It’s the end of an excruciating year, and I am almost depleted of energy. Instead of the usual long and cold analysis, I would like, for a change, to write a more personal note.

When asked last September about a title for a talk I was to give at Yale University

Adopting the new constitution concludes the transitional phase

Leading up to the January 2011 revolution, labor played a major role in the organization and expression of dissent

The Egyptian judiciary is going on strike for the first time in its history

With the election of a new president and a transformed post-revolutionary political scene, 2012 has been a defining year for Egypt.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi might be the most enigmatic man in the Middle East

Though Canada and the U.S. were both established with the separation of church and state as a guiding legal principle, this did not mean that Canadian and American law and morality were not governed by religious tenets

A campaign of intimidation by Islamists left most Christians in this southern Egyptian province too afraid to participate in last week’s referendum on an Islamist-drafted constitution they deeply oppose

The first day of voting in Egypt’s constitutional referendum is over. But what did Egyptians vote for and will they get what they want?

It seems that the MB is identifying the Salafis as the standard of radicalism, using them to tell the world that if you don't want us, be ready to deal with the worse … or even worse, the Jihadis

Egyptian private equity outfit, Citadel Capital, has appointed petroleum industry veteran, Mohamed Shoeb, as Managing Director of its energy division

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi decided to send the draft constitution to a referendum after passing it through a 100- member drafting body dominated by Islamists

Egyptians have been walking the road to hell over the past few weeks

As New York Times critics wring their hands over the depiction of “enhanced interrogation” in Zero Dark Thirty the upcoming film about the raid that eliminated bin Laden

As the constitution referendum is getting closer, columnists have analysed the extent to which Islamist groups strive to pass the constitution. Several writers have condemned the idea of moving forward with the referendum encouraging Egyptians to vote ‘No’ rather than boycotting.

Only a week after being praised by the Obama Administration for his supposed helpfulness in ending the fighting in Gaza between Palestinian Hamas terrorists and Israel, Muslim Brotherhood (MB) Member and Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi apparently decided to cash in his praise "chips" early. Most prominently, President Morsi made himself immune from the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court's oversight, thereby essentially assuming dictatorial powers over his nation. Less prominently, one of his appointed judges convicted eight persons, including seven Americans, for their "blasphemy" towards Islam. Included in this group were well-known Florida Pastor Terry Jones, who has burned several Korans in the United States, and Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, one of the people behind the controversial American film "Innocence of Muslims." So far, the Obama Administration has lodged no complaints (and here) with the Egyptian regime over either action.

On Friday morning, and as Egypt’s resurgent revolution was preparing to lock horns yet again with forces bent on its destruction, I received (an exceedingly) long distance call from an Australian broadcast journalist. They wanted a phone interview with me on the confrontation between “the Muslim Brotherhood and the pro-Mubarak forces,” explained the female voice on the other side of the line. Utterly baffled by the bizarre question, it took me a while to reply. Finally, with admittedly a nasty chuckle, I said it seemed that by the time Egypt’s news gets half way across half the globe to reach down under, it tends to be rather distorted.

Adamancy of both sides in the Egyptian conflict may throw the country back into the army's lap

Islamism, a political cabal masquerading as a "gimme that old time religion" movement, has long been an open wound in Middle Eastern countries

I must admit that events over the past ten days have dissipated much of my optimism since the revolution.