Those who know Bambi in person may have noticed that she likes the term highlighted in the picture above: “Bravo”. She likes it, especially that we can use it in so many languages, including English, French, Arabic, even German, and of course… Italian.
However, should we always feel obliged to say bravo or applaud entities or individuals, even when witnessing underperformance?
We can of course understand how they may have been frozen by fear or overwhelmed or paralyzed by their ideology or cumbersome bureaucracy, etc. We are all human. However, in pandemics, we do not have the luxury of time to act or take a fast decision.
First, here is the CBC article, she will be referring to below. It is entitled: “The pandemic seems to be giving Canadians warm feelings about government. Can it last?” It is signed by Mr. Aaron Wherry:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/coronavirus-pandemic-covid-government-polling-1.5533700?cmp=rss
Second, the article in question made Bambi remember a TV moment with her dad when she visited her family in Beirut, Lebanon, a few years ago.
The scene, which took place in the Syrian Parliament when Mr. Assad Junior was “re-elected”, predating their civil war. It showed the Syrian politicians applauding. The TV moment lasted for SEVERAL long minutes (5, 10, 15… Bambi lost count ?).
Everyone was applauding and re-applauding… and this seemed to go on forever.
Bambi’s dad, a wise man, asked her: “Do you know why they are not stopping their applause?” Bambi was so amused (and felt sad for the Syrian people) when her dad said: “No one wants to be seen as the first to stop applauding”.
If Bambi can allow herself to draw such a comparison, a bit like the Syrian public servants, our CBC journalists seem to rush to be the first to applaud the federal government, without critical sense (it seems to have been surgically removed a while ago).
This time, this article did not mention Mr. Trump, for a change. Bambi has noticed a classical journalistic pattern in Canada (sometimes even used by our own PM in his answers to journalists during his daily speeches): Mentioning Mr. Trump, as a comparison, makes Canadians feel better. Yes, they can allow themselves to make fun of him WITHOUT questioning their own PM’s inconsistencies or immaturity. They can tell themselves, or our government may perhaps think they would tell themselves: Thank Goodness, Trudeau is not Trump, even if they share the same first letter in their family names.
Is this all what we aspire for as Canadians? To beat Mr. Trump’s style/bad reputation? The bar is not set high then, isn’t it?
Mind you, Bambi wrote the above and she is not a Trump supporter. However, she knows when/how to recognize when he may be right on something or doing something serving the best interests of his country.
Even if she did not vote for Mr. Trudeau a second time, she also knows how to appreciate his good decisions.
Yes, even Mr. Trump, can be right sometimes. Similarly, even Mr. Trudeau, can be wrong at other times. The latter can even be pointless, even if he may have a richer vocabulary and even if he does not have orange hair.
