Bravo France for this moving national tribute to Mr. Paty, the teacher who is the “face of the republic” (well said, Mr. Macron).

Symbolically, the event was organized at the Place de la Sorbonne in Paris.

The French President vows to continue “the fight for freedom“.

Contrary to many misleading (+ silly) titles in the CBC and other Canadian/American media, Mr. Paty was not decapitated because of “stupidity, hate” (https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/france-paty-memorial-investigation-1.5770765).

Mr. Macron named the giant elephant in the room. It is called “political, radical Islamism“.

Rest in peace Mr. Samuel Paty… May your memory be eternal.

In a Global News article entitled “Systemic racism ‘runs very deep in Canada’”, Ms. Chrystia Freeland said the latter “when asked about the dispute over Mi’kmaq fishing rights in Nova Scotia”:

Systemic racism ‘runs very deep’ in Canada, Freeland says

Even if that was 100 percent true (not just by criminals who committed arson of fire in the fishery plant and van but by every family member of every fisher of every NS town/village), the words seem unwise, even if they may be courageous, because they are not put into context and they are tempered in any way whatsoever.

Bambi will rise above this conflict that she is not an expert of anyhow, to just bring some perspective from a second life she had in one of the most boiling regions of the world, much more than the province of Nova Scotia for sure…

Lebanese political leaders, as disconnected from the population or as corrupt as they can be, at least ALL have the wisdom of calming things down. Even militia organizations despised by the majority have discipline and common sense when needed to stop abuses (and abuses there are constantly, and especially now).

In Bambi’s non-expert citizen’s opinion, Ms. Freeland should have explained to the population, through the question of the journalist, what is at stake in this conflict, out of respect for both Indigenous and other fishermen.

What is the main blocking point in the dispute? Why are we there and why have we been in this double bind Marshall judicial decision of 1999?

Why can’t we be at a different place, like for example our government helping the indigenous company in starting a business (as a start-up), providing a loan, etc. ?

Why don’t these indigenous fishermen work in the other industry or the other fishermen one day in their industry?

Why should we have an apartheid of fishing rules, in honouring not just peace and friendly treaties, but also common sense in our country?

Bambi is not an expert of fishing, even if she grew up by the Mediterranean sea and is a proud Atlantic Canadian. She just knows that people get angry when they see double standard in life (even when it is in the spirit of reconciliation, as Ms. Freeland said very well, thank you).

Is it normal to have one group fishing all year and the other only during legal season? Even in the name of “moderate livelihood” (even without a clear definition of the latter)?

By the way, why can’t Mi’kmaq lobster fishers fish MORE than moderate livelihood? Why can’t they become owners of successful and rich businesses down the road in 2, 5, 10 or 50 years from now?

In Bambi’s non-expert opinion, the above could be done whilst having the same rule about fishing seasons for all, for equity and democracy in our country.

Bambi will keep saying the same, even if a group of Lebanese-Canadians (former Phenicians) decide to begin a lobster business.

She is convinced of this. This is democracy 101. She will allow herself to borrow the words of a great natural psychologist (hello Gladson, Dear brother-in-law or rather brother ?). He said many years ago about Lebanon during her visit there: “Lebanon always loses when one group takes control over the others, regardless of the group”. He meant group in power or interest group. Bambi thinks that the same logic would be a voice of wisdom in any country, including us in Canada.

This being said, she hopes from the bottom of her heart that the dispute will end. No one will be injured. Everyone will be fishing, eating, selling, and earning a living. When the pandemic will end, she hopes they will all celebrate lobster festivals together and we will eat their delicious products (same product of our same Dear Atlantic ocean!)!

To cheer herself up, sometimes Bambi likes to watch a funny short comedy clip on her phone before closing her eyes to sleep. Well, yesterday, she decided to watch “le cousin“, the first show of Mr. Gad El Maleh. She knows this show by heart, she repeats it with him (almost completely), and she systematically laughs each time.

OK, before telling you about le cousin, you may be wondering about this Mr. El Maleh. Who is he? For those of you who do not know him, he was born in Casablanca, Morocco (in 1971). He speaks Moroccan Arabic, Hebrew, French, and English. He studied for a few years in Casablanca at the Lycée Lyautey before moving to Montreal to study political science at McGill University where he lived for about 4 years. Following his journey in Canada, he moved to Paris where he studied drama.

Recently, Bambi discovered that this comedian is related (not by blood) to Dr. Gad Saad from Concordia University (the world is too small). Her good friend Katia, also from Montreal, knows him from school (he has always been a funny guy from his younger age, it seems).

Well, to come back to le cousin, this comedy show is moving for Bambi because it is about Québec and it reminds her of wonderful family time in Montreal! Nowadays, in our puritan times of political correctness, such cultural jokes would be sadly considered racist (what a stupid shame!)… but, mind you, racist to whom? To the French-Canadian accent Gad el Maleh is imitating or to the jokes about the Arab or Jew whom he is in real life or to Bambi who relates to all this :)? Needless to say that all the people Bambi knows adore him from her own family members to her friends!

To understand the context of the comedy show in question, one must go back to the Mirabel Airport, North of Montreal (preceding the Trudeau airport in Montreal). This is the airport where Québec immigrants used to land in the early 1990s. It is yellow (hence one joke about Canada being yellow and so beautiful :). It also had a section where families would be waving to you, from the second floor, behind a glass whilst you wait in the line-up to clear customs.

Bambi and her family used to spend much time at this airport, happily waiting for her father arriving from Beirut. They would be waving for him with smiles and balloons (like other families would be doing). This is why Mr. Gad El Maleh’s joke is too funny and yet so emotional.

Bambi will never forget her first impression of Canada on this June 17, 1990, upon their arrival to Mirabel Airport. She had the impression that the landing of their KLM plane, along with other airplanes at that airport, was FINAL (even for the crew members :)). This means no takeoff ever. What an odd (and silly) feeling. Perhaps because the trip was too long and the airport seemed to be in the middle of no where, so far away from Europe… and even further away from Beirut where they were torn from their loved ones the day before.

To come back to El Maleh’s comedy, one particularly funny scene in the show was when the Canadian custom agent opened his passport and described it on the phone to another colleague by saying: “It is written in Arabic and it opens upside down” 🙂 :)!!

Well, Bambi’s spouse attracted her attention that Lebanese passports do not open upside down like other passports from Arab countries. She forgot about that (a long time without a passport)! Maybe he is right because it is bilingual and it opens from its French side (written from left to right, contrary to Arabic). Still, the joke is hilarious even after decades :).

Well, this Gad El Maleh is talented. This comedy may have been his first ever. He was younger. Thus, more innocent or pure, so to speak. If you have time to kill and like to laugh in the language of Molière, see below!

Bambi got curious and googled him today to see how he sounds in English (he expanded his French career to the USA in the recent years). Well, he is funny too, as you can see below in the language of Shakespeare! The show is again short and it is called “Where is Brian”? It is a parody of how the people of France learn English.

The clever article below was published in French in the Journal de Montréal. It is about the ordeal of Dr. Verushka Lieutnant-Duval. Thank you Mr. Antoine Robitaille for writing it.

Bambi will share its translation below but first a few facts and thoughts…

This morning, she read in La Presse that the University of Ottawa Professor in question, Dr. Lieutenant-Duval, has received a letter of support co-signed by 579 professors of CEGEP and universities across Québec (luckily there is still some common sense in this province…): http://shorturl.at/GJZ01

Bambi also read a strong article by Mr. (& Dr.!) Mathieu Bock-Côté, journalist from the Journal de Montréal, entitled “Mr. Jaques Frémont [President of the University of Ottawa] against freedom of expression“: http://shorturl.at/cpL09 [a quick translation: http://shorturl.at/lqBJ0].

Well, the ordeal of this part-time professor is described in the article below and you may have have heard about it. Bambi will not spend much time on re-telling it. However, just to give some perspective, we are talking about a professor who usually designs her courses stating that they are inclusive, from a feminist perspective, etc. (as per La Presse) Well, she has even cancelled a lecture to allow the students to attend a demonstration organized by Black Lives Matter (BLM). Can you imagine?! Yet, that was not enough to the student behind the campaign of “linguistic terrorism” whose victim was Dr. Lieutenant-Duval.

Today, the censorship story is about this particular instructor. Yesterday and the day before yesterday, it was about Dr. Bock-Côté AND many others in all fields and across sectors. Tomorrow, it will be about whom?

Anyhow, Bambi will stop here… here is Mr. Robitaille’s wise article entitle “Linguistic Terrorism“, hoping you will enjoy reading it as much as she did. If not, perhaps you can take the time to read it with an open mind, pause, and reflect about it. Perhaps you will see things from another perspective?

—–

“What has happened at the University of Ottawa in the last few days is delusional.

A professor, Verushka Lieutenant-Duval, explained in a class that derogatory terms about a group can sometimes be used by the same group.

And she gave the word “nigger” as an example. She could have used the word “queer”, it seems. (Wasn’t there a bit of that in Charlebois’s “I’m a Frog, you’re a Frog, kiss me“?)

Evil took him. A student who saw an assault in this use of the “word beginning with n” filed a complaint. In spite of the educational intentions of Mrs. Lieutenant-Duval.

The latter nevertheless believed it necessary to apologize [Bambi will allow herself to add the following: Too bad/She should have not]. She was suspended, then reinstated.

Despite the contrition and the adjustments, the university will allow the shocked students to avoid the professor now [Bambi will add the following, based on her non-expert citizen opinion: Isn’t it sad, although not surprising to see spineless institutions in action…]. But let’s be reassured, the latter “is free to continue her course, which she did last Friday, as usual, enjoying her full academic freedom“, certified the rector of the University of Ottawa, Jacques. Frémont.

Ignore the intention

Academic freedom? What is the freedom to express oneself if some students no longer even have the intelligence, much less the generosity, to consider the context in which the words are used? If the university management, as it does in Frémont’s text, denies any legitimacy for members of a so-called “dominant group” to dialogue?

We are rather swimming in a kind of linguistic terrorism.

A word can be hurtful, sure, but only if it is accompanied by malicious intent. The pilloried professor had none.

Laferrière

On the occasion of the change of title of an Agatha Christie novel (yes, the one you are thinking of), the writer Dany Laferrière leaned, in a capsule at France Culture, on the famous hated word. The academician himself uses it in his novels, notably in the titles of two of them.

Note that exactly like Ms. Lieutenant-Duval, he believes that “to claim something which could be derogatory or insulting or which could diminish you and make it exactly your identity, is one of the oldest human revenges“.

Because for him, “the word negro is a word that comes from Haiti”; it is a word “which means man, simply“. In this country, one could even say “this white man is a good nigger“, he insists, specifying however that only people from the country can use him in this sense.

And above all, not indiscriminately. We know, says Laferrière, when we use it to insult, to “humiliate you or to crush you.” You also know when it’s for another use“.

In 2008, he slayed the writer Victor-Lévy Beaulieu who, in an article, described the Governor General of the time, Michaëlle Jean, as a “negro queen“! VLB replied that the term referred to a colonized who takes the head of a colonizing state.

But in this case, it was really a reprehensible “insult“, Laferrière had ruled. “You are not dumb enough not to feel a slap in the face,” he wrote. Likewise, one should be smart enough to “smell” when there is none.”

What a beautiful tribute to Mr. Samuel Paty…

If you do not understand French and if you wish, you can read the sub-titles in English (video from the French edition of Star Academy #4):

“Adieu monsieur le professeur” is a 1968 beautiful French song recorded by Mr. Hugues Aufray. The music was composed by the trio: Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, Vline Buggy and this singer.

Bambi has posted on this barbaric tragedy earlier (see further below).

Of course, after the emotional farewell to Mr. Paty, it will be time for courageous political actions.

According to Bambi’s non-expert citizen’s opinion, only such actions (as quick reactions) would give a clear message to Islamist forces that there is no room for fundamentalism and obscurantism in France.

Indeed, clearly courageous actions would help: (1) prevent future similar tragedies; (2) defend French values (of “Liberty, equality, fraternity“, which are meant to protect all citizens, including its Muslims); & (3) hopefully eventually win this war because the Damocles sword is hanging over France’s head…

Bambi is Samuel

Violence is unacceptable, period!

Bambi just discovered this song whilst working, thanks to her Mount Lebanon internet radio station in LA. She googled it and found the clip, with English sub-titles!

“Khalass” is a beautiful Arabic word, which means “enough!”

Bambi finds this term (and title) beautiful because it is empowering just by itself.

It clearly shows someone who is fed up and implies that the person will not take it anymore (decision… and hopefully eventually a plan to act on).

What Bambi likes about this term is that it implicitly contains or refers to another word, “Khaalas” (accent on the “a” whereas Khalass has the accent on the “s”). The latter means “salvation” (“le salut” in French).

Our self-empowerment (all the implications behind the “enough”/enough is enough”) is actually what will lead us to our salvation.

Thank you Ms. Dolly El Khabbaz (for the lyrics and production), Ms. Karol Sakr (for the performance) et al. Well done.

Like his students, Bambi is Samuel today (and everyday).

She has already posted on this tragedy (see below).

May Mr. Samuel Paty rest in peace… May his memory be eternal.

May France find its public safety and peace again (enough of barbarism).

Violence is unacceptable, period!

The University of Minnesota has been included in a 2001 book on America’s so-called “Public-Ivy Universities”. This university’s modern motto: is Driven to discover.

Recently a clinical social worker, called Ms. Cristina Combs, lectured the University of Minnesota’s students on “how to recover from whiteness”.

Her twelve-step recovery program is described in the link below:

https://tennesseestar.com/2020/10/15/university-of-minnesota-lecture-features-12-step-recovery-program-for-whiteness/

Bambi will not spend much time on this post as her time is more valuable to her than reading about society’s blind adherence to our collectively stupid times. However, in her non-expert citizen’s opinion, she cannot help not to wonder if she should laugh or cry to such program’s title and content. Indeed, she finds it sad to see our North American universities diving lower and lower in the waters of our collectively stupid times.

Who is pushing those ideological agendas on these American universities?

Why are smart people allowing themselves to fall into the trap of sectarianism (radical yet superficial one)?

Why are we teaching all this to young men and women?

Aren’t we worried about the toxic effects of such programs, despite any noble intention of the teacher or her alma mater institution?

Perhaps they just want to think they are doing something noble.  

Perhaps they are only aspiring to be the wokest of the woke.  

Perhaps they just want to feel that they fit in their collectively stupid times.

Regardless of their motivation, they may have forgotten the basics: Universities are supposed to be a lighthouse of critical thinking in a society. The latter is perhaps more urgently needed in uncertain and dark times.

The question that begs itself is the following: When will academic and other public institutions wake up and start fast swimming to the surface… to breath the fresh air of intellectual independence again?

 

The other day, in Nova Scotia, we saw images of a van (of NS’ Mikmaw fishermen) being burnt by another group of fishermen. This was SHOCKING to watch. Luckily, no one was injured!! We also heard about someone peeing in another person’s car. How sad. How insulting. Yak! https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mi-kmaw-lobster-fishery-unrest-1.5761468

Bambi will not enter into the details about this conflict, as this is not the topic of this post.

She just knows that there is a good Lebanese saying that goes like that: When we resort to violence, we lose our right (assuming we were right or mostly right). So, clearly NO to violence!! After condemning it, of course, the conflict needs to be wisely and properly addressed (not with a temporary band-aid).

In Baalbeck, Lebanon, a personal dispute degenerated into shelling. Yes, shelling! The Lebanese Army had to intervene to calm the situation. Who of us uses shelling in his personal disputes? Do you do that yourself? Bambi does not, she can assure you of it.

https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1236824

Without minimizing the violence described above, perhaps the # 1 of senseless and barbaric violence came from Paris today (no, not Lebanon; the terrorist in question was not even of Lebanese origins, thank Goodness… he was from Chechnya, it seems).

What is the story about? A school teacher was decapitated by a man because he showed kids cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a course on free expression or something:

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20201016-france-opens-terror-probe-after-fatal-stabbing-in-paris-suburb

Clearly, this man is an Islamist and clearly a terrorist. Cleary, France has a serious issue with domestic Islamist terrorism.

Mr. Macron was recently right when calling a spade a spade. Is the Muslim religion the problem? NO. Does the Muslim religion have a problem? YES, big time.  Does France have a problem with Islamism? Of course, it does. Is it just France’s problem for not having succeeded in integrating its youth from the suburbs? No, not only. Not mainly. Immigrants and their children have a responsibility toward their country too. This is something that is often forgotten in Canada by social justice activists.

Of course, things are more complex than that when, in addition to adversity, there is criminality involved. Add to this a blind religiosity and someone feeling rejected by society, the person will become an easy target for Islamist radicalism/criminality (like cult members).   

Everyone knows that Mr. Macron was right. It is not because Mr. Erdogan (Turkey) is intimidating France that Islam is not “in crisis”. Sadly, Mr. Erdogan instrumentalizes radicalized people or groups. He uses them without any respect or love. Eventually, he will get rid of them in one way or another. For now, they serve his megalomania (as neo-Sultan).

To come back to the tragedy in Paris?

As Bambi’s sarcastic spouse used to say: “Paris has become the Beirut of Europe” (in contrast with “Beirut that was the Paris of the Middle East”).

Many French people have immigrated to Canada because of terror attacks in their beautiful country. Bambi recalls a chat about this sad topic with a young traveller on a flight from London to Canada where there has been a false alarm of an attack (perhaps 2-3 years ago).  

Jewish French people have been terrorized over the past years. Many have immigrated even to the Middle East, imagine. Whom are they terrorized by, do you think?

This being said, Muslims do not like to see Prophet Mohammed (bless his name) drawn. It is not part of their religion. Freedom of expression is perceived as being an intimidation instead of and expression of freedom of thoughts or arts, etc. In Judaism, the word G-d is written instead of God because the name of God should not be written (out of respect). Perhaps this is the same idea as in Islam.

However, the problem of those French terrorists is INTOLERANCE. You do not like taking a look at those cartoons. Fine, do not. You cannot impose on others (who may not even believe in God) not to resort to drawing or arts or even cartoons. You may sue the person. You may yell at the person….but to cut his/her throat?!! Come on!

This story is traumatizing to the kids, to witnesses, to the police officers, to the family of the victim and the one of the criminal who was shot, and to the whole Parisian/French population… and by proxy all of us. Many friends of Bambi have relatives in Paris. Bambi herself has two relatives. We all worry about violence in Paris. We refuse it too, like French authorities and population. We do not want to worry about our loved ones there too, in addition to the Middle East. Leave Europe safe please. Enough is enough.

Bambi knows what she is talking about in this post. When someone in Denmark drew the Prophet Mohamed once, a group of criminals went crazy in Beirut and intimidated innocent people. They even burned the Danish embassy at the corner of her sister’s place. She was with her on the phone (from Toronto, if she recalls well) whilst they were hiding from the shooting in the air down their balcony. These people who came from God knows where even destroyed religious (Christian) symbols and cars of people. Why do innocent Beirutis have to suffer because a certain Danish cartoonist drew the Prophet Mohamed? How is that their problem?

To conclude this post, when Bambi escaped to Canada with her family, she brought with her 5 books (when they rushed fast from the Canadian embassy in Cyprus to Beirut to pack fast and fly out…). One of these books was the bible (a gift from the priest of the Saint-George church). Another book was the Quran (Muslim holy book her parents brought to her from Cairo). The other was a book that was considered controversial then to someone who believes in Jesus; we can perhaps draw an analogy with the cartoons of the Prophet that could bother Muslims? It is the French translation of the Greek The last Temptation of Christ of Mr. Nikos Kazantzakis. The two other books are irrelevant for this post but now that memories are coming back to her mind, she will say that one was her dad’s German grammar book (he was her first teacher before she went to the Goethe Institute). The last one may make her childhood friends smile. It is called “Ben est amoureux d’Anna”. No clue why she brought that book and not another one… perhaps because it was about love ? and she was 17 or… to be more practical, it was small/thin and fits in her luggage.

On a more serious note, violence goes both ways and all ways…. Violence breeds violence.

Take for example what happened in Toronto lately, we do not know the facts about the why and the how, etc. However, why did an innocent man have to be killed in front of his mosque the other day? Why should Ms. Bebe Zafis be mourning the loss of her dad now?! What a heart-breaking story ☹ (as per the below article/interview).

Violence is tragic and unacceptable, regardless of the country.   

‘The hate needs to stop’: Daughter of man killed outside Toronto mosque speaks out

Tomorrow is October 17, 2020… Yes, a year has passed since Lebanon’s protests began. So many tragic events happened to this country (and to the world with the pandemic).

First, here is Reuters‘ article entitled “A year on, Lebanon’s protests have faded and life has got worse“.

https://ca.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-crisis-protests-idCAKBN2711EZ

Second, here is Ms. Talia Lahoud that Bambi discovered a year ago. She always sings in her building. Here she is singing on August 15, 2020. Bambi has wondered if her building was near her parents in Beirut. Perhaps not in the end. Thankfully, assuming this is her building, it is still standing apparently undamaged.

Anyhow, Lebanon’s talented youth will keep speaking up or singing.

They will keep dreaming of better days for their country and a better world for all.

Bambi feels like adding the following: One day, their Lebanon will stand on its feet again. Yes, it will! It will be a truly independent country, open to the world, and filled with life, peace, accountability, democracy, prosperity, health, and love. No more corruption, no more lies, no more political sectarianism, clientelism, and… a mafia-club from the civil war era governing it (with/without a government) . No more unprotected ammonium nitrate, illegal yet imposed and glorified weapons, or just silly fireworks… and of course no more “untalented” welders.

OK, Bambi will shut up! Time to listen to Ms. Lahoud now…