Month: December 2022

Montreal and Matane, Québec and Canada, along with the entire world, lost a good and a great man on November 18, 2022 (https://bit.ly/3HJZ2Et). Bambi had an earlier post honouring his legacy, shown further below.

Indeed, Mr. Jean Lapointe was a brother, a father, a grand-father, an actor, a singer, a senator, and an inspiring man who struggled yet helped others. He was a man of heart, humility, and of faith. He was a great Canadian and Québecker.

Today, and if she may, Bambi will send her heartfelt condolences to his family and all his loved ones. She will do so with a lovely song by Mr. Lapointe himself entitled “Chante-la ta chanson” [Sing your song]. Below, you can listen to it, if you wish, and read a quick English translation (followed by the original French lyrics). “Merci bien”. Thank you and may your memory be eternal, Mr. Lapointe ❤️.

A quick English translation of the lyrics, with the help of Mr. Google Translate

“Sing your song

The song of your heart, the song of your life

sing your song

The bird does it, the wind does it, the child does it too

sing your song

Don’t be afraid, go ahead

Everyone has their own melody inside

sing your song

She sure is pretty

Sing it that your life is beautiful

All the streams run away in the sun

All the flowers of bee romances

Even the rain plays a symphony

Tell me why would you be sad today

Sing, sing

sing your song

The song of your heart, the song of your life

sing your song

The bird does it, the wind does it, the child does it too

sing your song

Don’t be afraid, go ahead

Everyone has their own melody inside

sing your song

She sure is pretty

Sing it; how beautiful is your life

Can’t you hear the concert of joy

Everything that lives lets its voice be heard

Even the gray sky makes its storms sing

There’s a sun behind every cloud

Sing, sing

sing your song

The song of your heart, the song of your life

sing your song

The bird does it, the wind does it, the child does it too

sing your song

Don’t be afraid, go ahead

Everyone has his/her own melody inside

sing your song

It is surely pretty

Sing it; how beautiful is your life

sing your song

The song of your heart, the song of your life

sing your song

The bird does it, the wind does it, the child does it too

sing your song

Don’t be afraid, go ahead

Everyone has his/her own melody inside

sing your song

It is surely pretty

Sing it; how beautiful is your life

sing your song

The song of your heart, the song of your life

sing your song

The bird does it, the wind does it, the child does it too

sing your song“

The original French lyrics

“Chante-la ta chanson
La chanson de ton cœur, la chanson de ta vie
Chante-la ta chanson
L’oiseau le fait, le vent le fait, l’enfant le fait aussi
Chante-la ta chanson
N’aie pas peur, vas-y
Chacun a sa mélodie au fond de lui
Chante-la ta chanson
Elle est sûrement jolie
Chante-le qu’elle est belle ta vie

Tous les ruisseaux font des fugues au soleil
Toutes les fleurs des romances aux abeilles
Même la pluie joue une symphonie
Dis-moi pourquoi tu serais triste aujourd’hui
Chante, chante

Chante-la ta chanson
La chanson de ton cœur, la chanson de ta vie
Chante-la ta chanson
L’oiseau le fait, le vent le fait, l’enfant le fait aussi
Chante-la ta chanson
N’aie pas peur, vas-y
Chacun a sa mélodie au fond de lui
Chante-la ta chanson
Elle est sûrement jolie
Chante-le qu’elle est belle ta vie

N’entends-tu pas le concert de la joie
Tout ce qui vit laisse entendre sa voix
Même le ciel gris fait chanter ses orages
Y a un soleil derrière chaque nuage
Chante, chante

Chante-la ta chanson
La chanson de ton cœur, la chanson de ta vie
Chante-la ta chanson
L’oiseau le fait, le vent le fait, l’enfant le fait aussi
Chante-la ta chanson
N’aie pas peur, vas-y
Chacun a sa mélodie au fond de lui
Chante-la ta chanson
Elle est sûrement jolie
Chante-le qu’elle est belle ta vie

Chante-la ta chanson
La chanson de ton cœur, la chanson de ta vie
Chante-la ta chanson
L’oiseau le fait, le vent le fait, l’enfant le fait aussi
Chante-la ta chanson
N’aie pas peur, vas-y
Chacun a sa mélodie au fond de lui
Chante-la ta chanson
Elle est sûrement jolie
Chante-le qu’elle est belle ta vie

Chante-la ta chanson
La chanson de ton cœur, la chanson de ta vie
Chante-la ta chanson
L’oiseau le fait, le vent le fait, l’enfant le fait aussi
Chante-la ta chanson“.

—

Good-bye, Mr. Lapointe, thank you for your great legacy: Long live your “Jean Lapointe rehabilitation centre”!

In a pinned tweet in the Arabic language, the British Embassy in Lebanon wrote the following: “Lebanon’s Court of Cassation has rejected an appeal by Tariq Houshieh and affirmed his guilt for the brutal murder in 2017 of our dear colleague Rebecca [“‘Becky’] Dykes. We are grateful to all of those who have contributed to the final resolution of this case after many months of delay”.

Bambi will never forget Ms. Rebecca Dykes. Upon her arrival to Beirut, precisely on December 16, 2019, the body of Ms. Dykes was found dumped by the side of a road near Beirut. A few days or weeks earlier, she was brutally raped and killed by an Uber driver who seems to have been known for his criminal record, according to international media, including Sky News (https://bit.ly/3W5JIqg). Back then, like her birth country, Bambi was deeply shocked by this tragedy. She kept thinking of the parents of Ms. Dykes, especially around Christmas time.

Actually, Ms. Dykes and her family remained on Bambi’s mind, and surely in her heart, beyond the end of her trip to Lebanon. She wanted to follow this story in the media, but since then, multiple crises happened in Lebanon, in addition to the coronavirus pandemic. There were no more news about this fatal brutality.

Yet, Bambi kept thinking of Ms. Dykes’ parents and wondered about the legal outcome of their tragedy. Same when the Beirut explosion happened destroying the last nice places their daughter likely had fun in with her colleagues, ahead of their holidays, before she called a cab. Instead of taking her home, it took her to a horrible death. If Bambi recalls well, Ms. Dykes’ parents were expecting her at the airport, back home, not knowing yet what had happened to her in Lebanon. Can you imagine a single drop of the ocean of their shock? May their daughter’s memory be eternal. May today’s news, and time, bring more healing to their forever aching hearts. Same for her colleagues and friends. More healing to all of them.

To conclude this post, and if she may, Bambi would like to thank you Ms. Rebecca Dykes for your kind, humanitarian service in Lebanon. Sadly, the latter was the place where a barbaric criminality ended your life. May you rest in peace now and may your memory be eternal… ❤️

Mr. Ludwig van Beethoven (https://to.pbs.org/3Vb2Lyg), the most universal and performed composer in the world, was probably born on December 16, 1770.

To honour the eternal memory of this greatest composer and pianist of all times, Bambi will start by sharing some of his inspiring quotes on music.

Following this, she will leave you with a beautiful tribute to Beethoven, from out of Beirut, by the Antonine University Choir and the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra (December, 2019), which was conducted by Mr. Toufic Maatouk, in partnership with the Opéra de Paris and the Italian Embassy in Lebanon.

“Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear”.

“I would rather write 10,000 notes than a single letter of the alphabet”.

“To play a wrong note is insignificant. To play without passion is inexcusable”!

“Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life”.

A tragic and dangerous development happened in South Lebanon today, as per international and Lebanese media (https://bit.ly/3HEWDeb).

Indeed, although the details are still unclear and conflicting, we know that 23-year-old Irish UNIFIL Private Seán Rooney was killed today, in South Lebanon, while another peer is in a critical condition and two others are mildly injured.

UN peacekeepers spend most of the year away from their loved ones in risky places of the world. They contribute to stability and peace in our world. They surely deserve to be thanked, and even honoured, not killed.

Of course, such a tragic incident in a highly volatile region like Lebanon is not a piece of good news for neither peace nor love in our world. To this, Bambi feels like saying: Hands off Lebanon and off those who silently work to keep it safe and stable.

To conclude this brief post, and if she may, Bambi would like to thank Private Seán Rooney for his service. She also sends her condolences to his Irish and UNIFIL families. May his memory be eternal. May his colleagues heal smoothly. As for Lebanon, may God protect it and keep everyone there safe and sound.

Yes, it is this time of the year.

Yes, this is Bambi’s song for you; and you know why.

Long live you love and beautiful family, Roula & Doudou ❤️!

Bambi was deeply honoured when Ms. Leila Milki wrote a comment on her blog, as you can see in the first post below.

May this talented Lebanese-American artist keep singing while playing different musical instruments and spreading both love and joy around her!

—

Meet Ms. Leila Milki, an award-winning Lebanese-American artist: She plays the piano, the guitar, and sings in several languages!

Ms. Leila Milki sings Acapella “Helwa Ya Baladi” of Dalida!

Think of anything you like or not, there is an international day for it! Sometimes a single day of the year has been declared to be devoted to two or more events or objects at once; by we do not know whom. Well, today is no exception because it happens to be both the international day for ice cream (mmm…) and the Word Violin Day.

Today, Bambi will be reasonable and leave the ice cream aside [for now :)]. Yes, she will just focus on the violin in this brief post, wondering if you also love this instrument like her. She does not know about you, but such a day makes her think of MANY talented violinists of our world. She is grateful to ALL of them, including one she has been a faithful fan of since she discovered him. His name is Mr. Andre Soueid. The latter began his musical journey at age of 6 at the Lebanese National Conservatory (https://bit.ly/3VWYzTV).

Before sharing some of Mr. Soueid’s musical pieces below, Bambi would like to leave you with two citations: (1) the first is by Mr. Robert Schumann, a German composer, who once said: “To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts—such is the duty of the artist“; and (2) the second quote comes from the famous, Mr. Joshua Bell. According to him: “When you play a violin piece, you are a storyteller, and you’re telling a story.”

To conclude this post, bravo to all the violinists of our towns, provinces, territories, countries, and the world, including Lebanon’s Andre Soueid. The latter tells us unforgettable stories about life, death, and of course love in all its forms and shapes, including human, romantic, and even patriotic love.

On December 12, 2005, Lebanon, and the world, lost the editor in chief of An Nahar, a journalist, an intellectual, and later an MP. Indeed, Mr. Gibran Tueni (48 years old) was coldly assassinated in a car explosion as soon as he returned to Lebanon from Paris where he left under death threats and a series of assassinations of intellectuals. He was a man of reason and unity, raised in a family full of love, talent, and with the richness of both religious and intellectual diversity (https://bit.ly/3PlURkk).

Among his famous legacy is his belief in freedom of expression, until he paid its ultimate price with his own life, and a popular oath of unity among all the pieces of the religious puzzle of Lebanon, namely mainly among Christians and Muslims. May his memory be eternal.

Mind you, today and more than ever, his memory is critically needed in his birth country; perhaps by extension here in Canada as well, but for apparently different and hopefully milder reasons. Different, did Bambi say? Yes, but yet coming to the same basic principle in any country: the need for increased unity among its people, instead of the divisiveness of sectarianism. In Lebanon, it may be the classical (i.e. religious-based) sectarianism. In Canada, it is a new form of sectarianism with much divisiveness in our collectively insane times, which is often recklessly encouraged by chief politicians or by the elites of our societies, including the mainstream media: being vaccinated or non-vaccinated; being observant of wokeism or criticizing its drifts, being to the right or to the left, or to a so-called alt right for whatever is not the extreme left (or vice versa), endorsing OR refusing to endorse any form of identity-based politics, including a so-called pro-diversity that does not hesitate to exclude, divide, and even cancel in the name of so-called equity.

Anyhow, to come back to Mr. Tueni and Lebanon, Bambi reported this story in an earlier post, using the the following words:

“… Bambi remembers the late and great Mr. Ghassan Tueni, father of another assassinated Lebanese intellectual/journalist, Mr. Gibran Tueni. At the end of the funeral service of his son, he spontaneously took the microphone and called for love, can you imagine?

He said: “Let’s bury hate and revenge” (later a title of a book he wrote a couple of years before his own natural death).

Bambi was visiting her parents in Beirut at the time of the funeral. She will always recall the scene of the procession from the nearby hospital’s morgue to his final destination where Bambi’s ancestors are also buried. She will also always recall the father’s moving words mentioned above that she watched live on TV“.

If Mr. Tueni managed to bury hate and revenge, despite any feelings of sadness, anger, and despair upon the assassination of his son in order to preserve both love and unity in his country, why can’t we do it here at home in Canada? Why can’t we do it online? Why can’t we do it in real life? In our hearts, minds, and behaviours? Why should we politicize everything and allow our politicians and/or media to politicize us, and thus divide us, with every trendy issue of the moment?

To conclude this post, Bambi would like to end with Mr. Enrico Macias’ song “Un berger vient de tomber” [“A Shepherd Has Fallen”]. Sadly, it remains timely in Lebanon and in the Middle East when it comes to journalists whose voices we do not want to hear. May both father’s and son’s memory be eternal: the father of love and diplomacy; the son of courage and liberty…