Although Bambi has not watched TV for ages, she does need images to be reminded of both the ugliness and absurdity of violence, regardless of its forms, origins, or targets. All the children of all countries deserve to play instead of growing up with their childhood stolen. Thank you, Mr. Enrico Macias for your old yet timely song. For your convenience, an English translation of the French lyrics follows (https://shorturl.at/uvO56). May the children, or the children of the children, of the troubled Middle East carry the seeds of hope for not just peace but also for universal love.
“Chorus: Children from all countries Hold out your bruised hands Sow love And then give life Children from all countries And of all colours You have in your hearts Our happiness It’s in your hands that tomorrow our earth Is going to be entrusted to go out from the night And our hope to see the light again Is in your eyes which awaken to life Dry your tears, throw out your guns Make of this world a paradise Chorus You have to think of our fathers’ past And of promises which they never have kept The truth is to love without any borders And give every day a bit more For wisdom and wealth Have just one address: paradise Chorus And on the day when love on the Earth Becomes king, you can rest When our prayers are covered in joy You can have your eternity And every laughs of your kingdom Will make a paradise Chorus”.
Mr. Blanchet, head of the Bloc Québécois (BQ) in Ottawa is right. Access to Islamic-based (or hallal) mortgages should remain private for anyone who wish to have this banking option when purchasing a house in Canada. There should be no place for any accommodation based on the Sharia (Islamic) law OR other religious laws (i.e., Judaism) in our public laws, not even in the name of a clumsy attempt of Mr. Trudeau’s government to pander to potential voters. Why is the government getting involved in private ways of doing business? Or is it just a virtue signalling in the budget without follow-up? Merci Monsieur Blanchet for the video below, partly in French and partly in English.
The last post was dedicated to Bambi’s father in Beirut. Well, guess what? With much care, today’s post is meant for her father-in-law in Montreal. May he have a wonderful birthday and a beautiful new year ❤️ :).
As Robert shares his special day with Ms. Marie-Élaine Thibert (https://shorturl.at/hs124), a highly talented Montreal-based singer, Bambi will offer him a few songs, including some by the latter.
As for Ms. Thibert, Happy Birthday to her as well. May she keep singing, with her angelic voice, to beautify our world.
Bambi refuses to go to bed before surprising her dad with a flower-related French song by Dalida. May he have a nice day tomorrow when he will listen to his chosen melody from out of Beirut, Lebanon. As for Bambi, she sends him her LOVE across the miles ❤️!
Mr. Sartre was a famous French philosopher who also was a novelist, playwright as well as screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literacy critic (https://shorturl.at/cdks6). He was born in 1905 and died on April 15, 1980. Here a are some of his thoughts on life:
“If you are lonely when you are alone, you’re in bad company”
“Hell is—other people!”
“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us”
“We are our choices”
“When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die”
“You are your life, and nothing else”
“Commitment is an act, not a word”.
Thanks to Mr. Sartre for having existed and for his legacy. May his memory be eternal.
A few days ago, Bambi discovered a song on a Lebanese-American radio station. The singer’s name is Mr. Georges Nehme. Perhaps the brother of Ms. Abeer Nehme, an incredibly talented singer often feautured on this blog? Anyhow, the light song made her smile because it is about a guy who finds the smile of his loved one so beautiful to the point of making Lebanon’ awful situation appear prosperous and safe.
Tonight, to cheer herself up before sleep, Bambi searched for the song online. She discovered a lovely YouTube video clip showing the singer and his girlfriend [at least in the video :)]. driving along the lovely roads of their country. They visit old towns and meet cheerful people. Love makes life lighter, isn’t it? Long live romance, uplifting songs, and the eternally beautiful Lebanon despite its many challenges.
There is sadly an escalation of violence in the Middle East (https://shorturl.at/pwELT), ironically occurring on April 13 (as per the older post shown below).
This musical post is dedicated to Rita, Bambi’s childhood friend, and to her birth country. It celebrates humanity, peace, life, the will to live, love, including patriotism, and friendship. Enough of violence, enough of wars. May love, healing and peace prevail, not just in Lebanon, but also in its troubled neighbourhood, and on the entire earth. As for Rita, Bambi misses her a lot and loves her beyond words. She wishes her a wonderful birthday with lots of fun ❤️!
With much love, Bambi and her spouse send the warmest best wishes to Aline ❤️❤️!!
To honour her friend on her birthday, Bambi will re-share a post about her impressive painting talent, which she discovered during the coronavirus pandemic and keeps refining. To this collection, Bambi will allow herself to add two more great paintings.
Please Aline, keep on being yourself and on making our world more beautiful!
Mr. Wajdi Mouawad is a Lebanese-Canadian writer, actor, and director. He was born in Beirut and migrated with his family to Canada as a young child. Impressively, since April 2016, he has been the director of the “Théâtre national de la Colline” in Paris (https://shorturl.at/frxCN).
Mr. Mouawad probably cannot recall this likely trivial detail for him, but Bambi will always cherish the memory of how this great artist kindly showed her around the theatre of “Quat‘Sous” in Montreal. This happened decades ago when she went to his workplace to hand him a letter from his cousin upon her return from a trip to Lebanon. It was her first time meeting this incredibly gifted yet humble artist. She was touched, honoured, and humbled.
Of note, as per the French-speaking interview shared below, Mr. Mouawad was recently officially recognized as the most unifying theatre director in France. What an honour. The latter is not surprising given his high empathy, capacity to see the nuances, compassion, and uplifting talent in using words with intelligence, generosity, clarity, and precision.
Indeed, how many intellectuals or artists do you know who can address the Hamas-Israel war with nuances, calm, and an authentic humanity? The latter is hard to observe when people seem too polarized. From the interview shared below, we also learn that Mr. Mouawad feels for the suffering of all innocent people on all sides, whether in the Lebanese civil war or in the latest round of the Hamas-Israel war (i.e. the horror of the October 7 massacre and kidnapping as well the resulting war, which has been too cruel on the innocent people). He denounces the criminality of the world’s political leaders and their enablers while also calling a spade a spade, namely the criminality of those operating within groups that commit massacres (i.e., Hamas). Stated differently, Mr. Mouawad seems to see the bigger picture while putting himself in the shoes of innocent people on all sides of this historic conflict.
Both as a human being and as a theatre director, Mr. Mouawad, knows how to rise above wars to see the humanity of people, regardless of whom they are. He can get out of his own complex identity journey to connect with human compassion. In addition, he has the wisdom of knowing that what is happening in the Middle East is not the fault of a jew he may encounter on the street; an example he used himself to denounce anti-antisemitism. Of course, as he said, he also knows that what is happening is also not the fault of the Palestinians.
Bambi learned the details reported above while taking the time to listen to the inspiring interview Mr. Mouwad gave to France Inter a couple of days before his trip to Beirut. There he was supposed to practice, with his team, at the Monot Theatre. Generously, they made their 3-week-long practice (“Journée de noces chez les Cromagnons“) freely open to the public until their premiere. What did they get in return? Dangerous criminal threats in the context of a silly campaign against him, accusing him of normalization with Israel (https://shorturl.at/zEMX9). Can you imagine the narrow mindedness?
Despite its stated attachment to freedom of expression, the Monnot Theatre became too worried about the safety of everyone involved: “The safety of our staff, as well as the teams we welcome, and our public is our absolute priority,” said the Monnot’s management team, who admitted being “deeply disappointed by this situation. While affirming our attachment to freedom of expression, we are committed to pursuing the provision of quality theatrical work against all odds,” concluded the statement” (https://shorturl.at/zEMX9).
Clearly, Mr. Mouawad speaks the language of arts, refined intelligence, critical thinking, open-mindedness, and healing. Sadly, those so-called activists who are too excited by the Hamas-Israel war only speak a potentially deadly language, namely of intimidation, threats, and cancel culture.
To conclude, would the above censorship saga help the cause of the Palestinians or reduce the probability of a wider war in Lebanon? Of course not. All it does is sadly the following: it prevents the Lebanese people from having a free access to theatre, makes Mr. Mouawad feel unwelcome (and even threatened!) in his birth country, and it sadly attacks freedom of artistic expression in the land of the cedars.
