Bambi is sad. She just learned from her own sister’s tweet (journalist Roula Douglas) about the death of this 74-year-old veteran journalist for whom she has the utmost respect and a sort of attachment to. She will try to explain why in the following paragraphs.
Bambi will always remember this sad date of November 1st in the future, as it coincides with a happy day for her (celebrating the birthdays of loved ones!).
Mr. Robert Fisk has covered the Lebanese civil war since its start in 1975 until its end in 1990. If everyone knew the Middle East well, it was him!
The Lebanese civil war was ugly and devastating. Mr. Fisk could have lost his life there (or elsewhere in hot places, including Ireland if Bambi is not mistaken as well as the Middle East). He survived wars and wrote many articles and books.
Thank you for telling the tragic stories of the people of Lebanon and of the Middle East. Thanks for having loved Lebanon and Beirut the way you did. Beirut also loved you back!
Mr. Fisk earned many major British awards. Well deserved!
In addition to the Lebanese war, he covered the Iranian revolution, the Iran-Iraq war, and the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviets.
Bambi read his famous Pity the Nation, Lebanon at war (short-listed for the NCR Book Award) in 1990 at the time she immigrated to Canada, three months before the end of war. She is holding it now in her hands whilst writing this post… Thank you Mr. Fisk for such an elegantly written AND moving book!!
With your death, it is as if a whole book (not just a chapter) of Bambi’s life symbolically died with you (she was less than 3 years old when war started. She was 17 when it ended; you lived in her birth capital throughout its craziest times… mind you, the current times are also ugly).
May you rest in peace, Mr. (and Dr.!) Fisk. May you memory be eternal.
May your legacy inspires newer generations of journalists, the real ones (not the so-called journalists without rigour, respect of facts/truth, and depth…).
These Torontonians are urging Canada to boycott France for defending freedom of expression. Is there anything more pathetic than that? Oups, surely, there is Mr. Justin Trudeau and SADLY the still silent Left in English-Canada.
Are those Syrians demonstrating in Windsor to boycott France and against freedom of expression in France so used to freedom in their birth country that they want to replicate it in their host country?
Or do some of them adhere to Islamism (that has hijacked
the Muslim religion)?
What about those demonstrators in Toronto, yesterday?
Of course, let’s be clear here, Bambi thinks that even Islamists have a place in a society and deserve to express their opinions.
The problem with Islamists (like other radicals) becomes problematic when their number increases AND perhaps also when their new country is not mindful of the risk of their toxic vision of the world.
As Mr. Macron explained yesterday, some Islamists in France are preaching that men are not equal to women, young girls not equal to young boys, and that France is not good, encouraging to detach themselves from it.
Bravo for Mr. Macron for finally doing something (policy) to address this increasingly problematic issue in France.
There is no place for chopping heads in democracies.
There is no place for Sharia law (or any other law, religious or not) besides the laws of a secular country.
There is no place for a minority wanting to impose its
own values on the majority.
Freedom of expression protects us all, including Muslims who are the first victims of Islamism (up to 80% of Islamic terrorism).
So, please stop the intimidation on France and stop being
ridiculous in Canada.
If Bambi is wrong about the above, is the Imam below Islamist? Listen to him in both English and Arabic, preaching from Victoria, BC. Check his words about Mr. Samuel Paty (teacher beheaded in France for having discussed freedom of expression in his course and whilst doing so showing the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo). Thank you Rebel News for this article/video that we would have never found in the mainstream media:
For those who do not know it, Charlie Hebdo is a satirical newspaper. It makes fun of all political leaders (including Mr. Macron) and all religions (especially Catholicism and including Judaism, Islam, etc.).
As explained by Mr. Macron in his interview to El Jazeera (Bambi’s earlier post), the French government does not fund newspapers [contrary to Canada where our newspapers are now propaganda machines— just as an example, read all the titles and articles about Mr. Trump and you get the idea; of course, much easier and safer than writing about our own national incompetence].
The French government will not tell newspapers what to
publish.
The French government is secular.
French people are free to practice any religion or to be observant or not.
Sadly, radical Islamists do not accept the French values and are intimidating the country by using methods as radical as chopping heads of innocent people.
Manipulated by external political freaks of the world
(e.g., the Neo-Sultan of Turkey), some Muslims of the whole world, including us
in Canada, are asking to boycott France and French products over those
cartoons.
The last time Bambi checked the map, France was still in Europe (= the Western world). So, to all those are imposing their own vision of Islam on France, hands off! Leave innocent people and respect the French values. Thank you France for defending freedom of expression.
Whether France realizes it or not, it is doing it for
all of us. It is also paying a price for all of us.
According to Bambi’s non-expert citizen opinion, the
tragedy is not the criminality of Islamists who committed the barbaric acts.
The tragedy is the silence of our PM and with him a whole left that has become hijacked by dogmatism and collective stupidity.
This is the tragedy, not just of France engaged in a
tough combat.
The tragedy is the direction and relative speed of the Canadian boat whilst sinking.
Unless Mr. Trudeau et al. wake up and see that danger,
we will all sink together.
