This column has been absent for two weeks. I’d been on a longish trip to a slice of heaven on earth, Ubud, Bali. The six-day Writers and Readers Festival, to which I’d been invited, stretched to 11 days as I travelled from one end of the Silk Road to the other, some 20 hours going in and a harrowing 30-hour journey back, added to which, a nerve racking, if ultimately pleasant 24 hour delay due to a ticketing mishap. (The festival’s organizer, the wonderful Janet, kindly put me up in a charming, if wholly incongruous in my case, Honeymoon Guesthouse.)

Last month, Egyptian teachers came from every governorate and gathered on Qasr al-Aini Street in front of the Cabinet. They were fed up with their financial conditions and were tired of being ignored. After gathering exactly one year earlier to demand better pay and the overall improvement of the education system, their demands had been forgotten like many others before them. “Long Live the teachers’ struggle,” they shouted with fervor and conviction. September was a month of strikes, they said. It seems the Independent Teachers’ Syndicate is adamant on making this statement a reality.

Last month, Egyptian teachers came from every governorate and gathered on Qasr al-Aini Street in front of the Cabinet

The idea of commitment to the state education plan stops all grassroots initiatives and closes the door to creativity

Since the January 25 Revolution, Egyptian politicians have pondered what to do about the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty - is now the time to be making changes?

In order to live in dignity, you need first to live. Nothing takes priority over the right to live. That is why I do not understand how a society could leave someone to die, or to barely survive, because he or she does not have enough money to "buy" that right.

Some forces who participated in the revolution object to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, although many add that their objection does not mean going to war. They of course realise that war, like love, must be between two sides and decisions are not taken unilaterally. Also, that the other party will decide whether it is in their interest to live with a no-war no-peace status once again, or go to war before Egypt regains its strength and the revolution succeeds in its development process, making it the “strong Egypt” Abdel-Moneim Abul-Futouh talked about.

One year ago, nearly 30 Egyptians, almost all Coptic Christians protesting against sectarian violence, were murdered as they marched at Maspero, the Egyptian Radio

The most critical culprit in the current draft constitution being finalized by the Constituent Assembly is the definition of citizenship — who is a citizen?

The most critical culprit in the current draft constitution being finalized by the Constituent Assembly is the definition of citizenship

The scene is not easily forgotten: Tahrir erupts in jubilation as Egypt’s first democratically-elected civilian president opens his jacket to demonstrate to the thousands assembled, and the millions watching on television, that he is not wearing a bulletproof vest. Mohamed Morsy’s intended message was clear: this president is no Pharaoh. Like his fellows in the square — indeed, like the humble tuk tuk driver — he is simply an Egyptian. Whatever distinction he enjoys is derived entirely from the choice of Egyptians. And, though he was chosen by only a narrow majority of the electorate, he commits himself to serve as president for all Egyptians.

Politics has taken its toll on the Salafi Nour Party and plunged that seemingly coherent political body into an open conflict, the end of which is unpredictable.

While it is not a new thing to suffer as a Copt, the raised expectations of better treatment after the revolution turned to be a big frustration. It is not simply about complaining; the goal of the article is to highlight the Copts’ plight and how to overcome those sufferings.

When the Muslim Brotherhood was counted among the opposition, before the 25 January revolution, the group took part in several discussions with civil political forces and human rights organizations, both domestic and international, to present political Islam’s view of democracy, the rotation of power and human rights. Yet the wheels of the debate continued to spin, as a precaution against that hypothetical moment in which the Islamic current would reach the seat of power and the apprehensions of civil political forces would be borne out: the quashing, by democratic means, of the dream of a democratic transition and respect for human rights.

If you’ve ever been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and looked at the labels describing its many Egyptian artifacts, you would think they were all discovered in Europe. The Rogers Fund, gifts of Edward S. Harkness, gifts of the Egyptian Exploration Fund (a group of wealthy English travelers and adventurers) and the museum itself, among others, are thanked for bestowing such an expansive collection of antiquities to visitors of the Dawn of Egyptian Art wing. Apparently, the dawn of Egypt came when Europeans arrived to witness it.

The real trigger of popular protest movements and their escalation is widespread injustice and the failure of mechanisms in place to alleviate injustice. This causes people to resort to a legitimate form of expression about their grievances about injustice and its perpetrators, as well as the slow pace of exercising justice, which is the goal of proper democratic rule.

What has become increasingly clear is that Islamists themselves are engaged in a fierce political battle to determine their own identity

The Egyptian modern state has since its conception been suspicious of the public organizing themselves

A state of general — yet perhaps less articulated — dissatisfaction and frustration with Egyptian foreign policy over the last two decades has certainly been one of the causes for the accumulated popular fury that sparked the 25 January revolution. Foreign policy took a backseat to demands reflecting more pressing socio-economic and internal political grievances during the uprising and in the dominant discourse which followed the epic downfall of former President Hosni Mubarak. So much so in fact, that — regrettably — much attention was drawn away from foreign policy issues, especially US and Israeli intervention and desperate attempts to influence political outcomes during the height of the crisis in January and February 2011.

As the dust settles following the “Arab Spring,” which unseated some of the Middle East’s longest surviving dictators, elected governments have formally entered a tough race against time to meet the wide range of expectations of their people. This places a large burden on the extremely exhausted finances of these countries.

Hassan El-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, built a strong organisation that spread throughout the Islamic world, but he failed to turn Egypt into a state that reflected his vision.