What is cancel culture? It refers to (group) shaming, often online. It consists of withdrawing support for public figures or companies or artistic groups for doing or saying something considered offensive. This practice may go as far as destroying someone’s reputation or provoking the end of his/her career.
Keeping this definition in mind, before sharing the story behind this post, Bambi admits that sometimes she seems like a lost deer, likely living on her own planet. Well, perhaps this explains why she has not heard about this talented Lebanese humourist before, even if the latter became one of the revolt’s famous public figures.
This 32-year-old humourist is called “Ammounz” (her real name is Ms. Amani Danhach). She is SO funny. Her specialty is to make fun of ALL the Lebanese politicians. She has videos on each one of them separately or jointly. She records herself in her car or in her living room and posts her videos online. Her language is natural and direct. She even composes and sings songs, without any financial reward. It seems like a pure pleasure for her whilst earning a living in another field of work in Dubai where she has been living for a few years.
As mentioned earlier, she jokes about all the Lebanese political leaders. Yes, all of them, men and women, older and younger, including Mr. Nasrallah (Chief of the Hezbollah) and his ally Mr. Aoun, President of Lebanon.
Well, what a shame that the funny Ammounz was recently the victim of a nasty cancel culture attempt, not in Lebanon… but rather in Dubai, her host country. Can you imagine? Someone had the guts (and heart) to email her employer to complain about her disrespect of Lebanon’s President. The person who did this nasty complaint also contacted the Government of the Arab Emirates. Can you imagine?!
Here is the text of the email sent out of Lebanon all the way to Dubai:
Well, the silly person who wrote the above text emailed the former employer of Ammounz by mistake, if Bambi understood the story well. Luckily, this did not affect her employment status.
Instead of accepting humour, like any other politician, a supporter of Lebanon’s President (or was it a fan of his ally?) had the nerve to try to harm a fellow Lebanese citizen IN ANOTHER COUNTRY to silence a dissenting voice. The idea was so kind that it simply aimed to prevent her from earning a living and perhaps supporting a family. Do you see how absurd and nasty cancel culture can be.
Mind you, this post is just one example of cancel culture. In reality, neither the topic nor the country is what matters here. The person(s) who resort to cancel culture or the victim(s) of such practices are not the mere issue here. Today, it is about this President and this humourist. Tomorrow, it will be about other individuals. When cancel culture happens in Canada (like we have been observing recently), it is about other forms of political correctness or ideologies. What remains the same, across all stories like this one, is that cancel culture (or silencing) is an act of aggression (or intimidation) because someone is being intolerant of other opinions.
Well, this being said, Bambi got more curious about Ammounz, especially after she heard on a Lebanese-American radio all the phone calls of support. Indeed, calls and words of support came from ALL around the world, including Lebanon, Paris, the USA, Dubai, and Canada (this station has listeners in 140 counties). People of all age groups called (even a kid called from Beirut). Very clearly, this humourist/singer is well-liked.
Googling Ammounz made Bambi spend a few minutes laughing to her funny jokes. In one of her recent online videos, she criticized how the President (and many other politicians) knew about the ammonium nitrate at the port. She did her funny video despite all the grief.
It is sad and unfair to the whole Lebanese population to silence one of their artists. By doing so, we prevent an entire traumatized country from venting in times of hyperinflation, of sorrow, and of fear from the unknown (health, political, and security crises). People need humour in order to keep their sanity when everything else seems to have been stolen from them (dreams, savings, lives, houses… country!).
Talking about lost lives, yesterday an injured citizen died after 50 days. She joined the other 200 victims of the Beirut blast, including two young kids, one Canadian and the other Australian. May all those injured (6000+) survive and heal…
May Ms. Marine Elias rest in peace.
To conclude this post on a lighter note now, here is a picture of this talented Ammnouz:
Well, she seems to be so talented that she is not only a businesswoman and a (non-professional) singer/humourist. She is also a biker who wins competitions in the desert of the United Arab Emirates. Look at the picture Bambi discovered (she is on the left side with the tattoos on her arm and blue eyeglasses).
Clearly, in Bambi’s mind, this Ammounz seems to be much stronger than her bully (usually a coward), even if he could have thrown her out of her job and host country. Had she been living in Lebanon, she would have been maybe jobless in the financial crisis. What would have they accused her of then? Likely of being a spy for Israel (a classical one!). If you do not believe Bambi, see the older post below. This is what happened to Ms. Kinda El Khatib, another courageous Lebanese activist. Bambi keeps thinking about her, wondering what happened to her (likely still in jail ☹):
