It seems that the Egyptian Government cares very much about each Ministrys salary and pension. There are more than 90 millions every-day Egyptians who suffer from weak salaries and weak pensions. Lately, the Egyptian Parliament has been in discussions about the monthly salary for Ministers, which was determined to be at $42,000 monthly. The Parliament agreed that this salary range is weak in comparison to the standard of living in Egypt.

Over the last week and immediately after the Easter holiday, six Christian girls disappeared and several stories about their disappearance started to be heard. If the girl is 18 years old, she immediately converts into Islam and if not, her disappearance continues till she is 18 year old. Meanwhile, her family suffers on daily basis not knowing if their daughter is dead or alive. At the end, they know that their daughter is converted into Islam and is married to a Muslim man. Indeed, the freedom of belief should not be negotiable, but the law should not serve the majority against the minority. First of all, we should answer the question: Is there freedom of faith for Christians in Egypt? I am surprised that Al-Azhar accepts the conversion of Christian boys or girls into Islam, which is a violation of the law, because the Civil Code does not allow the minors to decide on their own unless he or she reaches twenty-one years old. Moreover, the minors can decide on their own when they reach 18 with the permission of the guardian.

I would like to introduce another example of a successful Egyptian woman. She is Hoda Qutb who was born in Egypt on August 9, 1964 and excelled in the Diaspora. Hoda is a broadcast journalist, television personality, and author. She is a main co-anchor of the NBC News morning show Today, and co-host of its entertainment-focused fourth hour.

We saw that young people were the fuel of the Arab Spring revolutions including the revolutions of January 25 and June 30. They indeed saved Egypt from the tyranny and corruption of the Mubarak regime and its allies and their acquisition of the Egyptian economy and the domination of businessmen who were members of the National Party over all companies and factories. They led the sale and privatization of the public sector. Those young people made a great mistake by leavening the Muslim Brotherhood dominate the revolution until they managed to dominate the Egyptian state and turn it into an Islamic Caliphate. Moreover, this mistake was repeated with the current president as the youth left the political businessmen and hypocrites to take over and almost turned the current president into a dictator.

No to demolish the antiquarian church of St. Mary in Luxor since it stands out there for more than 100 years. There must be a way to avoid its demolition even though it is next to the antiquarian way of the rams. Part of the church was demolished before the revolution of January 25 provided that the rest of the church won t be demolished. I believe the officials don t realize what is going on around them and how serious effect could it has on the Egyptians who has offered their homeland a lot for the sake of Egypt. We believe that the road was moved 11 meters to tough the church building leading to its demolition.

Anyone reading the news right now would perhaps be feeling as though we are close to having a third World War at the moment between Russia, Iran, and North Korea allying against the majority of Western countries. Even Arab countries could get involved, such as Saudi Arabia. The question on my mind is regarding Syria. Is Syria so important that it could cause a third World War? If it’s natural gas that is important, especially to Russia, then whoever will control Syria, will also be controlling any gas going in/out of Europe

I got this link from a friend and it was full of inspirations. It was a video by former US president Barak Obama talking about Obama Foundation Scholars Program for Emerging Leaders from Around the World. The program offers Master of Arts degree at Harris School of Public Policy. Moreover, the Obama Foundation-led activities will give leaders the tools and training to make a positive impact in their communities.

The love of our crucified God Jesus Christ makes him transcend our weaknesses like his disciples at the time of his crucifixion as well as those who crucified him. His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, in his article The Hour of the Cross, the Hour of Love , explained to us many of the pictures of God s love for man at the time of his death on the cross.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the greatest event, which shook the Jews, thus they tried to resist it by all means. They described it as the last misguidance which was stronger than the initial misguidance, which is Christ s preaching. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead was unique and never heard of before. Throughout his life Jesus preached resurrection when he said to them, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” (Luke 9:22). He came out of the Virgin Mary and her virginity was sealed, and he came out of the tomb while it was closed. Moreover, he met the disciples when the doors were shut when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

After over 2000 years from the time that Jesus came to our world, we still find groups that deny His birth and other groups denying His resurrection and others even denying that He came to our world. This is, in fact, the acts of the devil who is always putting doubts and denial in peoples hearts to prevent them from enjoying this great event. As the Bible said, if there is no resurrection, then there is no hope, and that s what the devil wants to put inside each one of us: to become hopeless and confused until the time comes when we are not ready and to hear the voice of the Lord saying, “I do not know you.”

As the Coptic Orthodox Church is celebrating the Holy Week reaching Easter on Sunday, many people wonder why the church is late celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ since the Catholic Church usually celebrate Easter 13 days earlier. There are mainly two reasons behind such difference. The first reason is the calendar since the Christian Orthodox Church continues to follow the Julian calendar when calculating the date of Easter, while the rest of Christianity uses the Gregorian calendar and the difference comes here since the Julian calendar is 13 days behind the Gregorian.

The Holy Bible is the best way to satisfy the needs of contemporary human beings, especially the need to have a reference in all aspects of our life. This was mentioned by HG Bishop Moses, the Bishop of Youth, in his article faith in God and the human mind . He talked about such reference offered by the Bible. People were religious in the era of agriculture as they believed in God.