Surprise! Bambi refuses to go to bed without posting Mr. Christophe’s beautiful song “Aline” as a surprise for you, Aline [OK when you will read this post tomorrow morning :)].
Indeed, here is the reason behind this post: Bambi listened and sang Aline, with the singer, at 10 AM, thanks to her internet radio. Well, at 10 PM precisely (a few minutes ago), she turned her internet radio on again and guess what? Your song was playing again!
Mind you, this is not very surprising as this Lebanese-American internet radio station repeats the same 1-hour-French-music-show in the evening. Nevertheless, for Bambi, it was another opportunity to end the same day by singing for you :).
Hope to see you soon, Aline… Until then, take good care!
Today, Bambi’s heart goes to Ms. Monika Borgmann (spouse), Ms. Selma Merchak (mother), and Ms. Rasha al Ameer (sister). Without knowing them in person, she sends them a virtual hug.
Can you imagine loosing your son, the love of your life, and your dear brother in a brutal crime that remains unaccountable?!
Thanks to the National Post, Orient Today, L’Orient Le Jour (French) and Human Rights Watch for these informative articles:
Thank you Ms. Borgmann for tweeting this moving and thoughtful English interview with Mr. Slim entitled “Memory is a Battlefield“. What a calm and wise man. What a powerful message (ironically talking about accountability). What a loss for Lebanon and the world.
To conclude this post, one song comes again and again to Bambi’s mind, it is by Mr. Enrico Macias and it is called Un berger vient de tomber. She has already dedicated it to Mr. Slim last year. She will allow herself to re-do it again now. Un berger vient de tomber” means “a shepherd has just fallen under arms“. This moving French song was written for President Sadat on the second day after his assassination in 1981(Mr. Jacques Demarny wrote its lyrics and Mr. Macias composed its music):
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To the loved ones of Mr. Lokman Slim and of all the victims of “politically- sensitive murders” (to use the words of Human Rights Watch). When will impunity end in Lebanon?!
The tweet by the politician above is in great contradiction with the wisdom of the words of Mr. BJ Dichter, Spokesperson for the Freedom Convoy, interviewed by Dr. Gaad Saad.
We may agree or not with this movement. We may agree or not with Mr. Dichter, but who makes more sense? An articulate man defending ideas or a politician saying the above absurd and false clichés with such a conviction and no room for any debate?
Do our politicians think we are stupid to blindly believe them?
Bambi is saying the above because she was on her way to Amherst the day truckers left from NS and NB to Ottawa. She stopped at the Big Stop on her way and she expressed her support to them in the -35 degrees celsius (she did so on the same day she got her booster). She is with massive vaccination, through education, yet she is against mandates of vaccines and other authoritarian yet not efficient political measures.
This is why she salutes flexible and wiser politicians, like Mr. Legault who was humble enough to recently drop his idea of taxing the unvaccinated.
To conclude this post, Bambi wonders what Mr. Singh has to say about the visible minority of Arabs, including Muslims, and Jews of Sackville who supported the truckers in Au Lac exist the other day :)?
Bambi just discovered this masterpiece of “a message of peace and love in support of the victims of the Beirut Explosion” of August 4, 2020.
From YouTube, we can read the following: “this work was made possible thanks to Schulterschluss Initiative, the German initiative helping the victims of the Beirut Explosion. Tenor – Bechara Moufarrej Soprano – Felicitas Fuchs-Wittekindt Composer – Fadi Kassis Lyrics – Youhanna Geha Conductor – Toufic Maatouk Orchestra – Bayerische State Opera Choir – Antonine University Choir Main Actor – Kevin Karamanoukian.
“To help the victims kindly donate to Orienthelfer using the following details: Recipient: Orienthelfer e.V. Subject: Beirut Explosion IBAN: DE92 7015 0000 0000 5741 11 BIC: SSKMDEMM Connect with Bechara on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Bechara-Mouf… Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tenor_becha… “
Thank you Mr. Jamil Jivani for sharing your story with us, Canadians, who are more than sick and tired of political and social intolerance, of censorship (or cancel sagas), regardless of where we stand (or not) on any political spectrum:
“Even black men can be fired for not being “woke” enough, Part one of a five-part series on my departure from Bell Media and iHeartRadio” (https://jamiljivani.substack.com/p/fired).
To conclude this brief post simply meant to show solidarity and respect, even without knowing the full context, a meaningful song comes again and again to Bambi’s mind. Yes, it is Ma liberté of Mr. George Moustaki (sub-titled in English).
Best wishes Mr. Jivani. Take good care and please keep on being a free (and competent) thinker!
Nawal’s beautiful picture was taken from her obituary
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).
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.
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”.
