Lebanon is just 10,452 square kilometres, or 4,036 square miles, in which about 6 million people live. Tiny country, isn’t it? Yet, it has BIG complications when it comes to electing its President.
Thanks to Orient Today (https://bit.ly/3Vq5N2A) for explaining to Bambi, in just five minutes, how this process usually takes place.
If you are interested, you may wish to watch the following brief French-speaking video, sub-titled in English, which addresses the following issue: “For the fourth time in Lebanon’s history, the country is facing a presidential vacancy. Since the end of Michel Aoun’s mandate on Oct. 31, Lebanese MPs have held six parliamentary sessions to elect his successor, but without success. How does the presidential election work and why is it stalled today? Can Lebanon remain without a head of state for several years, as in 2016? We take a look at the situation, in video“.
Is there anything more moving than this beautiful song on paternity bereavement?
Bravo and thank you, Mr. Mario Pelchat for candidly sharing with us your heartfelt words reported in Noovo Moi (https://bit.ly/3EN4WSf). Even if you “don’t spend your life crying”, Bambi did it on your behalf (and not just yours…). when she listened to your most recent song. She is so happy she just discovered it, although it was released seven months ago:
“I don’t have children, I’m turning 60 and I find it regrettable. Obviously, I don’t spend my life crying, but I’m sad not to have had this chance to leave offspring, to have a child who would say to me: “I love you daddy”».
« Je n’ai pas d’enfant, j’arrive à 60 ans et je trouve ça regrettable. Évidemment, je ne passe pas ma vie à pleurer, mais je suis triste de ne pas avoir eu cette chance de laisser une progéniture, d’avoir un enfant qui me dirait: “Je t’aime papa”. »
If you are interested in reading them, below you can find a quick English translation of the lyrics of Mr. Pelchat’s song. Bambi hopes you will enjoy the latter, and its lovely video production, as much as she did. To conclude this brief musical post, of course, she is grateful for the assistance of Mr. Google Translate. A usual, she thanks him for being her loyal friend :).
The child I
don’t have
“It’s for you, the child I don’t have,
A few words
that I write to you,
To tell you
that deep down I don’t know
Who makes
the choices in our lives.
It’s for
you, the child I don’t have,
Without
sadness and without regret,
A few notes
in the heart and in the voice,
Which I
wanted to share.
If I had
been a father,
Would I have
learned, would I have known how to do?
If I had
been a father,
Since your
first cry, would I have had the way?
But life
doesn’t wait, dreams pass,
In the
ledger of time so many questions fade away, ooh,
Wherever you
are, maybe it’s better,
Like that…
It is for
you the child that I do not have,
A few words
and this desire
To finally
come out from the bottom of me,
Everything I
ever said no
I ran, ran
without stopping,
Maybe I only
thought of myself?
Today I
wanted to talk to you about it,
You the
child that I do not have.
If I had
been a father,
Would I have
learned, would I have known how to do?
If I had
been a father,
Since your
first cry, would I have had the way?
But life
doesn’t wait, dreams pass,
In the
ledger of time so many questions fade away, ooh,
Wherever you
are, maybe it’s better,
Like that…
Would I have
followed the paths of your life?
Would I have
done anything to love you?
If I had
been a father,
Would I have
learned, would I have known how to do?
If I had
been a father,
Since your
first cry, would I have had the way?
But life
doesn’t wait, dreams pass,
In the
ledger of time so many questions fade away, ooh,
Dr. Frédéric Bastien is a historian and a professor at Dawson College in Montreal, Québec. Bambi learned from Le Devoir that he filed a complaint (https://bit.ly/3imgrZc) with the Human Rights Commission of Québec and of Canada because his rights have been violated in an advertisement for a position of Canada Research Chair in Canadian-Québec History that excludes “white men” from calls for applications at Laval University. Such positions are rare to open and to be filled. Imagine that this university advertised the position as follows (https://bit.ly/3U90Euc):
“Only applicants with the required skills AND who have self-identified as a member of at least one of these four underrepresented groups (women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, and persons belonging to visible minorities) will be selected”.
Do you find it fair to Dr. Bastien and to other highly competent, so-called white male, historians who would have wished to apply to the position? Bambi doesn’t. She is actually shocked by such increasingly common advertisements of academic positions in Canada!
Indeed, here is another example for you tweeted by Mr. Jonathan Kay, along with sarcastically thoughtful comments. It comes from the University of Calgary’s Haskayne Business School (https://bit.ly/3GOW0hX). Please take the time to look at its language. Does it makes any sense? Is it logical? Is it fair to both those excluded and included in it? Does it really bring fairness to those applicants who may get the position? Why aren’t we allowing them to compete on the basis of merit only? Don’t we think they can do it and succeed like others?
Why is Canada getting into these potentially discriminatory hiring practices? Why are we doing this to ourselves?
Is this the most optimal way to recruit excellence? And does excellent have a colour? Bambi has always thought the latter needs a brain and hard work only.
Furthermore, why is Canada increasingly resembling countries like Lebanon with its quotas of hiring for this or that position in the public sphere or in politics? Is this wise? Is this smart?
As a reply to a different, yet related, question by a faithful reader of this blog in a comment about an earlier post shown further below [hello Fred : )], Bambi partly provided the following insights using her birth country as an example: “… divisive societies more and more relying on identity or sub-identity characteristics for this or that position, for this or that privilege. Bambi will give an example, not related to Canada. Take Lebanon, for example, where religious affiliations are used to determine the President of the Republic must be (Maronite) Christian, the Prime Minister Sunni Muslim, and the Parliament Speaker Shiite Muslim. Keep also in mind that all other public posts are also divided according to religious quotas. So, someone like Bambi can never get the chance to become neither president, nor prime minister, nor parliament speaker there… If we come back to Canada’s context, we now have here what we call “self-identification” and we have groups that are seen as holy more than others…”.
To come back to Canada and to Dr. Bastien, Bambi would like to conclude with his sharp words, hoping they will make us pause and think twice before continuing this hiring trend in our schools, businesses, governments, etc.
“We are in a drift. We think that fighting discrimination with discrimination is not a good way to go. It will just stir up tensions. A position in history is rare».
Those of you who read this blog regularly may recall how much Bambi appreciates Mr. Nicola Ciccone, a much talented Canadian singer-songwriter.
Bambi considers herself lucky because she went to graduate school with him. She will always remember not just his talent, but also his humanity and sensitivity. In her dictionary, this is called heart intelligence.
The song below is just an example of the above. Although its lyrics are in French, Bambi took the time to quickly translate them for you into English, of course with the assistance of her faithful friend, Mr. Google Translate. The English lyrics appear at the end of the video sub-titled in French.
To conclude this brief musical post, Bambi wishes Mr. Ciconne much love, as per his song. Same wish not just for him, but also for each one of us here at home and abroad. May our hearts be overflowing with love and humanity all year long, not just in this magical season of the year. May the kindness of love prevail in our hearts, instead of the blindness of hatred or the coldness of indifference.
“All I want for Christmas is love
Just
like when I was a kid and my father was still living
Although
we were said to be very poor, with him I did not feel it
When
he took me deep in his arms
All
I want for Christmas is love
As
a teenager, my mother liked to play tricks on me
For
me to have twice as many gifts, she wrapped the boxes of cookies
Then
put them under the tree before midnight
It
may seem quite pointless
But
these are the most beautiful Christmases
That
I’ve had all my life
The
rest is just hardware
The
best gift ever
It’s
to share your life without detour
All
I want for Christmas is love
All
I want for Christmas is love
All
I want for Christmas is your heart
At
the beginning of our relationship, I was more lost than misfortune
But despite my little apartment where our New Years were piled up
We
found room to dance and sing songs
All
I want for Christmas is your heart
Today I have a big house, but it’s empty without your candour
I
remember when, at the stroke of midnight, we released our most beautiful
follies
Bambi would like to begin by thanking her childhood friend Hala for her fabulous pictures of the sunset taken from her balcony in Mount-Lebanon, namely in Kfarhbab.
Bambi loves you Hala ❤️. She will always remember the brief yet highly precious moments spent together at the very end of July. You came to see Bambi in unfortunate circumstances. Yet, you took the risk and made it to Beirut. Seeing you was like a dream come true.
Bambi appreciates your generosity, which is enriching her blog while allowing her dear readers to appreciate the beauty of Lebanon’s landscapes. Of course, she remains grateful for your extraordinary support, not only of her but most significantly of freedom of expression in Canada. To end this brief post, she will offer you a French song on friendship, hoping you will enjoy it!
A beautiful picture of the sunset taken by Hala in Lebanon.
A beautiful picture of the sunset taken by Hala in Lebanon.
A beautiful picture of the sunset taken by Hala in Lebanon.
Bambi and her spouse are lucky. Every year, about a month before Christmas, the Sackville’s parade of lights drives in front of their house. For those who do not live in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada, this is when all the trucks of emergency services parade through streets of the town, decorated with magical Christmas lights, along with a very special guest, and they honk. Who is this guest of honour every year? Of course, as you can most probably guess, it is Santa :)!
Well, tonight Bambi had the chance to stop the car at the intersection of Churchill and Bridge streets to step out in order to greet Santa and his friends. The streets around were filled with cute, and very excited, kids with their families, along with adorable dogs. Everyone was smiling!
A big thank you to the emergency services of our town for the magical moments. The latter have been bringing annual smiles to Sackville kids’ faces for the past nine years!
Like those kids and their parents, Bambi enjoyed the magic of these moments. While waving at, and shouting “Hello Santa” louder than the honking trucks, she could not help not to move back in time to her own childhood in Beirut. Back then, she had an annual personal tradition of acting as the neighbourhood’s Santa at the street corner of her building. There, she used to distribute candies to her fellow kids; her way of trying to put a smile on their faces following rounds of shelling or a series of explosions.
To come to our parade, below you can see parade’s route, along with a few pictures. Bambi will conclude this post, repeating her thanks to everyone involved in this beautiful and generous annual event. If she may, she would like to offer them all two Christmas melodies; one is meant for you Santa :). Yes, it is “Petit Papa Noël”, a song that still moves Bambi’s heart.
Merry Christmas season to all!
A picture taken from the Town of Sackville’s website showing the route of the 9th Sackville’s Emergency Services Parade of Lights. .
A picture, taken by Bambi, of the 9th Sackville’s Emergency Services Parade of Lights.
A picture, taken by Bambi, of the 9th Sackville’s Emergency Services Parade of Lights.
A picture, taken by Bambi, of the 9th Sackville’s Emergency Services Parade of Lights.
A picture, taken by Bambi, of the 9th Sackville’s Emergency Services Parade of Lights.
A picture, taken by Bambi, of the 9th Sackville’s Emergency Services Parade of Lights.
Hello Santa! A picture, taken by Bambi, of the 9th Sackville’s Emergency Services Parade of Lights.
Ten days ago, it was the International Day of Tolerance. According to the Collins Dictionary (https://bit.ly/3F4BVTF), “tolerance is the quality of allowing other people to say or do as they like, even if you do not agree or approve it“. In other terms, tolerance is respect for freedom of others, for their ways of thinking, behaving, and for holding other opinions, whether political, religious, or ideological.
If we are not naturally indulgent and understanding of others, how can we cultivate this attitude? How can we stop falling, and get stuck, into the trap of accusing others of being traitors, just because they do not hold our same viewpoints? How can we learn not to jump fast to accuse them of racism, phobia, or of other vices?
How can we continue to believe in, and even honour, our ideas without taking ourselves too seriously? How not to become entitled to the point of imposing our own vision of the world on others? To what extent can we tolerate others’ viewpoints even without understanding them?
How can we learn to listen to others’ viewpoints, with an open mind, in order to challenge, or enrich, our own thoughts or thinking process? How can we learn, unlearn, or re-learn an idea, as needed? Furthermore, how can our sense of tolerance, respect, and even love for others broaden our horizons, enrich our minds, and improve our communications skills?
Related to the above, how can tolerance help us foster freedom of expression, as a principle for ALL, that is for others whom we do not agree with and for ourselves? How could it prevent disrespect, defamation, and exclusion? Alternatively, regardless of the diverse viewpoints, how could it contribute to a deep sense of shared humanity with others, which is a precious antidote against abuses and strife?
Enough of questions for now. Bambi will be tolerant with you. She will stop here :). To conclude this post, one beautiful French song, by Mr. Enrico Macias, comes to Bambi’s mind now. Yes, it is called “La tolérance” and it is timely today.
Bambi has an earlier post on the saga of Professor Rod Cumberland, former instructor at the Maritime College of Forest Technology in Fredericton, New Brunswick. You may wish to read it below, as a reminder of the ordeal he has been through.
The coming week is crucial for him who is asking for aggravated and punitive damages in addition to lost wages. If you are interested in supporting his financial campaign, here is the link: https://bit.ly/3U32tbX . You can also read updates about his case.
She does not know about you, but Bambi stands in full solidarity with Professor Cumberland and his family. She has the utmost respect for his scientific integrity and courage. She wishes him, and his family, all the best. May justice and reason prevail!
To conclude this brief post of solidarity, Bambi will ask once again: When will censorship, or cancel culture, end in our province and country?
If you are interested, you can read the English translation of the lyrics of Dassin’s immortal French song entitled “The Little Chocolate Roll” here: https://bit.ly/3EYIl6p.
Bambi thanks you Garou for this beautiful musical moment. She loves this song as well as chocolate :). She also appreciates kindness in life, as per the older post shown further below celebrating a friend’s kindness, chocolate, and Mr. Dassin’s memory!
