The past year was a year like any other. Some married and some divorced. New lives were born as some were sadly taken. Some found fortune while others receded into debt. The world, in a few ways, may be a better place but overall seems increasingly destructive.
We all look to 2007 to fulfill the aspirations that didn’t materialize in 2006. We hope for more marriage, life, and fortune than their inevitable counterparts. We hope to mend the brokenness we wrought in years past. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the year.
The Daily Star Egypt found out some of your hopes for 2007.
“If I’m still alive, I hope to have good health, for Egypt to have good fortune [kheir], and to be happy for my grandchildren. -Bamba Ibrahim, great-grandmother, 86
“I have a lot of things that I want. I want youth to find work, for education to improve, for the government to give us an answer about why things get more expensive. My neighbors are civil servants who get LE 300 a month – it doesn’t increase. They’re living on foul (beans) and even foul is more expensive. The people can’t eat, or get medicine, or get clothes; they are choked, like explosions waiting to happen. -Om Ahmed, domestic cook, 45
“No hopes at all. I’m too pessimistic. -anonymous, 30
“I wish for the people who are “faiya [aware and awake] to wake up those who are not. -Maissera El-Laithy, university instructor, 30
“I wish America would get out of Iraq in any way. That Muslims would unite and that the government would take care of the poor a little bit. -Hafez Mahmoud, shopkeeper, 40
“Most importantly, I want all people to find money to eat, to be free of economic difficulties, for there to be peace between nations because the struggles that are happening now will affect the next generations, if there are any. -Tarek Azab, student, 29
“I want to marry my third wife. That’s it. -Kanadeeli Amer, butcher
“I want people to start realizing that the violence that’s going on has to change, it’s not getting results. For myself, I want to find some stability. With regards to Egypt, the more the economic situation declines, the more we abandon our nice Egyptian values that we cherish in our culture. -Rana Rizk, student, 22
