The picture below moved Bambi’s heart this morning. She will describe why in the following paragraphs.
Those kids are from the devastated neighbourhoods of Beirut.
One, they survived, hopefully, along with their parents.
Second, look at the beautiful look, or rather exchange of eye contact, of the little boy with Santa Claus. We can even appreciate his shy smile hidden behind his mask.
In that look, we see amusement, some joy, and especially a glimpse of hope.
Hope in the goodness of men (and women… let’s not forget Santa’s spouse :)) in our world.
Hope in brighter days for his country that has been described a couple of days ago by a French politician, called Mr. Le Drian, as follows: “Lebanon’s collapse is like the Titanic’s sinking, only without the music…“
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-crisis-france-idUSKBN28N0RX
Mind you, the same idea of the Titanic was the title of two beautiful yet moving poems (written in French) by Mr. Georges Abu Arraj, one of Bambi’s good friends in Beirut. He shared those poems with his friends on his social media channels. Ironically, he wrote the first on August 1st, 2020 (3 days before the doomed explosion) and the second a few days after. Bambi would have been honoured to ask for his permission to share them with you, but she would have not been able to capture all his talent in the translation.
Anyhow to come back to France, the first politician in the world (before Lebanon’s own corrupt politicians!) who went to comfort Beirutis immediately following the surrealistic port blast was supposed to re-visit the country for the third time on Christmas eve. Sadly, he had to cancel his trip because he has been diagnosed with Covid-19. Bambi would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Macron for all what he has been doing to support the Lebanese people and economy. Same for the UK Ambassador in Beirut who resigned recently, publishing a moving letter to the Lebanese people yesterday. Same for our own Mr. Champagne who travelled to Beirut as well. Same for all the friends of Lebanon and stability in our world. Last but not least, Bambi would like to again thank each Canadian citizen who kindly and generously supported her birth country in one way or in another.
The tragedy of Lebanon is that the whole world is in such a disastrous economic state now because of the coronavirus pandemic. This does not help neither its case nor its large number of its citizens who have been leaving it. To give you an idea, it seems that in October only, about 400 physicians left Lebanon (as per the Lebanese and international media).
To conclude this post, may the hope of hope that we see in this cute boy’s eyes prevail in Lebanon. This kid and all his peers deserve safety, happiness, love, and prosperity. Most importantly, they deserve to dance on a solid boat that will keep sailing and moving forward… not sinking like the Titanic, with or without music!
