The clever article below was published in French in the Journal de Montréal. It is about the ordeal of Dr. Verushka Lieutnant-Duval. Thank you Mr. Antoine Robitaille for writing it.

Bambi will share its translation below but first a few facts and thoughts…

This morning, she read in La Presse that the University of Ottawa Professor in question, Dr. Lieutenant-Duval, has received a letter of support co-signed by 579 professors of CEGEP and universities across Québec (luckily there is still some common sense in this province…): http://shorturl.at/GJZ01

Bambi also read a strong article by Mr. (& Dr.!) Mathieu Bock-Côté, journalist from the Journal de Montréal, entitled “Mr. Jaques Frémont [President of the University of Ottawa] against freedom of expression“: http://shorturl.at/cpL09 [a quick translation: http://shorturl.at/lqBJ0].

Well, the ordeal of this part-time professor is described in the article below and you may have have heard about it. Bambi will not spend much time on re-telling it. However, just to give some perspective, we are talking about a professor who usually designs her courses stating that they are inclusive, from a feminist perspective, etc. (as per La Presse) Well, she has even cancelled a lecture to allow the students to attend a demonstration organized by Black Lives Matter (BLM). Can you imagine?! Yet, that was not enough to the student behind the campaign of “linguistic terrorism” whose victim was Dr. Lieutenant-Duval.

Today, the censorship story is about this particular instructor. Yesterday and the day before yesterday, it was about Dr. Bock-Côté AND many others in all fields and across sectors. Tomorrow, it will be about whom?

Anyhow, Bambi will stop here… here is Mr. Robitaille’s wise article entitle “Linguistic Terrorism“, hoping you will enjoy reading it as much as she did. If not, perhaps you can take the time to read it with an open mind, pause, and reflect about it. Perhaps you will see things from another perspective?

—–

“What has happened at the University of Ottawa in the last few days is delusional.

A professor, Verushka Lieutenant-Duval, explained in a class that derogatory terms about a group can sometimes be used by the same group.

And she gave the word “nigger” as an example. She could have used the word “queer”, it seems. (Wasn’t there a bit of that in Charlebois’s “I’m a Frog, you’re a Frog, kiss me“?)

Evil took him. A student who saw an assault in this use of the “word beginning with n” filed a complaint. In spite of the educational intentions of Mrs. Lieutenant-Duval.

The latter nevertheless believed it necessary to apologize [Bambi will allow herself to add the following: Too bad/She should have not]. She was suspended, then reinstated.

Despite the contrition and the adjustments, the university will allow the shocked students to avoid the professor now [Bambi will add the following, based on her non-expert citizen opinion: Isn’t it sad, although not surprising to see spineless institutions in action…]. But let’s be reassured, the latter “is free to continue her course, which she did last Friday, as usual, enjoying her full academic freedom“, certified the rector of the University of Ottawa, Jacques. Frémont.

Ignore the intention

Academic freedom? What is the freedom to express oneself if some students no longer even have the intelligence, much less the generosity, to consider the context in which the words are used? If the university management, as it does in Frémont’s text, denies any legitimacy for members of a so-called “dominant group” to dialogue?

We are rather swimming in a kind of linguistic terrorism.

A word can be hurtful, sure, but only if it is accompanied by malicious intent. The pilloried professor had none.

Laferrière

On the occasion of the change of title of an Agatha Christie novel (yes, the one you are thinking of), the writer Dany Laferrière leaned, in a capsule at France Culture, on the famous hated word. The academician himself uses it in his novels, notably in the titles of two of them.

Note that exactly like Ms. Lieutenant-Duval, he believes that “to claim something which could be derogatory or insulting or which could diminish you and make it exactly your identity, is one of the oldest human revenges“.

Because for him, “the word negro is a word that comes from Haiti”; it is a word “which means man, simply“. In this country, one could even say “this white man is a good nigger“, he insists, specifying however that only people from the country can use him in this sense.

And above all, not indiscriminately. We know, says Laferrière, when we use it to insult, to “humiliate you or to crush you.” You also know when it’s for another use“.

In 2008, he slayed the writer Victor-Lévy Beaulieu who, in an article, described the Governor General of the time, Michaëlle Jean, as a “negro queen“! VLB replied that the term referred to a colonized who takes the head of a colonizing state.

But in this case, it was really a reprehensible “insult“, Laferrière had ruled. “You are not dumb enough not to feel a slap in the face,” he wrote. Likewise, one should be smart enough to “smell” when there is none.”

What a beautiful tribute to Mr. Samuel Paty…

If you do not understand French and if you wish, you can read the sub-titles in English (video from the French edition of Star Academy #4):

“Adieu monsieur le professeur” is a 1968 beautiful French song recorded by Mr. Hugues Aufray. The music was composed by the trio: Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, Vline Buggy and this singer.

Bambi has posted on this barbaric tragedy earlier (see further below).

Of course, after the emotional farewell to Mr. Paty, it will be time for courageous political actions.

According to Bambi’s non-expert citizen’s opinion, only such actions (as quick reactions) would give a clear message to Islamist forces that there is no room for fundamentalism and obscurantism in France.

Indeed, clearly courageous actions would help: (1) prevent future similar tragedies; (2) defend French values (of “Liberty, equality, fraternity“, which are meant to protect all citizens, including its Muslims); & (3) hopefully eventually win this war because the Damocles sword is hanging over France’s head…

Bambi is Samuel

Violence is unacceptable, period!

Bambi just discovered this song whilst working, thanks to her Mount Lebanon internet radio station in LA. She googled it and found the clip, with English sub-titles!

“Khalass” is a beautiful Arabic word, which means “enough!”

Bambi finds this term (and title) beautiful because it is empowering just by itself.

It clearly shows someone who is fed up and implies that the person will not take it anymore (decision… and hopefully eventually a plan to act on).

What Bambi likes about this term is that it implicitly contains or refers to another word, “Khaalas” (accent on the “a” whereas Khalass has the accent on the “s”). The latter means “salvation” (“le salut” in French).

Our self-empowerment (all the implications behind the “enough”/enough is enough”) is actually what will lead us to our salvation.

Thank you Ms. Dolly El Khabbaz (for the lyrics and production), Ms. Karol Sakr (for the performance) et al. Well done.

Like his students, Bambi is Samuel today (and everyday).

She has already posted on this tragedy (see below).

May Mr. Samuel Paty rest in peace… May his memory be eternal.

May France find its public safety and peace again (enough of barbarism).

Violence is unacceptable, period!

The University of Minnesota has been included in a 2001 book on America’s so-called “Public-Ivy Universities”. This university’s modern motto: is Driven to discover.

Recently a clinical social worker, called Ms. Cristina Combs, lectured the University of Minnesota’s students on “how to recover from whiteness”.

Her twelve-step recovery program is described in the link below:

https://tennesseestar.com/2020/10/15/university-of-minnesota-lecture-features-12-step-recovery-program-for-whiteness/

Bambi will not spend much time on this post as her time is more valuable to her than reading about society’s blind adherence to our collectively stupid times. However, in her non-expert citizen’s opinion, she cannot help not to wonder if she should laugh or cry to such program’s title and content. Indeed, she finds it sad to see our North American universities diving lower and lower in the waters of our collectively stupid times.

Who is pushing those ideological agendas on these American universities?

Why are smart people allowing themselves to fall into the trap of sectarianism (radical yet superficial one)?

Why are we teaching all this to young men and women?

Aren’t we worried about the toxic effects of such programs, despite any noble intention of the teacher or her alma mater institution?

Perhaps they just want to think they are doing something noble.  

Perhaps they are only aspiring to be the wokest of the woke.  

Perhaps they just want to feel that they fit in their collectively stupid times.

Regardless of their motivation, they may have forgotten the basics: Universities are supposed to be a lighthouse of critical thinking in a society. The latter is perhaps more urgently needed in uncertain and dark times.

The question that begs itself is the following: When will academic and other public institutions wake up and start fast swimming to the surface… to breath the fresh air of intellectual independence again?

 

The other day, in Nova Scotia, we saw images of a van (of NS’ Mikmaw fishermen) being burnt by another group of fishermen. This was SHOCKING to watch. Luckily, no one was injured!! We also heard about someone peeing in another person’s car. How sad. How insulting. Yak! https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mi-kmaw-lobster-fishery-unrest-1.5761468

Bambi will not enter into the details about this conflict, as this is not the topic of this post.

She just knows that there is a good Lebanese saying that goes like that: When we resort to violence, we lose our right (assuming we were right or mostly right). So, clearly NO to violence!! After condemning it, of course, the conflict needs to be wisely and properly addressed (not with a temporary band-aid).

In Baalbeck, Lebanon, a personal dispute degenerated into shelling. Yes, shelling! The Lebanese Army had to intervene to calm the situation. Who of us uses shelling in his personal disputes? Do you do that yourself? Bambi does not, she can assure you of it.

https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1236824

Without minimizing the violence described above, perhaps the # 1 of senseless and barbaric violence came from Paris today (no, not Lebanon; the terrorist in question was not even of Lebanese origins, thank Goodness… he was from Chechnya, it seems).

What is the story about? A school teacher was decapitated by a man because he showed kids cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a course on free expression or something:

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20201016-france-opens-terror-probe-after-fatal-stabbing-in-paris-suburb

Clearly, this man is an Islamist and clearly a terrorist. Cleary, France has a serious issue with domestic Islamist terrorism.

Mr. Macron was recently right when calling a spade a spade. Is the Muslim religion the problem? NO. Does the Muslim religion have a problem? YES, big time.  Does France have a problem with Islamism? Of course, it does. Is it just France’s problem for not having succeeded in integrating its youth from the suburbs? No, not only. Not mainly. Immigrants and their children have a responsibility toward their country too. This is something that is often forgotten in Canada by social justice activists.

Of course, things are more complex than that when, in addition to adversity, there is criminality involved. Add to this a blind religiosity and someone feeling rejected by society, the person will become an easy target for Islamist radicalism/criminality (like cult members).   

Everyone knows that Mr. Macron was right. It is not because Mr. Erdogan (Turkey) is intimidating France that Islam is not “in crisis”. Sadly, Mr. Erdogan instrumentalizes radicalized people or groups. He uses them without any respect or love. Eventually, he will get rid of them in one way or another. For now, they serve his megalomania (as neo-Sultan).

To come back to the tragedy in Paris?

As Bambi’s sarcastic spouse used to say: “Paris has become the Beirut of Europe” (in contrast with “Beirut that was the Paris of the Middle East”).

Many French people have immigrated to Canada because of terror attacks in their beautiful country. Bambi recalls a chat about this sad topic with a young traveller on a flight from London to Canada where there has been a false alarm of an attack (perhaps 2-3 years ago).  

Jewish French people have been terrorized over the past years. Many have immigrated even to the Middle East, imagine. Whom are they terrorized by, do you think?

This being said, Muslims do not like to see Prophet Mohammed (bless his name) drawn. It is not part of their religion. Freedom of expression is perceived as being an intimidation instead of and expression of freedom of thoughts or arts, etc. In Judaism, the word G-d is written instead of God because the name of God should not be written (out of respect). Perhaps this is the same idea as in Islam.

However, the problem of those French terrorists is INTOLERANCE. You do not like taking a look at those cartoons. Fine, do not. You cannot impose on others (who may not even believe in God) not to resort to drawing or arts or even cartoons. You may sue the person. You may yell at the person….but to cut his/her throat?!! Come on!

This story is traumatizing to the kids, to witnesses, to the police officers, to the family of the victim and the one of the criminal who was shot, and to the whole Parisian/French population… and by proxy all of us. Many friends of Bambi have relatives in Paris. Bambi herself has two relatives. We all worry about violence in Paris. We refuse it too, like French authorities and population. We do not want to worry about our loved ones there too, in addition to the Middle East. Leave Europe safe please. Enough is enough.

Bambi knows what she is talking about in this post. When someone in Denmark drew the Prophet Mohamed once, a group of criminals went crazy in Beirut and intimidated innocent people. They even burned the Danish embassy at the corner of her sister’s place. She was with her on the phone (from Toronto, if she recalls well) whilst they were hiding from the shooting in the air down their balcony. These people who came from God knows where even destroyed religious (Christian) symbols and cars of people. Why do innocent Beirutis have to suffer because a certain Danish cartoonist drew the Prophet Mohamed? How is that their problem?

To conclude this post, when Bambi escaped to Canada with her family, she brought with her 5 books (when they rushed fast from the Canadian embassy in Cyprus to Beirut to pack fast and fly out…). One of these books was the bible (a gift from the priest of the Saint-George church). Another book was the Quran (Muslim holy book her parents brought to her from Cairo). The other was a book that was considered controversial then to someone who believes in Jesus; we can perhaps draw an analogy with the cartoons of the Prophet that could bother Muslims? It is the French translation of the Greek The last Temptation of Christ of Mr. Nikos Kazantzakis. The two other books are irrelevant for this post but now that memories are coming back to her mind, she will say that one was her dad’s German grammar book (he was her first teacher before she went to the Goethe Institute). The last one may make her childhood friends smile. It is called “Ben est amoureux d’Anna”. No clue why she brought that book and not another one… perhaps because it was about love ? and she was 17 or… to be more practical, it was small/thin and fits in her luggage.

On a more serious note, violence goes both ways and all ways…. Violence breeds violence.

Take for example what happened in Toronto lately, we do not know the facts about the why and the how, etc. However, why did an innocent man have to be killed in front of his mosque the other day? Why should Ms. Bebe Zafis be mourning the loss of her dad now?! What a heart-breaking story ☹ (as per the below article/interview).

Violence is tragic and unacceptable, regardless of the country.   

‘The hate needs to stop’: Daughter of man killed outside Toronto mosque speaks out

Tomorrow is October 17, 2020… Yes, a year has passed since Lebanon’s protests began. So many tragic events happened to this country (and to the world with the pandemic).

First, here is Reuters‘ article entitled “A year on, Lebanon’s protests have faded and life has got worse“.

https://ca.reuters.com/article/us-lebanon-crisis-protests-idCAKBN2711EZ

Second, here is Ms. Talia Lahoud that Bambi discovered a year ago. She always sings in her building. Here she is singing on August 15, 2020. Bambi has wondered if her building was near her parents in Beirut. Perhaps not in the end. Thankfully, assuming this is her building, it is still standing apparently undamaged.

Anyhow, Lebanon’s talented youth will keep speaking up or singing.

They will keep dreaming of better days for their country and a better world for all.

Bambi feels like adding the following: One day, their Lebanon will stand on its feet again. Yes, it will! It will be a truly independent country, open to the world, and filled with life, peace, accountability, democracy, prosperity, health, and love. No more corruption, no more lies, no more political sectarianism, clientelism, and… a mafia-club from the civil war era governing it (with/without a government) . No more unprotected ammonium nitrate, illegal yet imposed and glorified weapons, or just silly fireworks… and of course no more “untalented” welders.

OK, Bambi will shut up! Time to listen to Ms. Lahoud now…

Below you can read a beautiful Editorial text co-signed by Ms. Nayla De Freige (Chairperson) and Mr. Michel Helou (Executive Director). This text is copied and pasted from the following link (for your convenience). What is interesting is that we can also read their text in French and Arabic. Bravo!:

https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1236596/launching-lorient-today-independent-journalism-at-a-critical-juncture-for-lebanon.html

“Mabrouk”/Congratulations to L’OLJ!!! OK, this includes her own sister too, namely the talented journalist/Editor, L’Orient des Campus, Ms. Roula Douglas… and no, of course, Bambi is not biased at all :)!

——

“Journalism matters for Lebanon, now more than ever. Driven by this burning conviction, we are proudly announcing the launch of L’Orient Today, accessible now at www.lorient.today.            

After nearly a century of telling the news in French, we’ve decided to open up and expand into English with this sister publication to L’Orient-Le Jour, while keeping at the forefront our historic values: defending freedom, openness and tolerance; demanding transparency and accountability; promoting equality and human rights; caring for society’s weakest; and strengthening the ties between Lebanon, its diaspora and the world.

Our country is going through historic changes that could jeopardize its mere existence. A year ago, Lebanon was rocked by major protests, the thawra, against a failed elite. The people unleashed their discontent as Lebanon’s dying economic system began its collapse. Shedding partisan identities, citizens took to the streets in a powerful rebuke against the sectarian order. This long-awaited reawakening created an immense need for credible journalism for Lebanese at home and abroad, who clung to their smartphone screens trying to follow and understand the situation. This ongoing economic downfall and the tragedy of the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion has pushed thousands of citizens to emigrate and thrown an already fragile media ecosystem into turmoil, reducing the diversity of sources to the bare — and insufficient — minimum.

Today we are lacking information, points of view and critical but constructive thinking to help figure out how to tackle the challenges the country is facing. In this exceptional environment, L’Orient Today will provide hard-hitting coverage of politics, society and the economy, but will also go beyond that, aiming to tell readers what is driving the news. Our journalistic goal will not be achieved solely by covering facts made public, but also by uncovering realities that matter for the public good. Holding power to account will be one of our most vital tasks, buttressed by our staunch commitment to fact-checking and verification, and embodied in our slogan: “Speak truth to power.” News will be the core of our work, yet opinion will be crucial too, and so we intend to offer expert insight and a variety of perspectives to our readers.

L’Orient Today will abide by a fundamental rule that applies to the entire OLJ group: editorial independence and the full empowerment of the newsroom. Although we feel the need to expand our offerings and spread our values through this new medium, launching an English language edition obviously does not affect our historical attachment to French, which we’ve been writing in for the last 96 years and will keep doing for as long as L’Orient-Le Jour exists.

The quest for a nation

More fundamentally, our project draws its inspiration from what has always been a priority for our founding fathers: the quest to understand and define the essence of Lebanon, as a nation. Michel Chiha, considered the founder of Le Jour and the father of the Lebanese constitution, dedicated an important part of his life to this quest. He viewed it as a relentless “effort to find out what we are, and to explain it in the light of what we were at one time,” an effort necessary to ensure “the relative stability of our country throughout the vicissitudes of our history which has been extraordinarily eventful.”

In a powerful editorial published in 1949, Georges Naccache, founder of L’Orient, asserted: “A State is not the sum of two incapacities — and two negations will never make a nation.” What was true 70 years ago remains the same today, and after the widespread rejection of the current system should come the time to build anew. Hence our core project: to investigate the failure of the Lebanese system and reflect on how to create a better country for all its citizens. Chiha would conclude best: “Perhaps the time has come to bring oneself up to the level of one’s dreams.”

An outstanding team, integrated in a wider newsroom

In order to meet this challenge, we’ve put together a unique team as — simply put — journalism is a people’s business. Benjamin Redd, a former reporter and editor at Executive Magazine and The Daily Star, will serve as our managing editor. His professional achievements, deep knowledge of Lebanon and leadership skills have convinced us he was the right person with which to build this venture. Around Ben, we are setting up a newsroom of 10 journalists that will rapidly grow to answer the need and that will be fully integrated into our other newsrooms, in order to draw on the expertise of our 60+ journalists in total, no matter their language. L’Orient Today becomes the latest addition to a media group with L’Orient-Le Jour, the French-language daily, as flagship, led by Emilie Sueur and Elie Fayad, as well as Le Commerce du Levant, our economic publication, led by Sahar al Attar. They will all work hand in hand.

Safeguarding a century-old institution from financial trouble and political peril

It’s also important to acknowledge the role played by our shareholders. Four families — Eddé, Choueiri, Pharaon and Rizk — own a large majority of L’Orient-Le Jour’s capital, and have ensured the survival and development of the group by ongoing financial support in harsh times. This has allowed us to reject any kind of political financing. Conceived as an NGO-like structure, L’Orient-Le Jour has not paid any dividend (since at least 1990) — a pledge that our late chairman, Michel Eddé, would hammer at every board meeting throughout the 29 years that he stood at the helm of the newspaper. Besides, L’Orient-Le Jour’s shareholders have always kept the rule of editorial independence at heart. When asked by then-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri why his newspaper was persistently attacking the government to which he belonged, Eddé would respond: “I’m sorry Abu Bahaa, they are journalists, not employees.”

Yet, no matter how benevolent our shareholders are, true independence will only come from our readers. Hence our emphasis on building a unique relationship with our audience, essential to developing a robust digital subscription model, as we learned from L’Orient-Le Jour’s transformation experience. Through that business model, we are aiming to make L’Orient Today self-sufficient within five years. By relying mainly on subscribers, we are tying our financial performance to our editorial success. We expect the diaspora to account for an important share of subscribers, and will openly seek to cement the bridges between those who have left and their homeland.

L’Orient-Le Jour’s long-term goal is to write a new chapter in the Middle Eastern media landscape. At a time where most of the news outlets are either politically controlled or facing financial difficulties, our objective is to build a media group that is both independent and sustainable. As ambitious as this might be, we feel this is something we owe to Beirut, given what our capital used to stand for in the Arab press.

There is no doubt that the image we will paint of Lebanon in the coming years will be mostly grim. We pledge nonetheless to try to give you hope about Lebanon’s future. Read us — we’ve lifted the paywall for a start — share your feedback and, if you enjoy our work, subscribe to join our community. Lebanon needs journalism, and journalism needs you.”

Nayla De Freige is the chairperson of L’Orient-Le Jour

Michel Helou is the executive director of L’Orient-Le Jour

“Nicole “Coco” Melki, age 74, of Fishers, Indiana passed away on Monday, October 12, 2020. Nicole was born on January 10, 1946 to the late Georges and Odette (Chidiac) Manoli in Beirut, Lebanon.

Preceded in death by her husband Robert and her sister Michelle, Nicole is survived by her two sons Georges and Serge Melki with his wife Viviane, daughter Joëlle Melki and her sister Paula Manoli.

Nicole grew up in Lebanon, got married at a very young age of 17 to Robert. When the war broke out in 1975, like every head of the family at the time, Robert had to leave the country to work in the Gulf in order to provide for his wife and three kids at the time aged 7,5, and 3.

With the help of her mom, Nicole brought up the kids during the war and worked as an Elementary school teacher for 30 years. In 2002, her son Serge moved her to the United States to take better care of her health.

She became a US Citizen in July 2010 and made the local news because she was crying profusely during the swear-in ceremony and was the only person in the room from Lebanon. For the next 10 years, she has been very active with the International Women Indiana (https://indianaiwi.org/) and joined their Writer’s group where she entertained the audience with her lighthearted, simple stories that she wrote.

In addition, she was very famous for her cooking demonstration events and made the news again with the Indy Star when a reporter was present at one of the events.

She was loved by everyone she touched and exhumed kindness and gentle positivity with a constant smile on her face despite her health ordeals and pains that very few were aware off.

She will be in our heart and mind forever. A truly unforgettable mother and woman”.

The above is taken from:

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/indianapolis-in/nicole-melki-9731415

In addition to pictures and videos, shared by her family and MANY friends, we learn the following:

A funeral service for Nicole will be held Sunday, October 18, 2020 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM at Feeney-Hornak Keystone Mortuary, 2126 E. 71st St, Indianapolis, Indiana 46220. A livestreaming of the service will be on the Feeney-Hornak Keystone Facebook page.

Contributions in Nicole’s memory may be made to St. Vincent Foundation, https://give.stvincent.org/.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.feeneyhornakkeystone.com for the Melki family.

• FAMILY
• Georges Manoli, Father (deceased)
• Odette (Chidiac) Manoli, Mother (deceased)
• Georges Melki, Son
• Serge Melki (Viviane), Son
• Joelle Melki, Daughter

“Lebanon, Israel held ‘productive’ border talks – U.S. and UN statement“.

https://www.reuters.com/article/lebanon-israel-talks-usa-int/lebanon-israel-held-productive-border-talks-us-and-un-statement-idUSKBN26Z1NP

Lebanon is going through its worse economic crisis since last October 17, 2019.

Yes, soon it will be a full year since the Lebanese revolution against the corruption of its whole political elite (all of them, including those who think they are morally superior to other peers).

This is when the crash of the Ponzi scheme abruptly took place, pushing the Lebanese people into the streets. Bambi has posted on the latter many times. As a reminder, this type of fraudulent investing scam has promised high rates of return, with low risk, to investors. How sad to see the Lebanese citizens victims of this fraud caused by the duo of their own government/central bank. As explained to Bambi by her good friend George, all Ponzi schemes ends up eventually by collapsing (i.e., as it becomes more and more difficult to recruit new investors and/or when MANY investors ask to cash out at once).

Of course, there has been many events since the collapse or crash of the Lebanese Ponzi scheme, including the covid-19 pandemic with its further impact on a collapsing economy and, of course, the Beirut explosion of August 4th, 2020. In turn, the latter tragedy put even more toll on the economy as well as on the moral of the Lebanese people.

Now, to come back to the story behind this post, it is about two countries in a state of war and boycott for decades. It is touchy because one country occupied the other for a long time. In turn, the other country is being hijacked by a militia that decides the fate of war and peace with this country post-liberation.

Today, it seems that everyone is aligned on what matters the most here: the economy. Indeed, the Lebanese government as well as the Israeli government, and of course the Hezbollah (or Hezbollah/Amal) are all on the same page. If Hezbollah did not accept in the first place, today’s first talk would have never taken place, after a decade of failing negotiations about this dispute (or no will to negotiate?). For sure, Hezbollah is proud and wants to remind everyone that this is not part of any peace (or normalization) negotiation. Israel is also careful in its language.

Mind you, even if this is not peace (and we all get it!), this is the closest it can get to something that resembles common sense/peace. Bravo to all the players involved and thanks to the hosting UN and the mediating USA!

Of course, if those talks to solve the maritime borders’ “technical” issue are eventually fruitful (in weeks or months), it is win-win situation for all. Indeed, both countries have been badly impacted by covid-19 (like the whole planet, including us in Canada). However, everyone knows about the tragic situation in Lebanon. The latter badly needs both reforms and a sustainable economy. Yes, for that, it definitely needs natural gas in order not to be too dependent on other countries. More specifically, Lebanon badly needs electricity for its economic growth (and to pay its huge public debt). If Bambi understands well, natural gas is now the main energy source for electricity production in Israel (also used in industry but to a much lesser extent). They are now self-sufficient and they even provide Jordan and Egypt with natural gas. Lebanon has a lot to win from these talks. Good luck!

To conclude this post, it is Bambi’s hope that those who govern Lebanon will begin to fix corruption, to seriously punish it, to reform sector after sector, file after file (and ideally to considering retiring from political life to allow new blood, unrelated to civil war, into the political system). The people of Lebanon are beyond desperate for any positive change, even a small OR possibly large one (it is unclear yet how much natural gas is present).

In Bambi’s non-expert citizen’s opinion, this is a good development in the Middle East. If Lebanon has natural gas like the rest of its neighbours, she hopes that no one will steal its richness, neither internal nor external forces. This richness should benefit the Lebanese citizens and bring some hope for a more dignified future for their country!