In the About of this blog, you can read the following:
“… Afkar” means thoughts in Arabic. Thoughts (or thinkers) are naturally free. However, paradoxically and sadly, this does not seem to be the case in our days and time, even in a “clever” small town like ours (Sackville, NB). It tells us something about the state of tolerance of diverse opinions, starting with our own brains and extending to our families, communities, schools, and public spaces.
This is why I decided to pay tribute to the freedom of ideas (or thoughts) on this blog by choosing a name that refers to a German song I love dearly, called “Die Gedanken sind frei” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Gedanken_sind_frei)...
Die Gedanken sind frei My thoughts freely flower, My thoughts give me power No scholar can map them, No hunter can trap them, No man can deny: Die Gedanken sind frei! “
For your freedom of spirit Dearest Firas as well as for her own values, namely of freedom and respect of the diversity of opinions in life, Bambi will sing again and again our childhood song. It remains timely, perhaps today more than ever…
She can imagine how sad you must be (even in heaven!) if you are watching the state of intolerance of diverse opinions, ironically in our beloved Canada… not just in Lebanon where people courageously resist intolerance, sometimes until their last breath, to preserve their precious collective freedom of expression… or what is left of it.
Many Canadian and international media have covered and are still covering the 10thanniversary of the wave of the so-called “Arab spring” that swept over Arab countries, one after the other.
It started in Tunisia with a man and his vegetable
cart. He set himself on fire to denounce misery, the direct consequence of dictatorship
in his country.
From Tunisia, the protests, and the aspiration for democracy, spread to other countries like Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria.
Sadly, the dream of freedom did not materialize in
democratization or in better economies. Many people are still struggling to
survive poverty or to find jobs to secure a future. The covid-19 crisis is an
additional economic nightmare.
Tragically, chaos and devastating civil wars broke out here and there, like in Libya, Yemen, and Syria. Human suffering and tragic refugee stories, both within and outside of one’s own country and continent, became daily routine.
Sadly, in some countries like Syria, the choice became between living under a dictatorship OR under Islamism (the latter is a political ideology; it is not the broader beautiful Muslim religion also called Islam). Which of the two evils is less of an evil, in this catch 22 double tragedy?
Other countries interfered, fuelled, or benefited from wars. Some managed to run businesses out of the misery of other human beings. And yet, of course, others found ways to be generous, to help, and to become better human beings.
So, what is left from the Arab spring? Or did the
summer follow the spring or not yet—even after 10 years?
Can we say that a newer Arab spring tried
to see the light, more recently (October, 2019) in Lebanon and Irak?
What would be the fate of all these so-called
Arab revolts or springs?
So many questions. So many unknowns. Perhaps taboos
have been broken and perhaps hope can renew itself in this or in the future
spring season(s)?
Hope is surely in the younger generations of Arabs, not only aspiring for but also demanding a just world: an end to dictatorships, oligarchy, discrimination, and sectarianism (or tribalism)! Not only dreaming of a new cultural renaissance (or another “Nahda“!), but also slowly contributing to it in business, science, industry, literature, music, and all forms of arts, etc.
To conclude this post on a musical note that describes the tragedy of the “Arab spring”, here is a song by Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji, preceded by its powerful English lyrics. Bambi has goose bumps every time she listens to it…
Like his family and the artists who produced the moving song below, “Bambi is/remains Raif” (as per the French slogan #JeSuisRaif!).
It is about time for him to join his spouse and kids in Québec/Canada. Please set him free!
The artists behind this powerful song (copied and pasted from the YouTube link above): “Skye Dorval: vocal backing and synths Yves Loiselle: bass Pierre-Luc Racine: drum Providence Sta (Providence St-Amand): Violin Lyrics: Johan Gass & Skye Dorval Guitars: Johan Gass Song and arrangements recorded by Johan Gass at Johan Gass Communications studio except lead voice recorded at Silver Wings Studios. Mixing: Johan Gass and Jonathan Lefrançois-Leduc, Silver Wings Studios Mastering: Jonathan Lefrançois-Leduc, Silver Wings Studios Music video produced by Johan Gass Communications.”
A picture taken in court when Ms. Ensaf Haidar testified in support of Québec’s bill 21 on the state’s secularism that ironically Amnesty International is now criticizing in its recent official report!! The world is truly up side down, no :)?
Families of the 206+ victims of the Beirut explosion gathered at the scene of the Beirut port explosion site to mark the 8th month since the tragedy. Bambi’s heart goes to all of them.
These families are putting their faith in Judge Tarek Bitar who is now leading the investigation since February, 2021. They are urging him to “strike with an iron fist” in his pursuit of a “clear and transparent investigation” , as per L’Orient Today.
Judge Bitar is described by many, including senior Professors of Law, as being a very decent and highly competent fellow. To what extent will he be able to do his job in peace, knowing that his predecessor was removed from his position by Lebanon’s top court a day before his appointment? Thank you and best wishes to him… May he be able to lead a truly independent, thorough investigation AND may he be safe!
Judge Tarek Bitar. A picture taken from 961.
Is there any picture more moving than this one? Taken from Xinhuanet.
Another moving picture from Xinhuanet.
The sign of one of the mothers reads: “Why is the Justice system insisting on silence?” . A picture taken from An Nahar.
When will justice be served in Beirut? Another moving picture taken from Xinhuanet.
“Mabrouk” or Congratulations, Rania!! Bambi is proud of her sister, Ms. Rania Berbery. She has just been highlighted by the New-York-based Scopio (https://scop.io/), “the largest library of authentic and diverse images that tell stories from around the world” as an “inspiring woman“!
Well, here are Scorpio’s own words: “Even though the Women History Month ended, Scorpio’s mission to highlight inspiring women from all over the world shall never end. Meet @raniaberbery a portrait and documentary photographer from Lebanon who exhibited her work in many famous Lebanese Museums“!
Here is Ms. Berbery’s portrait in her own English words:
picture taken from Scorpio.
Bambi has already posted on Ms. Rania Berbery’s talent, as you can see at the very end of this post.
Ms. Berbery literally went through hell during the Beirut explosion. In addition to losing many close friends, she spent hours looking for her badly injured spouse in several Beirut hospitals whilst her daughter was being driven by a kind man to yet another healthcare centre to treat her injuries. Like her fellow Beirut citizens, she showed a legendary courage, pragmatism, and dignity. Like artists do when facing adversity, she turned the trauma of the surrealistic Beirut port explosion into beautiful pictures that attracted the attention of photography professionals miles away. Bambi, along with all the family deer, are proud of you Rania. Keep up the good work and be safe please!
Lebanese pharmacists “are accusing exclusive agencies of provoking medication shortages while waiting for the end of the subsidy program for the purchase of basic necessities“.
“Since September 2020, 50% of medicines had disappeared from the market“, as per Libnannews.
Can you imagine the impact of all this on people’s lives, quality of life, health, and prognosis of their diagnoses and chronic conditions? For example, many citizens need to take a drug for their heart disease, thyroid condition, diabetes, cancer, or clinical depression? Due to shortages in medication, people find themselves walking or driving from one pharmacy to the other, putting themselves and others at more risk of exposure to the coronavirus. If they are lucky, they find the needed drug, or a similar medication. If they are unlucky, they leave without their much needed medication.
To conclude this post, once again, it is unbelievable how much Lebanon’s status has gone down, within months only: from a middle-income developed country, it currently looks like a state with low income. It is probably one with the fastest declining income.
What is the solution for tiny bankrupt yet resistant Lebanon?
Bambi will allow herself to cheat today. She will share an older Easter video from the “Orthodox Archdiocese of Mount Lebanon, a selection of Paschal (Easter) chants in Arabic“, even if the Orthodox Easter falls five weeks behind our Canadian Easter this year (it uses a different calendar and sometimes the time difference is ridiculously large… but this means two opportunities to eat chocolate :)).
Seriously now, Bambi’s family includes 8 different religions (Lebanon has 18 in total). This weekend, she wants to wish part of her family who are Christian Catholics and Maronites a Happy Easter, saying as they say in Lebanon: “Al Massih Kam”! It means: Christ is risen! She will repeat this again in five weeks to the other part of the family who are Orthodox Christians :)!
This year, Easter is even tougher on our world and particularly on Lebanon :(.
Bambi’s heart aches when she reads or hears stories of hyperinflation, famine, despair of the people of Lebanon who are fed up of their political leaders. The latter do not listen to them and do not respect their basic rights to have a government and to have reforms in order to stop the boat from sinking!
One day Lebanon will rise again, just like this Jesus that many believe in or the Phoenix bird, if you prefer. Until then, may the people of Lebanon keep their sanity, hope, healthy sense of humour, faith in humanity, and lucid rejection of agendas of divisive sectarianism. The latter may be used by some to hide their moral, military, and financial corruption. The people of Lebanon are lucid and wise enough: More than ever they are united and in solidarity– sadly, they are all in the same boat of misery… but even this collective nightmare shall pass…The light is behind the cloud. The light will shine again on the beautiful land of Lebanon!
This article by Mr. Mario Dumont is in line with two former posts by Bambi, one at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the other one more recently about the vaccination (as per the very end of this post).
The choice of the terms “third world” is interesting for Bambi to read because she has also sarcastically used “third world of the developed countries” back in April, 2020. More recently, and contrary to her senior friends and relatives in Ontario and Québec, her parents got their two doses of vaccines, for a while now. Keep in mind that their vaccination campaign only started in the third week of February, 2021 (delayed by one week of the schedule time, if Bambi recalls well). Please also keep in mind that Lebanon is truly in the third world! Plus, it is bankrupt now. Furthermore, it has MANY dangerous issues, and it is still without a government for seven months (only a caretaker form of governance).
Anyhow, here is a quick translation of the very interesting article of Mr. Mario Dumont. When she read it, Bambi could not help not to think about what she already knew: For her, the problem in life is not the mismanagement of (tough) crises by our leaders. It is rather the arrogance of those leaders that is the most disturbing. She is saying so with all due respect and gratitude to all those in Ottawa working hard to ensure our vaccination (beginning with our PM himself and extending to every hardworking politician or bureaucrat). It is surely not easy to govern at any time. Imagine during a pandemic…
Enough of Bambi’s blahblahblah now… Here is Mr. Dumont’s thoughtful article, published today in the Journal de Montréal:
“The new
restrictions announced by François Legault hit hard. After a year, our
absorption capacity decreased. Some are down on morale, others have deflated
optimism, not to mention those who take out their anger on humanity.
It’s natural
to look for the culprits: the government, cheating citizens, owners of
establishments that have had outbreaks. Few people are inclined to point the
finger at the crux of the matter. The low vaccination of our population.
Apparently,
the vaccination campaign is getting better. We are getting more doses. The
large vaccination sites spread across Québec administer these doses.
For the past two weeks, pharmacies have joined the effort in Montreal. In
short, we can no longer denounce a stagnant vaccination campaign.
However, the
rest of the world also vaccinates. To judge the operation in Canada, we have to
compare ourselves. This is where things take a turn for the worse. Canada is
doing really poorly.
We’re
tumbling down
It should be
remembered that Canada was part of the leading pack for the start of its
vaccination campaign. In mid-December, we were on the podium of the top three
countries in the world. In January, our pace slowed for lack of vaccines.
Canada was around 25th in the proportion of citizens vaccinated by the end of
January. Steep descent.
Then it was
the disaster. Delivery interruptions put the campaign almost completely on
hiatus. In the following month, Canada slipped to 50th in the world. Shame.
Canada was overtaken by many poorer countries.
I am
convinced that the general impression is that the resumption of vaccination and
the arrival of larger doses have restored the situation. I am sure many
Canadians believe Canada is moving up this list of countries that vaccinate the
most.
It’s an
illusion. Canada vaccinates more, but even less than others. And when you look
at the world rankings, you can see that Canada has not climbed up, but has
continued to slide down the list. With just over 15% of the population
vaccinated, it is now between 55th and 60th in the world, depending on the
compilation method.
A Very bad outcome
Justin
Trudeau seems to be scoring points in the war of perceptions. At every press
conference, he seems to announce millions and millions of additional vaccines.
But on the floor of the cows, the citizens of his country are in the third
world of vaccination.
The vaccination blackout in February was not just a small detail that required a little patience. This is a major flaw for which we are paying a high price today. The 3rd wave of COVID would not have the same scope if we had double the vaccinated population. The consequences would be less severe if all vulnerable people were protected.”
for fun, if you have the time, you may wish to replicate this table from the source below.
* Countries with more than 100 doses per 100 inhabitants have already started giving the second dose.
A picture of Beirut taken from the Twitter account of Ms. Roula Douglas (spring, 2021)
Beirut is immortal— even after successive occupations, surrealistic explosions, pandemics, bankruptcy, political deadlocks, and hegemony of external forces.
Beirut has it own charm and its own free spirit.
No one can take it away…
So many local and international artists paid tribute to Beirut, the bridge linking the East to the West.
Mr. Enrico Macias also knew it and sang for Beirut.
Gibran Khalil Gibran (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahlil_Gibran), the Lebanese-American philosopher, poet, writer, and visual artist is famous for this quote: ““Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife”.
Gibran would be turning in his grave right now if he reads about Oxford University’s words on how classical music is “too white” or “colonialist”.
Indeed, this story is real, as reported by several international media today. One of them is an article by Ms. Sophie Durocher in the “Journal de Montréal” entitled “Music is racist” [“La musique est raciste”]:
First, Bambi will present a quick translation of this article. Second, she will share comments of a famous musician and three readers of a French newspaper. Thankfully, they all still have common sense (increasingly rare in today’s world of virtue signalling and woke self-flagellation).
“British newspaper The Telegraph got hold of a report from Oxford University claiming that undergraduate classical music classes are too white and colonialist …
Try to read
the following sentences without laughing … and without choking on your
coffee.
TOO MANY
WHITE NOTES?
“The Oxford
University School of Music is considering the possibility of modifying its
courses to tackle white hegemony.
University employees see the university curriculum as “complicit in white supremacism” in the wake of the # Black-LivesMatter movement.
Professors consider musical scores to be “colonialist” and believe that the content of lessons should be “decolonized”.
Professors claim that the way of transcribing music “has not shaken off its connection to its colonial past” and that to keep it in its current state would be “a slap in the face for students of colour.” Music writing needs to be reformed to be more “inclusive”.
Oxford professors say classes are too focused on “the music of white European men from the days of slavery,” such as Beethoven and Mozart.
Some teachers have also suggested that we stop requiring the mastery of certain classical music techniques, such as piano or conducting, because these lessons are too focused on “white European music” and “cause great distress to colored students”.
Professors
demand that certain courses on Schubert or Guillaume de Machaut be deleted in
favour of lessons in African music or popular music. “
No, these
quotes are not taken from a comedy magazine or a science fiction novel.
I remind you
that Oxford is one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
The only
question we have to ask ourselves when we talk about music is that of
excellence. Is this composer brilliant or ordinary, did he bring something new
to the music?
That his
music was composed in the middle of a period of slavery tells us what about the
composer’s talent?
We still
listen to Beethoven, Mozart and Bach because their music transcends the ages!
Is Mozart
less of a genius because he’s white? Is his music less grandiose because he was
born in Salzburg on January 27, 1756?
If he had
been born in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in 1983, could his Piano Concert No. 23
have been taught in Oxford? Would that have caused less “distress” to
“students of colour”?
Woke “culture” attacks all forms of culture. Looney Tunes cartoons like Beethoven’s music, Little Life episodes like Shakespeare’s plays, Friends episodes or Christmas carols.
We will end up wondering if the “culture” woke likes “culture”.
SELF-HATE
When I read the articles on classical music deemed too white and colonialist, I had images of Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China.
In 1966, the Grand Helmsman banned all Western music on Chinese territory, until his death in 1976, because this music represented “imperialism and capitalism.”
What would Mao say to see that in 2021, it is the West themselves who are self-flagging?”
It’s tomorrow. Such nonsense, finally! It is not possible. Although Schubert might have genius, looking at his portraits he was really too white. As Audiard used to say, “those” (I’m starting to be wary of censorship), when we put them into orbit, they won’t have finished turning…“
“What a contempt for “minorities”!
Not allowing minorities access to the geniuses of timeless and universal music … Oxford is there now?
Criticizing classical music is the height of human stupidity”.
“I propose
To change
the partitions so that the white and black notes have the same value. I also
propose to review the colour of the notes of the piano and other keyed
instruments.”
To conclude this post on a musical (ideology-free) note, meet Mr. Rahman El Bacha, a pianist born in Beirut, playing Chopin in France. Bambi hopes you will enjoy his talent as much as she does!
