In a large country like ours, MANY Canadians fly domestically, or abroad, for reasons related to business, family, or simply for tourism and pleasure. Who knows? Perhaps more citizens would have travelled had it not been ridiculously expensive to fly in Canada.
Indeed, one pays more on flight connections from Moncton to Toronto than from a Canadian city to Europe OR within Europe OR even from Europe to the Middle East. Does this make sense to you?
In an older post shown further below, Bambi wrote about the sky-high prices of flying in Canada. Thus, she rejoiced when she learned that, two days ago, Dr. Gabor Lukács testified before the House of Commons of Canada‘ s Standing Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities. Of note, the latter committee is currently examining the state of airline competition in our beautiful country.
Mathematician, Dr. Lukács is the president of Air Passenger Rights (https://shorturl.at/wH256). To use his clever words, he speaks in the name of customers, that is without taking money from the government and without business ties to the industry. He testified the high concentration of the domestic air travel market. He spoke about the lack of available data on the airlines’ operations, in comparison to the USA.
Of note, Dr. Lukács recommended the following: (1) opening up Canada’s domestic air travel market to trustworthy foreign airlines; and (2) adopting airline data reporting and dissemination rules similar to the US 14 CFR Part 241.
Bravo Dr. Lukács for your continuous efforts and practical ideas, which give Bambi hope for a change in Canada. Thanks and all the best to the committee in question!
To begin with, what is this day all about, you may be perhaps wondering now? World Donkey Day, which recognizes donkeys and raises awareness around their great characteristics, is the brainchild of Dr. Raziq Ark (https://shorturl.at/ehpV9).
For those of you who do not know it, there are many sizes and colours of donkeys. Indeed, these animals come in 186 separate breeds. Adult donkeys can weigh from 80 to up to 480 kg, that is 180 to 1 060 lbs (https://shorturl.at/KQRY3). Interestingly, some donkeys are miniature (https://shorturl.at/egitY).
In addition to being very cute and historically useful to humans, donkeys are known for the following characteristics (https://shorturl.at/KQRY3): they are highly intelligent, they have a good memory, and are great learners (of course, like humans, with inter-individual differences).
Although each individual has its own temperament, donkeys tend to be affectionate and thus genuinely friendly in general. They are notoriously known to establish strong pair-bonds with other donkeys (https://shorturl.at/bmGQW). Thus, when confronted to the death of a paired animal, it is necessary for humans to allow the surviving donkey time and space to grieve its friend (e.g., spending some time with the dead body). If not, this animal’s distress levels can become extreme. Isn’t it sad to sometimes see it unsuccessfully searching for the deceased donkey everywhere (https://shorturl.at/lvwY8)?
Of note, donkeys are able to sleep either laying their body down or standing up, like horses (https://shorturl.at/oxC89; https://shorturl.at/KQRY3). Believe it or not, Bambi knows at least one doe/human, herself when she was young, who can sleep standing up :). At least, she resorted to this way of sleeping as a child when she was stuck in a crowded shelter. You do what you can to rest under heaving shelling, without enough space or mattresses.
Last but not least, donkeys tend to express themselves well with their body. They refuse to move if they sense a danger. They can be stoic and, at times, literally be perceived as being stubborn. According to The Donkey Sanctuary, despite these smart animal’s capacity to experience pain and distress, “appearing strong and normal reduces the chances of predation, as predators are likely to select weaker, easier targets” (https://shorturl.at/jlrL1).
Given all the above, Bambi does not understand why, in the Arabic language/culture, people insult someone by calling him “Hmar” (or Hmara for females) [donkey in English] when they mean to say “stupid“. Could this stem from human’s misunderstanding, or frustration with, donkeys’ perceived stubbornness? Regardless, the term “Hmar/Hmara” seems to be ignorant while being mean to both donkeys and less gifted humans.
To conclude, this post will end with music as usual. The song below is a Lebanese kids’ song related to a donkey and it is sub-titled in English. Long live all the wild and domesticated donkeys of the world!
Mr. Pivot’s picture was taken from an archived page by the BBC. “Reposez en paix, Monsieur Pivot”.
Bambi grew up seeing Mr. Pivot on the French TV her late mom used to watch on a daily basis. For those of you who do not know this great journalist who just died at age 89, he received the highest distinctions from both Québec (2001) and Canada (2008) for his passion for words.
As per to The Governor General of Canada website (https://shorturl.at/msIQY), “Bernard Pivot has been sharing his passion for reading and words for the past 50 years. His television programs, “Apostrophes” and “Bouillon de Culture,” as well as his famous spelling bees, have made an incomparable contribution to French culture. Over the years, he has helped make a number of Canadian authors known beyond our borders and famous within La Francophonie. He has a great love for words and continues his important work as a member of the Conseil supérieur de la langue française and the jury for the Prix Goncourt”.
Last but not least, on the BBC archived online page (https://shorturl.at/kpEIX), we can appreciate Mr. Pivot’s own words and their translations as follows:
“La langue, c’est notre mère, on suce la langue en suçant le lait maternel. La langue, c’est notre oxygène, c’est notre chlorophylle. On est inséparables de notre langue. La langue, elle est à l’intérieur de nous. Elle est dans notre tête, mais elle est dans nos mains, elle est dans notre sexe, elle est dans notre corps. Vous arrachez notre langue, c’est comme vous arrachez une demi-livre de chair”.
“Language is our mother. We absorb language with our mother’s milk. Language is our oxygen. Language is inside us. It’s in our heads, our hands, our sexual organs, our bodies. Ripping our language from us is like ripping out half a pound of flesh”.
Thank you, Mr. Pivot for your legacy. Long live the beautiful French language and… may your memory be eternal!
Mr. Amine Hachem has many fans not just in the United States of America, but also beyond including Canada and his birth country, Lebanon. In this brief musical post, Bambi thanks Mr. Hachem for having sung Fairuz’ song about hope last month at the St. Jude’s Hope & Heritage Gala in New York City (https://shorturl.at/gwCS1). Of note, the latter event raised over US$720,000 for St.Jude Children’s Research Hospital whose patients face childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases (https://shorturl.at/ewXY8). Bravo! For your convenience, following the Lebanese-Arabic song shared below, you can find an English translation taken from Mr. Hachem’s YouTube channel.
In a just a few hours, it will be Sunday. Happy Easter to those of you who happen to be celebrating, including Bambi’s dad et al. in Beirut and abroad.
Happy Birthday to Stéphanie too! Much love to her from her aunt Bambi 🙂 ❤️!
A few days ago, Bambi and her spouse saw a deer with a white tail in their backyard. They stopped all their respective activities to admire its peaceful beauty. The guest was eating some grass and stayed for a long time before disappearing in the tiny forest behind the house.
Well, this evening, Bambi told herself (out loud on top of that): “I have a dream. I wish history can repeat itself and the deer will be outside when I will look through the window“. As soon as she finished her expressed wish and looked outside, she immediately saw the same guest (now a reliable friend)! He was having dinner outside while she just finished having hers inside. Cool, isn’t it?
She spent a long time looking at her friend, sadly behind the glass door. Unfortunately, she does not have a good picture to share with you. Who knows? Maybe during his next visit :)?
Anyhow, happy weekend to all of you, hoping that your little as well as bigger dreams will all come true. Until then, please keep dreaming like Bambi. Life can be rewarding in mysterious as well as predictable ways.
This morning when she was driving back to town, Bambi listened to Mr. Aznavour’s song “Hier encore” [Yesterday when I was 20]. It was performed by Mr. Mario Pelchat. While singing with him, of course with her frog’s voice, she made a mental effort to remember where she was in her personal development and attitude toward life at 20. Back then, she was living in Montreal (Québec) where she has many wonderful memories.
The above car ride trip made Bambi envision this post in which she invites you to take a few moments to think about your own life, like she enjoyed doing herself. Regardless of your chronological age or heart’s condition, to what extent do you feel “young” in your heart? What about your youth: to what extent did you enjoy your twenties? What was the most rewarding moment of your life then? Finally, in your opinion and regardless of acquired wisdom, to what extent does your personality now resemble what it was like at 20? If you wish, please share a comment. Alternatively, you may wish to communicate more privately. Bambi would love to hear from you, regardless of the platform.
This being said, she will share with you Hier encore, as performed by the late and eternal Charles Aznavour (subtitled in English). Following this song, you can find Mr. Pelchat’s beautiful version. The latter will be followed by a superb performance of this same song by a singer Bambi just discovered while preparing this post. She happens to be from Lebanon and her name is Ms. Amanda el Hachem.
Bearing the above in mind, Bambi was intrigued by Ms. Hachem’s voice. She searched her biography online and found the latter: “Amanda El Hachem was a six-year-old girl when she first revealed a singing talent and learned to play piano and to practice solfeggio. With her masters degree in Musicology, got the chance to visit Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Italy singing religious airs and reviving old oriental melodies. Since 2007, she paved her way to TV shows as singer in “Ghanili Shwey” screened on Dubai and then to talent shows (2015, 2017) as vocal coach in “Celebrity Duets” (https://shorturl.at/mwDSZ). Of note, Ms. El Hachem seems to have a music school called “‘École des talents Amanda El Hachem” and on its website, we can read the following beautiful words: “Inside every person is an artist that is yet to be discovered” (https://shorturl.at/mwDSZ).
Long live music, talent, and our continuous development throughout life!
The Eastern or Orthodox Christian Church follows the Julian calendar, which is the solar calendar introduced by Mr. Julius Caesar. As well explained by l’Orient Today, this year “there is a five-week difference” between the Catholic/Protestant and the Orthodox Easter. For the former, “Jesus Christ rose on March 31; for Orthodox, He will on May 5. This five-week gap between the two Easters had yet to happen since 2016” (https://shorturl.at/sHUY6).
Bearing the above in mind, although Bambi already celebrated Easter with the majority of her fellow citizens in Atlantic Canada, she will pause now before going to sleep to highlight the “Holy Thursday” to honour her dad et al. (along with her mom in heaven). Of course, on Sunday, her father can expect a post, with joyful Easter wishes, not only meant for him but also to her blog readers who happen to be Christian Orthodox as well.
If you are interested in Byzantine music in the Arabic language (mixed with Greek in the last one), below you can find a few prayers. The latter have been moving Bambi’s heart for over five decades. It is only natural since they remind her of her childhood (in addition to being the essence of her faith). The first musical piece is directed by her own first cousin once removed, Ms. Zeina Farah. The second short prayer is performed by Zeina herself, thanks to her divine voice. The third song-prayer, by Fairuz, is meant for today. As for the last one featuring the lamentations, it is supposed to be reserved for tomorrow. However, Bambi will cheat by making the Holy Thursday extend to the Good Friday :).
To conclude this spiritually musical post, much love to Bambi’s dad. May he have a rewarding and blessed holy week!
Bambi read the following two articles in French in the Journal de Montréal (https://shorturl.at/ouzOS ; https://shorturl.at/tBFM1). She will translate them for you, thanks to the assistance of her faithful friend, Mr. Google Translate. Food for thought, whether we agree or not, at least for those of us who still want to use our critical thinking.
“North American university campuses are the scene of major pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Encampments are springing up all over North America. McGill University, which cannot be described as a university of extremists or leftists, is no exception. Students, accompanied by certain disruptors, decided to take up residence there for an indefinite period in order to denounce the massacre in Gaza.
The cause they defend is obviously legitimate. Gaza is destroyed, its inhabitants are massacred by tens of thousands and its children, those who are not yet dead, are starving. All this is certainly true, but cannot justify the unjustifiable.
Unjustifiable
And when we talk about unjustifiable, we are talking about the hateful, anti-Semitic message, calling for violence. Just as we cannot justify the massacre in Gaza with the massacre of October 7, we cannot use the distress of Gazans to justify hateful speech here, in Québec and throughout the country.
What is the point of disturbing Montreal Jewish students, intimidating them and creating a climate of hatred if it is really against this same hatred that we are demonstrating? Students and other committed protesters who want to denounce the war should start by setting an example. Yes, they can demonstrate and even disturb, since it is a question of exercising freedom of expression, but this comes with responsibilities, in particular that of maintaining the peace, of excluding the disruptors and those who ultimately harm the cause by their insults, threats and attacks.
Collective awakening
There is currently a collective awakening taking place, an awakening regarding the abandonment of humanity towards a people who suffer in indifference. The most powerful in this world seek to look the other way and move on. Those who use this crisis to unleash their anti-Semitism and violence are greatly contributing to burying the voices of those calling for peace. They only have to analyze the context: while we talk about violence on campus, we barely address the violence currently raging in Gaza and which are causing real victims”.
Anti-Western far left occupies universities (by Dr. Mathieu Bock-Côté)
“It would be wrong to take lightly the campus occupation movement which is currently taking shape in the United States, France and Canada, and which is brandishing the flag of the Palestinian cause.
The good bourgeois, who never understand anything, even go so far as to believe that this is just being youths [the latter can also be translated as: boys will be boys OR youth will have its flings], and that a decade would be incomplete without a campus occupation movement.
Error!
Rather, we are witnessing an assault that testifies to the growth of Islamo-leftism in the Western world.
Ideology
Because let’s make no mistake: the Palestinian cause here is just a pretext. Likewise, the denunciation, very legitimate, of the excesses of Benyamin Netanyahu, has a screening function.
Should we remind that Hamas, which confiscated the Palestinian cause, does not advocate for the two-state solution, which remains the political-historical solution to resolve this conflict. Instead, it wants to throw the Jews into the sea, killing the most possible of them by then, and annihilate Israel?
Should we really remember that the distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, behind which several demonstrators hide, is a nonsense?
Who, seriously, can consider that the call to destroy the Jewish state is just one opinion among others?
Let us then ask the question: how can we explain the popularity of this cause?
We will first see it as a symptom of the intellectual and mental collapse of Western universities, where the dominant discourse, in many matters, comes from the most radical left, fiercely anti-Western.
The new generation is being fed this discourse which mixes the rejection of the West and nations, the demonization of the white man, the desire to destroy the sexes, the hatred of Israel, the delusional celebration of mass immigration, and complacency for Islamism, considered the new political vehicle for the wretched of the earth.
This strange cocktail, media newspeak, by the inversion which characterizes it, calls it “openness to others” and “celebration of diversity”.
And it is this Islamo-leftist discourse which clouds the judgment of the elites and destroys the immune system of the West.
Furthermore, a conquering Islamism is progressing, making its law in an ever-increasing number of neighborhoods in the West and imposing its morals in the name of “human rights”, which it diverts to its advantage, especially as the changes demographics which prevail everywhere are favorable to it.
Islamism
We cannot underestimate the underground role of the antifa movement in its ability to seize all crises. It practices uninhibited violence, with the enigmatic complacency of the authorities – as if they were afraid of these everyday militias, or as if they silently approved of them. The far left exerts real terror on a significant part of our societies, but the media prefer to warn us against a phantom far right – in addition to calling any form of resistance to this madness extreme right.“
Her real name is Isabelle, but for her worldwide fans she is Zaz. She is a highly talented, and successful, international French singer/songwriter who performs mostly in French, but also in Spanish. Her unique music mixes French songs with Jazz, soul, and acoustic (https://shorturl.at/dktxM). Her melodious voice is a pure joy to Bambi’s ears. Hopefully to yours too. Happy Birthday to her. May she keep singing to make the world a better place!
