As time passes on and my new article is due I start watching the news I need to know what is going on in Egypt! A full day I did watch the only Egyptian channel I receive abroad -ESC- that is channel 1! The news I had were about the “Youth Conference” in Aswan, the visit of the Egyptian President El-Sisi and his visit to inspect the Hi Dam there his visit to Army and Police officers thanking them for their efforts to maintain security in upper Egypt! By the way I thank them too and wish them all the Best in the memorial of the Police day -25th January- and on this issue I saw some funny Facebook comments pointing out that the day was peaceful and wondering if President Trump did cut of supplies from Muslim brotherhood!

After Trump decision of banning people from Seven Muslim country from entering the united statess, The media in the west sarted to talk about the Islamophobia started. Unfortunately, the western media and the eastern media talk about Islamophobia because of Trump decesion and no one talk about Chrsitian-phobia in the east. Muslims talk about human rights and freedom when it comes to their freedom and their rights but never talk about other people rights. I haven't heard any media in the east calling for demonstration against what happened to christian in Iraq, Lybia, Syria and even Egypt.

In the last few months, president Sisi took many measurements that showed without a doubt, that he failed in managing many internal issues. I remember when the 25th of January revolution sparked, one of its demands was "the bread" and now Egyptians can hardly make a living. Sisi's policies made most Egyptians more poor and more desprate. Sisi failed in providing fair priced medicine to Egyptians, now prices are more than most can afford. Sisi failed in keeping the Egyptian Pound strong and float the Egyptian Pound which led the Egyptian pound to lose 120% percent of its value.

After an old Coptic Christian woman was stripped off and dragged along the streets of the Egyptian city of Minya as hundreds of people watched, the case was closed for lack of evidence. The case dates back to May 2016 when she was attacked amid clashes over a claimed love affair involving a Christian man and a Muslim woman from the Karm village in Minya. The Muslim wife assured later that her former husband is behind such rumors in order to blackmail her. However, the violence attacks against Christians in the village led to the torching of a number of houses belonging to Coptic Christians as well as attacking the old woman and her daughter in law.

Nobody can fairly judge the decisions of the Egyptian government unless he or she really knows about the very details of all decisions they make. However, criticism is granted for everybody as the freedom of expression is granted. Yet, I want to talk here about the people who are grumbling all the time because of the increasing prices. The rich and the poor finally found something in common that they can talk about. Moreover, some people started to enjoy that talk instead of seeking hard working at such critical moment in our history. It is a good chance for Egypt to recover and fix the situation in a country that faces a lot of conspiracies financed by several foreign countries and organizations. We should give them no chance to frustrate us and lead our country to failure.

The same scenario happened with the medication without slight change starting with shortage of a supply, people cry, the government deny, many people accused of being behind the fake crisis before other people call to boycott the item as a solution. Then, the prices are increased in order to provide the item back in the market. The same scenario happened before with the dollar, and baby milk, sugar, rice, and other items in the Egyptian market. However, Medicine is a totally different issue since the patients cannot simply boycott the item as a treatment, as he does with «meat and life ware» since refraining from taking drug is life threatening.

The cry of Obama in his last speech what was underestimated by Donald Trump marks the transitional period in America. The Americans are divided between supporting Trump and hating his racism. Obama sees America as a great nation, which is true. Yet, he only feels sorry for his family that supported him in his hard time, but he should have been regretting what he did by founding and supporting ISIS. He refused racism against Muslims, but he practiced it against all enemies of their friends, the Muslim Brotherho

The funeral of Paul and Laura (daughter of Karl Marx) Lafargue in Paris is attended by Lenin; the two socialists died in a suicide pact in the belief that their political usefulness was at an end! Lenin said: Imperialism is caused by capitalism! Well talking of Russia I would jump in today's events, Trump accuses media of faking the story of Russian help to win elections, on the other hand I see and hear Tayyip Erdoğan expecting a meeting with Putin the Russian president to discuss Syrian problem as we see Syrian refugees still suffering! Moreover, Erdogan confirmed today that Turkey stays forever in Cyprus just like Israel remains forever in Palestine regardless of any UN recommendations!

Nowadays it seems like everyone is getting to the list of “terrorists” or “conspirers” or “a general threat” The most recent is Abu Trekka. Whether the convictions are true or not, is not my point. If it is true, wow, that’s terrible. If not true, well, it’s equally is terrible from the Government. More and more we are hearing messages from the Government condemning people for doing these “unacceptable” acts against the country. I don’t mean to say it’s not serious if Abu Trekka was actually funding the Muslim Brotherhood or not. If he was actually doing that, then shame on him, and what a disgrace!

Christ had heart of gold. His heart was full of love for everybody. He cared for righteous and sinners, children and adults, the hungry, the sick people, the needy and those who are in captivity. The late Pope Shenouda III told us about Jesus Christ and how he was always working for the convenience of all. Jesus said "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". He healed the sick and those were oppressed of the devil. He felt compassion for the sinner and lead them to repentance. He announced that "healthy people do not need a physician, but the sick, he did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance".

The important role of media is undeniable all over the world, especially in the formation of public opinion and the formation of the conscience of the people and their trends of thinking. Such increasing importance proved that there is no free media all over the world including televisions, websites and newspapers, and social media. The majority media already have agendas to achieve including American media like CNN that supported Hillary Clinton during the American presidential elections and FOX NEWS that supported Donald Trump. Other media supports countries like Aljazirah that works for Qatar. Other organizations and allies have agendas that media is used to achieve them.

Karama libraries « Dignity » is an initiative carried out by «The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information» to create five public libraries in the popular neighborhoods of Cairo to encourage people to read for free. They believe that knowledge and education are key elements to develop countries. Awareness may enable people to learn about their rights and even claim them, but people in over populated areas are not able to read and develop their skills. The government decided to shut down the libraries instead of monitoring them and prevent illegal acts inside them. The government could run them or cooperate with its management to spread the idea all over Egypt. Yet, the government and police prefer to shut down libraries. They don’t really believe people have rights to read and learn for free. They don’t even believe they are key elements to develop Egypt. The government wants to prevent reading in order to keep the people ignorant.

The heinous crime of slaughtering Youssef Lamie by a Salafi terrorist in Alexandria affected the Egyptian public opinion after millions of people have watched the movie of the crime while the criminal was shouting God is great. This comes with calls of the Egyptian president and many intellectuals to renew the religious discourse.

Well this is my first week of 2017 article and like common say “King Died long life to new King” I would say “A year gone, welcome New Year” but as we speak there were acts spoiling that year (2016), let aside Libya, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen; atrocities AND Terrorism reached USA, France, and Berlin! Moreover, Turkey faced Terror attack in new year's celebrations!

People celebrate new year, but they don’t consider that they have lost one year of their lives. This is a fact that we don’t fear, but many people should do. In the year 2016, many people were killed around the world in several terrorist attacks. However, God is always able to bring good from bad things. Many people knew how bad their believes are. Many people decided to change their ways and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Angels told the shepherds that the birth of Christ has brought peace to the earth. However, among many wars on earth we should realize that the meant peace is between heaven and earth. It is the reconciliation between human beings and the Lord.

I want to start off by wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope everyone can be with family and friends, and really take time to relax and be thankful among those most important to you. When I think about the birth of our Lord, I can’t help but wonder how far, us, as Christians, have wandered from the example Jesus set for us. The most glorious Being, the King of Kings, our Saviour, was born in a manger. How many times do we hear this same story, and yet it continues to shock me. The One who is our Leader, in all ways, was born in a tiny bed lying on hay. Which, by the way is what cows eat for food, thrown onto the ground left for animals to step on.

The green tent of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was destination of several politicians, sports men and artists. Those guests came from both the smallest tribal in Africa to the senior officials of the White House and the European Union. This tint provided profit for many people who are willing to trade in all kinds of items including the remains of humans. Major companies used Libya and its Gaddafi to enter the continent that has more than half the world's wealth. Gaddafi offered compensation to the families of victims of Lockerbie incident and gave up many of his dreams concerning the nuclear project. He headed to Africa and was called the king of kings of Africa. Yet, he was killed in what was called the Arab Spring.

The TV show of Journalist Ibrahim Eissa was stopped on Al-Kahera Wal-Nas private television on January 1st, 2017. Eissa said that the time is inconvenience for the program. Couple of weeks ago, the Egyptian House of Representatives denounced the show considering it working against the state as claimed by Dr. Ali Abdul Al, head of the Egyptian Parliament. Abdul Al accused Eissa of inciting violence and public disorder after he said that the new draft of the law of building churches states that no crosses should be put on new churches. Abdul Al forgot that the lack of information about the law at that time caused a lot of flounder in media. Abdul Al forgot that transparency of the government is the only way to avoid tribulations and rumors. However, the government should have sent clarification to media, but it hasn’t. The case often is not related to the crosses, but to Eissa and his show since he doesn’t flatter the regime like other shows. Therefore, the government decided to accuse the man of being responsible for its failure, the increasing prices, medicine shortage, and the deteriorating services.

Great people don’t die as their works and ideas stay forever. Among those great people, the great Coptic architect and struggler Adli Abadir Yusuf. Abadir used to give in secret and struggle in public. He exposed negatives in Egypt with courage and unparalleled audacity. His international conference was the first to talk about the Coptic issue on such scale. It was held in Switzerland in October 2004, and cost him a lot of money and effort in order to bring various politicians, thinkers and intellectuals from all over the world. He decided to commemorate this first conference dedicated to the Copts by establishing Copts United website. This site has been working hard since its very beginning to achieve its goals and record the incidents of the nation, community and the church. Its success has lasted since engineer Ezzat Poulos took office as CEO of the website.

With 2016 end I’ll end my series of Egyptian Traditions but this does not mean I’ll stop writing on Egyptian Traditions; I’ll just leave it to the circumstances but first let me with you all a Happy New Year 2017 may all the best come with this new year! May God keep blessing Egypt and Egyptians and his peace be with you all!

I want to congratulate all our readers with the new year. Wishing to be better than the previous year which was full of bad news everywhere in the world. I know that many people may be negative and say that we say the same thing every year. Also might say that every time we wish the next year to be better but it never become better. I want to tell those who think in this way that asl ong as you still have chance to live for the next year, its very good and amazing news. Look around yourself especially with what is happening around the world now days, you should be thankful that you still have chance to improve your life and make it better.