Author: Bambi

A nightmare or a horror movie took place in Beirut on August 4, 2020.

Over 154 dead, over 5000+ injured, and over 300,000 homeless all of a sudden, following the two explosions at the port (https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/06/middleeast/beirut-explosion-anger-intl-hnk/index.html).

These numbers could dramatically rise with the rescue outcomes. Despite this, there was a happy story yesterday. They found a missing man alive in the sea (injured yet alive, after 30 hours!).

Anyhow before starting this post, here is a picture of France’s President Macron being hugged in Beirut by a youth…

Thank you France, Canada, and all the world… especially in the middle of a pandemic affecting everyone’s economy (Bambi cannot name all the countries…), for standing up with the Lebanese people! Bambi would also take this opportunity to thank ALL those who showed their solidarity and care for her family. She is speechless. Thank you for the calls, SMS, emails, prayers, love, and compassion.

This being said, here is the story of life and death…

First, at the same time of the SURREALISTIC twin explosions, a newborn (baby Georges!) came to life, as per the BBC video below. You can see him in the arms of his dad. Their picture was taken by his mother, Ms. Christelle (or Emanuelle) Sawaya. “Mabrouk” (= Congratulations) to this courageous young family! The video was taped by his dad.

That was the beautiful part of the story (life).

Sadly, at the exact same time at the same devastated Saint George Hospital, death was awaiting 15 people who lost their lives on the spot (4 nurses and 11 patients. These figures could be higher today, perhaps 20 in total). You can see a sad video of the destruction of the hospital further below (it is sad to watch, you have been warned).

The Saint George Hospital (Saint George is known as the protector of Beirut) was like the second home of Bambi, so to speak, during civil war. At one point, as a volunteer in the ER, morgue, dialysis, she slept there for weeks (she was stuck due to heavy combats and shelling) , even if running home would have taken her a few seconds… OK perhaps a full minute to catch her breath. She used to also jump there (between rounds of shelling) to bring water home (a large container) or… simply to take a shower (once after 18 days in a row!). Less dramatically, this is where all her family came to the world, baby after baby (including herself). This is where her parents usually get their medical care. Even from far away, she has always felt proud of the great news of excellence of this teaching hospital (a living monument for medicine and science in Beirut). This hospital is also the daily workplace of at least 5 or 6 of her cousins. Thank God, they are all safe and sound (despite one’s minor injury at home).

Bambi cried like baby George when she saw the video below (destruction beyond imagination… of course, we can also see traces of blood, reminding us of those who lost their lives or got injured). Remember, baby George saw the light at the same time the lights went off at this heavily damaged hospital. A few seconds/minutes after, the whole place was in a state of evacuation. This is the worst code that health centres can have. Imagine having to evacuate all the patients to other hospitals (some may have been on machines or under surgery, etc.). The latter were also badly damaged (one not too far) or literally overwhelmed. Yet, the medical team kept providing care to injured people in its parking lot. WOW!

Next to this hospital, there is a beautiful church (Saint George), along with its senior residence. It seems that this relatively recently renovated byzantine church got damaged too (Greek nuns came to paint its magnificent icons on the ceiling and on the walls. Same for other churches further away, which were also recently painted by those same talented senior nuns (Byzantine art is their specialty; Bambi had the chance to witness their devoted work when visiting Beirut once). Bambi’s heart goes to her cousin Elham and her spouse (priest) and to her parents. Their church means so much to them…

Most importantly, Bambi’s heart goes to those who lost loved ones, those under the rubble, injured, homeless (300, 000+!) or without cars. To all those who lost their (OUR!) beautiful Beirut!!! Bambi is with you in spirit. She is upset and sad beyond words… Enough of corruption, incompetence, and criminality!

Bambi’s parents miraculously survived, along with Michka! What a blessing, given the level of damage in their apartment (+ her dad’s store)! In the middle of her tears looking at pictures, she could not help not to smile to two details: their Canadian flag (next to the Lebanese flag) remained untouched, despite the destruction on the balcony and in the apartment. They also have a painting of the Swan pond of Sackville (NB)’s Mount Allison University in their dining room. Contrary to the rest, it was not destroyed/broken.

Bambi’s parents could have been easily among those 300 dead people. Thank Goodness they were not present in their destroyed room at the time! Somehow they survived and we are grateful to God (they also could have been without a roof too). Bambi feels sad that they have to deal with all this. Them and all the relatives and friends of their age (the financial crisis and the pandemic were more than enough).

Last but not least, it is heart-breaking that MANY kids have been injured and are surely traumatized, like their parents. Indeed, Bambi’s sister (whose spouse and daughter got injured :() shared moving stories of people’s cry for help (many were carrying their injured kids covered with blood). Bambi’s heart goes to you Rania who lost some friends :(. Bambi thanks God once again that Rabih survived… May he heal smoothly. Same for Stéphanie (“habibi”!)!

To conclude this post, may baby George, and all Lebanon’s children, grow, thrive, and see better days!

Like many of your loved ones abroad, Bambi is joining her prayer for your prompt recovery Maya (+ your mom’s and aunt’s recovery too). We are all with you across the miles. We love you!

Here is a famous and joyful French song to you from Bambi. It is about friendship. Following it, you can read your cousin Carla’s message. Bambi chose this song because both you and Carla are her DEAREST friends in Beirut and Montreal. Plus, your mother Maya and Bambi’s mom have been friends since childhood.

Although we are VERY far away, the distance between the hearts matters more than any mere geographical distance. Well, Bambi did not need a pandemic to understand this life reality. She has been experiencing it for over 30 years now.

Talking about hearts, you can guess that ours are broken for Lebanon, to use Carla’s clever words. As she wrote today, “my heart is broken in 10,452 pieces“. Why that many little pieces? Well, as you know, it is because it is the area of Lebanon’s in km2. (to put things into perspective, this total area corresponds to less than twice the size of the province of PEI. It is almost 150 times smaller than the province of Québec).

When she sees the SURREALISTIC images from Beirut, Bambi realizes how lucky she is to be able to share a song with you :). Hang on Maya… may your recovery be the smoothest possible!

• 

Her name is Zeinab Haydar. She served her patients until her last breath… at age 47.

In the Al Arabiya link below, we can see a moving picture of her colleagues waiting on the street “in a moment of farewell to Zainab Haider at Rafik Hariri University Hospital in Beirut“.

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/coronavirus/2020/08/03/Coronavirus-First-nurse-in-Lebanon-dies-from-COVID-19-following-death-of-doctor

May your memory be eternal Zeinab. May your family find the strength to go through their tough grief journey.

It seems that you are the first nurse to die from covid-19… after having cared for so many patients, helping them in healing.

Last week, Lebanon lost an emergency physician.

Earlier, Lebanon also lost several physicians among its diaspora (e.g., Italy, France, Brazil, etc.).

If she may, Bambi would like to offer you a song, as a tribute. She discovered it yesterday whilst listening to her internet Lebanese radio from Los Angeles.

The song is called “Life is beautiful”. It is a joint venture between singers from Lebanon and singers from abroad (some from Canada!). They sing in several languages: Arabic (Ms. Karol Sakr composed the music and Mr. Roger Dahrieh the lyrics), French (a Canadian young woman of Lebanese origins), English, Spanish, Italian, and German (a young man in Germany who happens to be Lebanese).

Life is indeed beautiful.

Sadly, it is sometimes too short.

May you rest in peace…

THANK YOU!

Young Torontonians walked on the streets of their city yesterday (https://www.cp24.com/news/emancipation-day-march-in-downtown-toronto-calls-for-abolition-of-prison-system-1.5048614), in a march  “organized by Not Another Black Life in collaboration with other organizations, including the Toronto Prisoner’s Rights Project, Palestinian Youth Movement, Keep Your Rent Toronto, and Climate Justice Toronto”.

They did so to highlight Emancipation Day, which commemorates the Abolition of Slavery Act. The latter saw the light as a law on August 1, 1834.

These young people could have been your kids or Bambi’s own.

They were young. They seemed passionate.

They carried signs of Black Lives Matter, as you can see in the pictures of the CP24 link above.

They found a new cause to walk for, even in the middle of a pandemic and the risk of transmission of the coronavirus.

Until now, this story seems noble and human, up until we learn that they were calling for the abolition of the prison system.

Indeed, it seems that their walk was literally called “A March for Prison Abolition”.

Does that make any sense? Not to Bambi for sure and she is ALL for freedom.  

So, if we follow their logic: They want NO police (their initial demand, repeated again whilst marching) AND NO prisons.

Can you imagine life without neither police services nor prisons :)?

Even in an ideal beautiful imaginary world, there would be someone to break the law or to put others at risk.

Life is not rosy all the time.

 Life is not all black and white, so to speak, even if the latter vision fits how these people seem to see the world. A vision that is not only unrealistic but also dangerous.

The demand of these people is disconnected from the reality, to say the least.

As soon as the pandemic will be behind us, Bambi would like to offer them all a world trip to tour dictatorships around the world :). Perhaps their call to abolish prison systems where torture is omnipresent would have more utility there.

Of course, this does not mean we do not have the responsibility to keep improving our justice and prison systems (e.g., fair to all, respectful of human dignity, etc.). Bravo for them to be sensitive to this.

So, to conclude this post, back to our title: Can unwise extremism take a country like Canada straight to hell in the long term? Bambi will let you reach your own conclusion… As far she is concerned, she cannot help not to think of stories/memories of gratuitous violence, acts of terrorism, anarchy, civil unrest/war.  

We are blessed to live in a normal and functional country with respectable systems.

Is it perfect? Of course not.

Could it be improved? Yes, for sure!

Should we throw the baby with the bathwater then? Why would we do so? And what would be the alternative?

How about if we simply use our critical sense before endorsing absurd demands and slogans?

These are Dr. Hitti’s own words:

“I took part in the government to work for one boss, Lebanon,” Hitti, a former Arab League diplomat, said in a statement. “I found multiple bosses and conflicting interests in my country, and if they don’t come together for the interest of the Lebanese people and save it, the boat will sink.”

Dr. Nassif Hitti is a highly respected Lebanese diplomat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassif_Hitti). His resignation in these “historical moments” is highly significant.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/lebanon-s-foreign-minister-resigns-amid-economic-crisis-1.5049395

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/lebanese-foreign-minister-hitti-resigns-warns-boat-may-sink-1.1474698

https://www.france24.com/en/20200803-lebanon-fm-resigns-in-protest-at-mishandling-of-crisis

What is next for the current Lebanese government that was formed in December, 2019 (as a reminder, the country’s revolt started on October 17, 2019)?

What is next for Lebanon?

Will Dr. Hitti’s sudden resignation as Lebanon’s Foreign Minister be a wake-up call to his peers? Or is their coma a hopeless case?

At the end of the day, what will happen to that  “sinking boat”?

This story happened in Lebanon.

Yesterday was the Lebanese Army Forces (LAF) Day.

The LAF is historically respected by all citizens. It is considered as the red line of national security.

OK, the soldiers of the Dear LAF are not eating meat anymore because of the tough economic times.

OK, the Hizbullah is a MUCH stronger militia force than the LAF.

OK, the LAF had its sad times during civil war when it got divided, more than once.

However, despite all the above, the LAF survived and somehow managed to keep its unity and respect by all. Bravo to all the soldiers serving their country and assisting citizens!

Bravo to an army that has removed its mandatory service a few years after civil war. This is not that common in the Middle East.

An army that is as diverse as Lebanon… and yet united, as mentioned above.

Now, back to the story of censorship that happened at yesterday’s virtual concert.

The latter was meant to celebrate the LAF’s 75 years of existence (occurring on Saturday, August 1st, 2020). Due to the pandemic, there was neither a parade nor a performance. However, a certain NGO organized a virtual concert to honour the LAF. This so-called NGO is ironically called “Lebanese and proud”…. well, proud except of the one censored sentence, as you can see below. Proud BUT not of its revolution against the mafia-like government.

Bambi has posted about the song for Beirut that was the object of the stupid censorship in a few of its most powerful lyrics (of a famous poem): the sentence “For revolution is born from the womb of misery”got replaced by… “lalalalala” (you can see this earlier post at very end of this one).

Should we laugh or cry about this stupidity?

Do they really think that the Lebanese people are that stupid (mmm, maybe *bébé lalala*, as they say in Québec… Hence their lalalalala melody :))?

VERY seriously now, does this make any sense?

How can anyone think that not reminding the people of Lebanon that their revolution (against the corrupt political elite) was born from the womb of their CRYING misery is not necessary?

How can anyone think that just because the truth is silenced that it will stop existing all of a sudden?

Below, you can see a recent statement by the MTV, which covered the event and remember further below Bambi’s earlier post with a link to the beautiful song:

“MTV issues statement on the event that took place on Army Day”

“Following the reactions and comments that were made regarding the replacement of a phrase from a song that includes a reference to the “revolution”, which happened during the live coverage of “Kermelak Ya Watan” concert on Army Day, MTV has decided to confirm the following:

The TV station, which assumed the live coverage of the protests and never hesitated to spread the people’s voice as they protested against the political class, is against all forms of suppression of the freedom of speech and has paid, and still is paying, a hefty price for it.

MTV was in charge of the productive aspect of the above-mentioned concert, which includes filming and directing. In addition to other related tasks, such as the reports and the content of the presentation, which Tony Baroud was in charge of, without interfering with the technical aspects of the artistic and musical program, and the selection of songs. Therefore, the TV station had nothing to do with the changes that were made for one of the songs.

The TV station would like to stress that the Lebanese Army Day is a national and inclusive occasion, and the concert was held yesterday to express this unity, which is the result of the joint work and the distribution of roles between the army, the organizers and MTV, in addition to the valuable contribution of the artists, the orchestra and the choir.”

Beirut… O Beirut!

In Arabic, they say: “The causes of death are numerous, but death remains the same”.

There is surely something ironic that your dad did not die because of the coronavirus or of an armed conflict or a revolution.

Bambi hopes that this fatal pedestrian-car accident happened too fast for your dad to suffer.

She just lit a candle for him/you: May he rest in peace. May you find comfort with each other, along with inner peace… Bless you for your care and visits to see him.

Safe travels please… Be well. Be strong Paul, Paula, Valérie, and Sandra.

Too bad there is a pandemic in life… Even deer cannot jump neither to Montreal nor to Beirut to be by your side. All they can do is to share their love across the miles!

First, here is a serious article about the finances of Canada before the pandemic: https://financialpost.com/opinion/economic-recovery-requires-ottawa-to-change-direction . Food for thought, even for Bambi who voted for this government the first time (like most of her voting life). However, she did not do so the second time. Contrary to many Canadian human beings, Bambi does learn from history sometimes ?. She is saying so without even thinking if the other alternatives to Mr. Trudeau would be better or not. Perhaps the same. Perhaps worse (although hard to believe). It all comes down to the personal responsibility of each politician (or citizen in life), regardless of his/her party, to be decent.

Now, the following post is meant for Bambi’s pure pleasure. It is mainly made of jokes to have fun on this sunny last day of the month of July that she usually likes particularly.

Here is the story: For some entertainment (even is she has never watched any Netflix movie in her life yet, even during this pandemic), Bambi took the time to carefully listen to our PM and his Chief staff, Ms. Katie Telford, when they testified before the House of Commons finance committee. Of course, she equipped herself with a fresh coffee and a piece of cake before ?:

House Portal

First, it was amazing to observe all the hard work of everyone involved.

Bambi found herself interested in the human side of our MPs. The pandemic has allowed us to see the humanity in official meetings (e.g., dogs barking, cats or kids jumping, etc.). We did not see any pet, make no mistake. This is too serious. However, we could see that some MPs had guitars in their offices. Others had pictures of their kids, etc. Mr. Trudeau seems to have status of knights on horses.

This being said, Bambi appreciated the GREAT questions. Perhaps the BEST ones came from Mr. Pierre Poilièvre. The more she observes him, the more she finds him competent. Well, too bad he is neither our PM nor the Leader of his party ?. As a PM, he would be perhaps competent and he is perfectly bilingual, Bambi fantasized whilst listening to his spicy interactions with Mr. Trudeau. Seriously now, Bambi appreciates his clear AND short questions. He even makes the job easier on the PM by literally telling him what is expected in the answer, simply yes or no ?.

Furthermore, Bambi liked the questions and comments of ALL the other members from ALL parties, including the Liberal Party (of course biased toward Mr. Trudeau… and we are not just talking about “unconscious bias” here ?). For instance, there were good questions and comments from Mr. Fortier, Mr. Angus, Mr. Cooper, Ms. May (who asked one and only but great question). Bambi cannot recall the names of every person. She just remembers that the Chair’s name may be Mr. Wayne Easter (Liberal party, one must say, which seems odd to her but perhaps this is how it is usually done). Anyhow, he seemed fair to Bambi with regard to time management. He seems to be a pleasant politician too. He was even funny at times despite the seriousness of this exercise of democracy and justice. Bambi enjoyed the teasing moments with Mr. Poilievre. The latter can be funny too.

At one point, something odd happened (or not too funny given the touchy moment): Mr. Easter went offline. Power outage at his end (thunderstorm, it seems). Bambi could not help not to joke in her mind saying: Too bad this Chair is not located in Lebanon, he would have had a UPS for his computer or a generator ? (seriously, this is how Lebanese families have done it during and post-civil war). Anyhow, the Vice-Chair took over and did a good job, not wasting more time (Mr. Trudeau stayed for perhaps about 90 minutes only).

Despite all the great DIRECT questions, Mr. Trudeau was as vague as ever. He wants us to believe him that he did not know at which hotel his spouse stayed in London in March, 2020. His own mother was with her. Didn’t he have any conversation about the trip with her neither? Come on (both were at a WE Day in London when the pandemic was beginning to tour the world. For the record, Canada was still in denial back then, especially at its airports).

OK, assuming the Trudeau family truly does not have the time to communicate, our PM knew he was coming to a committee inquiring about dollar figures and dates. Yet, he did not do his math homework ahead of the exam. Not very impressive, to say the least. Mr. Blanchet had a funnier way to describe this testimony on ICI RDI. He referred to it as “a tasteless tofu” ?. OK, except for a date him and his Chief Staff seems to agree on (May, 8), we did not get much information from Mr. Trudeau. However, this May 8 date does not make any sense with the other dates about this program (contradictions). Who launches a program before approving it? Very weird all this.

One more thing about Mr. Trudeau, he wants Bambi and her fellow human Canadians to believe that he did not know the Kielberger brothers (the WE charity Bosses). He has never seen them in person (only on stages of WE days), he insisted. OK maybe this one is part of the truth, even if Bambi found an old picture online taken in a school (see further below. It is followed by a video of him calling those two brothers “our friends” in front of thousands of youth (1:44 minutes from the start )…but this does not mean anything. Perhaps he meant it as an Arab guy calling a pure stranger encountered on the street “habibi” (= my love or lover) ?. Sometimes, strangers may get mad at each other (e.g., traffic or other). Then, they call each other “habibi” with a friendly tap on the shoulder (pre-pandemic times, for sure).

Seriously, Mr. Trudeau seemed to want us to believe that he saw the conflict of interest and “tried to push back” but it was like the fault of the public servants. “They picked the WE Charity. It was a binary choice: WE or nothing”. Wow. Very logical ?.

Bambi is sure that he did not mean it that way but… still, he seemed ungrateful to the HARD/devoted work of our public servants. He said so instead of taking responsibility for his third violation of the same Conflict of Interest Act (Mr. Poilièvre challenged him well on this with some sarcastic humour even ?). He apologized but this time no tear was shed.

If Mr. Trudeau ends up resigning (as the Bloc Québécois is asking and as they should, him and Mr. Morneau), perhaps he can aim for a career in psychology ?. Indeed, he kept using terms like “perception” (of corruption or cronyism?) and “appearance of favouritism”. Of course, all this without providing us with evidence-based data (numbers, dates, content) to correct this misconception.  

Seriously, pandemic or not, it is hard to understand all the relationships of WE Charity with our government and many of our industries (now breaking ties with it). Did the WE group contribute to build Mr. Trudeau’s “cool” image over the years, making him more appealing to younger ones (https://ipolitics.ca/2020/07/03/timeline-trudeaus-ties-to-we-are-as-old-as-his-political-career/)?

Does Mr. Trudeau feel the need to help them because they helped him. What are friends for?

How could both Mr. Morneau and Mr. Trudeau be so careless with public funds by choosing an apparently bankrupt (or shell to use a term used the MPs) stakeholder to manage the program? Does that make any sense? Is this fair to taxpayers and to youth (so dear to Mr. Trudeau’s heart)?

Plus, Bambi is still confused: what is the real final value of the program? $912 millions? Just $550 millions? Or $300 millions? Too bad this was not addressed, unless Bambi missed it.

Mr. Angus (NDP Party) seems to be offended by the less than minimum wage payment to student volunteers… but since when we pay volunteers? All this does not make sense to Bambi’s mind, in all honesty.  

This being said, bravo and thank you to Ms. Telford for her courage and efforts of telling the truth. Despite being limited in what she wanted to say (or could say?), she has been much clearer, and more collaborative than Mr. Trudeau’s “tasteless tofu” (luckily Bambi is a meat lover ?). Seriously, Ms. Telford also seems to be a hard worker. Not easy to do her job in a pandemic and now with another ethical saga.

After the committee, we learned that Mr. Poilièvre’s motion to get to the bottom of the needed information passed. This happened despite the Liberal MPs vote against it.

To conclude this post by linking it to its title, you may wonder what is the Caesar Act? This is a US legislation that imposes sanctions on Mr. Assad’s extended family members and friends (wife, cousins, now 18-year-old son, friends in Syria and eventually in Lebanon, companies, etc.), supposedly to protect Syrian civilians from corruption (https://www.state.gov/syria-caesar-act-designations/ and https://sg.news.yahoo.com/us-imposes-sanctions-teenage-son-syrian-leader-assad-153450051.html). At the end of Mr. Trudeau’s testimony, Bambi had a funny thought in her mind: How about a Canadian version of the Caesar Act ?? Of course, he is not Mr. Assad and we are not Syria, thank goodness… but perhaps a Canadian Cesar Act can help the House Finance Committee get to the bottom of this story and stop the conflict of interest ?. Obviously, as per this post’s title, that was a joke, hoping you have a deer’s sense of humour!