If you have up five minutes to devote to reading this weekend, it is worth it.
What an excellent explanation of Lebanon’s financial crisis… and why some Lebanese citizens are now forced to steal food from supermarkets or medication from pharmacies to feed or heal their families :(. These sad stories have been reported by both the media and by Bambi’s loved ones (different friends or relatives living in different regions of the country).
It is heart-breaking, to say the least.
Lebanon deserves better than this.
The world deserves not to always have to worry about Lebanon.
All countries deserve to live in economic prosperity.
Lebanon’s problem has nothing to do with neither covid-19 (although the pandemic adds to the financial tragedy!) nor climate-change (although Lebanon needs ecological reforms too).
Lebanon’s financial tragedy is all about mismanagement AND corruption, period.
Of course, Lebanon has also another potentially deadly problem called “Hezbollah” (which literally means the “Party of God” as if God needed to be defended) . This pro-Iranian Lebanese party has a militia wing that is larger than tiny Lebanon and its official army (which, by the way, cannot afford to feed its soldiers with meat anymore).
The mafia-like governance co-exists with militia.
One hides behind the other. One justifies the other.
MANY thanks to Mr. Wark for his informative article (see below) about what is happening in our town with one of the most decent politicians in our province, country, and perhaps in the world.
Bambi will name Mr. Bruce Phinney.
Mr. Phinney is far from being perfect because he is a human being.
However, this being said, one of his BEST qualities is his honesty.
He tells the truth as it is. How many of us still speak our mind in such a candid way?
Indeed, with all due respect to all our politicians in town, including our MLA (a former town councillor), Mr. Phinney was the only elected official who stood up to defend Bambi’s spouse.
Ironically, Mr. Phinney is now being accused (for the second time) in a similar way.
In Bambi’s non-expert citizen opinion, this way is all about silencing. It has nothing to do with politeness.
Since when a town councillor and a citizen cannot criticize town staff or provincial politicians?
When will we have accountability in our town?
When will our town truly respects its citizens, even those who are not part of the elite?
First, here are some of the families of the 200 victims and 6000+ injured victims of the Beirut blast.
A picture taken from l’Orient Le Jour
They are still waiting for the 4-day-promised investigation 4 months following Beirut port bast.
They are still demanding an international investigation!
Of course, this demand is also Bambi’s wish, hoping for courageous outcomes, unlike the ridiculously shy judgment of the UN’s Special Tribunal for Beirut’s blast of 2005 that Lebanon has partly funded over many years. As a reminder, this explosion assassinated Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Mr. Hariri, and MANY other innocent victims.
Second, here is the ironic part where Hezbollah hides behind “progressive” words such as “right-wing” ? and “to prosecute and pursue all those who practice deception, fraud and false accusations” (this would be the equivalent of “hate speech” in our Western societies in our strange times).
They also add that “they have faith in the judicial authority”. Of course, they do! They massively control it, just like Wharf 12 of the Beirut port where the warehouse exploded.
Do they think that their fellow citizens are stupid?
Or do they think the world is stupid to believe them and bail the Lebanese corrupt government out without any reform.
The truth of the matter is that the Lebanese people (including those from Hezbollah’s own communities who refuse to act like sheep) want to live in a SAFE country without their silly weapons (real ones or… just ammonium nitrate).
They are fed up of their warrior mindset.
This is the truth, Hezbollah. Can you learn to adjust to it?
We teach our athletes not to dope, and we punish them if
they do so.
We try to lead by example, by always choosing honesty… In both our failures and our successes.
Of course, in politics as in life, there is cheating
from time to time.
However, when it may be systemic and likely orchestrated
(even by a party we may like and prefer), sorry this is unacceptable!
So, if what Mr. Trump is claiming is true, this is very serious.
It has consequences, not just in America and its beautiful
constitution (https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript),
but for democracy around the world, for economy, for common sense… and for security
in some hot spots like the Middle East.
Whether we are allergic to Mr. Trump or not, whether
we are in love with Mr. Biden or not, we should be concerned.
Not just the Americans, but us here in Canada and
around the world.
Bambi is not in love with Mr. Trump’s character, but
she respects the 70+ million who voted for him (as well as the voters in the
other direction).
Perhaps the choice between both politicians is a
choice between two “evils” (if one is smelly like pee, the other would be
smellier like feces… sadly, the choice is between the two). She is saying this
with all due respect to both men.
However, if systemic cheating has occurred, this would
be unacceptable to both democracy and the Republicans (i.e., Mr. Trump).
If no systemic cheating occurred, why aren’t the Democrat
members supporting the recounts to prove their numbers?
Bambi is puzzled.
She is even more puzzled, given her earlier post further
below.
Could Mr. Trump legal claim be founded in the end?
Of course, the Canadian media is as biased as the American media. They diabolize Mr. Trump so much and do not show us the facts and up to us to make an opinion for ourselves. For example, the CBC article below did not even show us the video of Mr. Trump’s speech. The CBC only told us about that video. Is that normal in journalism? For Bambi, this sounds more like Tehran Times or media by the Syrian regime ?.
She is saying this, and she does not care about neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Trump. She cares about truth (not the truth of each of one of them, but the Truth with a big T. This means: the facts).
The New Brunswick Multicultural Association, a highly respectable para-governmental organization is launching a survey on racism. Mind you, it is advertised in the propaganda section of the CBC that is called “Being black in Canada“:
The survey is open to all and it asks us about the new buzz word of the century, “systemic racism“… of course, racism against the fancy umbrella term of BIPOC only 🙂 (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour).
It is as if racism cannot exist between these holy sub-groups or from these toward others or others among each other.
Anyhow, at least the survey has a room for some qualitative input, hoping all input will matter.
What bothers Bambi is not the survey as it is usually good to have surveys and, especially public debates. The question that begs itself is how will they (or our governments?) use the data generated by the survey?
More alarmingly, what puzzles Bambi is that usually science is supposed to be for the sake of science only or with a vision of scientific advancement and cultural progress. Sadly in Canada, science is becoming increasingly at the service of ideologies… and then we wonder why our latest and biggest scientific discovery remains insulin (which is huge for humanity, including Bambi’s own mom’s life, thank you Drs. Frederick Banting and Charles Best!). We are not even capable of producing vaccine for the coronavirus! Russia is now ahead of us. China too.
To come back to the topic of this post, we learn from the above article that the Policy Development Coordinator with the anti-racism project by this organization is Mr. Raymond Husoni also “an organizer with Black Lives Matter”, scoring the point about ideologies (Bambi has an earlier post about Mr. Husoni and BLM; see the bottom of this post).
Two questions here: (1) Who is funding such initiatives, especially in pandemic times? Our government? Federal? Or federal via the provincial? Or is it foreign funding (Mr. Soros et al. https://nypost.com/2020/07/14/george-soros-group-pledges-220m-to-help-dismantle-systemic-racism/)?); and (2) Why does it feel that we have the conclusion of the survey before its data outcomes? This does not sound like a scientific hypothesis to be tested and rejected, if not supported by the data. Bambi hopes she is wrong, but only time will tell.
Mr. Husoni’s own words are as follows: “it’s also important for white New Brunswickers to participate in the surveys to provide what they’ve experienced and learned about racism“. “Have they been bystanders to racist incidents? How did they respond? And what resources can we create to address this issue? Because it really poses a barrier to social and economic prosperity of New Brunswick.“
With all due respect to Mr. Husoni and his work, Bambi is afraid such racial ideologies (likely coming from out of the USA) will end up becoming the barriers, instead of bridges, between us New Brunswickers.
Plus, why is he referring to us as “White” & “Black”? Can’t he see that he is insulting both us and himself by reducing us to such limiting superficial characteristics, our skin colour?!
Why is he putting all the so-called “blacks” in the same bag? Why is he doing the same with the so-called “whites”? What is this non-sense? What about our ethno-linguistic major groups in NB (the silent majority/ties): Indigenous, Acadians, and English-New Brunswickers?
How does an imported ideology really fit locally?
This vision is actually contrary to the spirit of this organization that usually celebrates our culture(s) in our NB beautiful regions and communities?
Can we please keep putting the emphasis on what unites us instead of what divides us?
Of course, racism is bad. We need to name it and address it when we see it.
Racists will always exist in a society. In a sense, they have the right to exist (provided no defamation or violence) as much as radicals. It is just unfortunate that the latter are imposing their narrow-minded visions on all of us.
In Bambi’s non-expert citizen’s opinion, “systemic racism” is one of the silliest ideologies of our current insane times.
When will this insanity stop? When will funding of insanity stop?
Can we please preserve our sanity and our beautiful province?
Bambi would like to thank her friend Nayla for sharing this song.
Amazing as she listened to that same brand new song perhaps a night or two ago whilst listening to her Radio-Mount Lebanon (from LA) before going to sleep. She found the song moving and even told her spouse about it, repeating the lyrics… or translating them.
Well, here is the song, followed by its moving lyrics, first in Arabic followed by English.
Thanks again Nayla and love to Beirut… from Sackville, NB, Canada!
Lyrics
| كلمات
بيروت
… إنتِ الغنية المابتموت
صوت
الشوارع والبيوت
أجمل
صبيّه يا بيروت / يا بيروت
بعمّرها
… برجع أنا وأنت نعمرهابعمّرها …
ومن إيدُن نحنا منحررها
بيروت
إمي
بيروت بَيِّي بيروت إختي بيروت خيّي
بيروت
ملكي …… ردلّي هيي
إنتِ
الفرح وإنتِ الحُب
وهني
الوجع وجع هالقلب
رح
تتخطي الوضع الصعب … يا بيروت
إنتِ
الأمل إنتِ الورد
هني
الزعل وهني الحقد
رح
شيلك من إيدُن وعد … يا بيروت
بيروت
إمي
بيروت بَيِّي
بيروت إختي
بيروت
خيي
بيروت
ملكي ……
ردّلي هيي..
“Beirut, you are the rich who does not die
You are the sound of streets and homes
You are the song that does not die
The most beautiful lady, O Beirut– O Beirut
I will re-build it, we will re-build it together, I will re-build it
From their hands, we will liberate it
Beirut is my
mom
Beirut is my
dad
Beirut is my sister, Beirut is my brother
Beirut is
mine, give it back to me
You are the joy
and you are love
They are the
pain, the pain of my heart
We will
overcome the difficult situation … O Beirut
You are the
hope, you are the rose
They are the
sadness and they are hatred
We will take you off their hands it is a promise… O Beirut
