Bambi's Thoughts
Dearest Nawal:
May all your family members find peace in their broken hearts with every passing moment of their grief journey.
Your friends who paid tribute to you today in Moncton already miss you.
The future Moncton Lebanese Association‘s parties will not be the same without your physical presence. We will all always remember you. How can we ever forget your beautiful smile and kindness?
Thank you for having existed and may your memory be eternal…
Today’s post is about a beautiful song that Bambi just listened to. She would like to honour it in this post.
The song, entitled “Un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin” [“A little bit higher, a little bit further“] is a song about hope, ironically written in the context of a break-up, by Mr. Jean-Pierre Ferland in 1969. What an eternal song!
Ms. Ginette Reno, Québec/Canada’s diva, interprets it in such a magnificent way, as shown below (with English sub-titles).
Clearly to Bambi, this song sounds like a powerful and genuine “hymn to hope“, as Mr. Ferland expressed that he wanted it to feel like (https://www.socanmagazine.ca/features/socan-classics-un-peu-plus-haut-un-peu-plus-loin-1969/).
Bravo and thank you Mr. Jean-Pierre Ferland for your inspiring song!
https://globalnews.ca/news/8578702/nova-scotia-bans-highway-blockades-nb-border/
Older post on the railway:
Ms. Palki Sharma is so talented. Bambi is a fan.
Here is Ms. Sharma explaining the historic rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia that has split the Muslim world for decades, leading to “proxy wars” that have “turned West Asia into a battlefield“.
Bambi was particularly interested by two of this journalist’s comments. The first one was mentioned in the introduction and the other was used to conclude her excellent documentary.
First, Ms. Palki cited an Arab saying that goes like that “Choose your neighbour before the house“. Bambi could not help not to be sarcastic while thinking about her birth country’s neighbours or harsh neighbourhood… except of course the beautiful Mediterranean sea with the nearby Cyprus. Too bad Lebanon is not an island like the latter :)!
As for the last comment, it went like that: “Anything is better than war“. Although this statement is true, sadly unaddressed (cold or maybe dormant) conflicts are just apparently forgotten. When they are not addressed at their root, they can endlessly have the potential for recurrent violence, temporary strife, or maybe full-blown wars.
Thus, Bambi is convinced (today more than ever!) that Lebanon has to remain neutral and in good terms with all its neighbours, those geographically close and those further away. Indeed, it is the weakest link in the region. The smallest and bankrupt link has to be the smartest to survive. Thus, Lebanon must be diplomatically wise, that is at an equal distance from ALL neighbours and players (in the region and beyond).
Indeed, in one of her earlier posts, she wrote the following: “How about some inspiration from Austria whose status of permanent neutrality post-war protected it during the Cold War? Indeed for perhaps 65 years, this country made a wise use of its neutral status. It allowed it to turn into a much trusted meeting point for West and East during the Cold War. In addition, it built a world reputation of an impartial hub for international diplomacy. Why can’t tiny Lebanon learn a historical lesson of wisdom from Austria (https://www.iipvienna.com/new-blog/2020/10/13/austria-and-its-neutralitya-tradition-with-potential)?”
To conclude this post, Bambi will first share the Wion news short documentary. Second, she will share with you Fairouz’ song about her stunning neighbour, the moon (an English translation of the Arabic lyrics follow the song). If she may, she would like to offer it too ALL the “neighbours” of all vulnerable countries of the world, especially Lebanon. She hopes they will finally learn or maybe keep learning to be as elegant, reliable, and respectful (i.e., distant/non-intrusive) as Fairouz’ moon.
“We and the moon are neighbours
its house is behind our hills
it comes out from in front of us
and listens to the melodies
we and the moon are neighbours
it knows our times
and leaves on our roof bricks
the most beautiful colours
Many times we have stayed all night with it
in the nights of joy
with the moans
many times on its rising
we’ve explained the love
with songs and tales
We and the moon are neighbours
when it stepped by and visited us
on the bridges of our house
the corals were spread
Songs and reminders
Love.. and staying with us all night”.
Bambi thanks her friend Mary for sharing this picture from Achrafieh, which is a district of Beirut at about 50 meters above sea level.
Yes, you are seeing snow, covering cars… and this is Beirut!!
This means it is neither Canada nor Mount Lebanon, which is on average above 2,500 meters (or 8,200 feet) in elevation, with its highest peak at 3,088 meters (or 10,131 feet).
Mind you, the current storm is called Yasmine, which immediately followed Hiba. Bambi hopes everyone is as warm as possible in the freezing cold affecting Lebanon and the region. Her heart goes to ALL the people who can no longer afford to heat their places and to those Syrian refugees who literally live in tents.
To conclude this post, of course Adamo’s famous “Tombe la neige” (shown below) is the song that comes to Bambi’s mind now. If she may, she would like to end with the words of her own dad: “I am eager for February”! He would have never said that in Canada. However, in Beirut, you can dream about February because of the Lebanese saying that goes like that: “Even if February storms and blusters, it has the smell of summer in it”.
What a moving song. How powerful. How true. Thank you Ms. Majida El Roumy (who, by the way, has been Bambi’s preferred singer when she was growing up in Lebanon).
This song seems to be old (yes, older than the 2019’s revolt as it was posted on YouTube in 2014). Despite this, it is the second time in a couple of two following days that Bambi is hearing it on the internet radio. What a beautiful discovery.
Below, you can find the song in Arabic followed by the lyrics in English.
Bambi sends her heart to the people of her birth country!
Get up and Challenge (taken from https://lyricstranslate.com):
“Get up and challenge injustice; revolt,
Smash the silence within you!
O people who have been driven out in their own land,
You had enough of coercion and sorrow!
How could you stay silent
While tears and blood have flooded your life?
Your land is calling you: revolution!
Where are you? It is calling you!
Get up and carry the tears of your country
Stand at the gates of the rulers
Hand the announcement of your martyrdom
To the hands of peace
How could you stay silent
Your country has become the exile of all dreams?
Freedom and all your festivals have worn the black
If you don’t bring back the sun with your own hands
The darkness will definitely erase you.
Every night, I hear the voices of homeless children
They have become the fires of slavery in the nights of tyrants
Where is conscience of humanity?
Where is Justice?
Where is religion?
Stop singing freedom
While all the people are imprisoned!
Only revolution, O my country, will lead to freedom
Where are you? It is calling you!”
Bambi has been listening to this Remix song, called El Ghazala El Rayaa, for a couple of days now, on her Lebanese-American internet radio station.
This fun (+ funny/cute) song, by a talented young singer (Karim Mahmoud Abdelaziz ft. Mohamed Osama), is an invitation for joyful dancing and laughter. Not surprising that it is a hit in Lebanon where people need to laugh, and forget about their problems, now more than ever.
Well, this evening, Youtube featured El Ghazala El Rayaa for Bambi. Isn’t this a golden opportunity to share it with you now? Mind you, from the radio station mentioned above, Bambi learned that the original of the song comes from Russia. Unfortunately, despite her best efforts, she could not find the lovely original Russian version for you.
To conclude this short musical post, Bambi hopes you will enjoy El Ghazala El Rayaa that she wants to dedicate, with much love, to her sister Rania [she knows why :)]!
Bambi is curious to hear from you. Please share your opinion.
As far as she is concerned, her first thoughts are the following: This measure is ONLY meant to be punitive. It does not seem to be concerned with infection. It is actually putting at least one employee of the store at risk by closely walking with and monitoring the “unvaccinated” customer. Plus, why are we turning store employees into cops?
Of course, it is not easy to manage a country or a province or a territory at any time, and especially during a pandemic.
However, when we keep taking decision about measures that do not work and/or clearly irritate Canadian workers, it would be humble and clever to stop, question, assess, and re-consider those policies.
Instead of showing political evaluation and flexibility in decision-making, some world governments are becoming increasingly authoritarian. Add to the latter our notorious bureaucracy and related public inefficiency, the end result risks being what is reflected in the pictures shared below.
Bambi is saying so and she has almost always had trust in governments (minus the exceptional Lebanon of the recent decades). She is also saying so and she is double vaccinated and will consider at least the next forthcoming booster (+ assess for the next ones, depending on her bodily response and/or other factors like getting exposed to the virus, etc.).
Anyhow, here are some pictures taken by a resident of Sackville, New Brunswick last week who kindly shared them with Bambi and you. Were all those empty shelves all due to the supply chain problem created by the unwise policies of our governments (hello, Mr. Trudeau!)? Or did the cold wave play a role too?
Regardless, and to conclude this post, Bambi will offer Mr. Fred Pellerin’s beautiful French song to all our truck drivers. Many thanks to them at all times and especially now for their courage in being angry on our behalf, to use the VERY thoughtful words of Mr. Rex Murphy in the National Post (https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-truckers-are-the-proxy-protesters-for-a-lot-of-angry-canadians?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1643059233-1).
No comment is needed… The story speaks for itself (https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2022/01/23/lebanon-man-hailed-a-hero-for-robbing-his-own-money-from-a-bank/). It surely tells us about the level of desperation in the Lebanese population who was the victim of the world’s biggest bank fraud!
