For those who remember Lebanon’s recent history (i.e., 14-15 years ago), they may be interested, or perhaps also moved like Bambi, to read about her professional journey from New York to Lebanon when the “United Nations set up an investigation into terrorist attacks that killed the country’s Prime Minister and other democratic leaders including the editor of this newspaper”.
Born in 1961, he is a Canadian politician, academic,
and journalist in the province of Québec. Specifically, he was a Parti Québécois
member of the National Assembly of Québec from 1994 to 2003 and a cabinet
minister in the governments of Bouchard and Laundry.
He is fluent in Spanish, French, and English. He is an
academic trained in political science (B.A., M.A.) and sociology (PhD).
Bambi enjoys reading his articles in the Journal de Montréal.
Disclaimer: Bambi is a proud Canadian. Younger, she
has walked in Montreal for the Canadian unity during the second referendum. And
yet, she is posting this.
Things have degenerated to a great extent in our
beloved Canada (and in our unprofessionally non-critical media) to the point of
making Bambi almost a voter for the Bloc Québécois, had she been a citizen of
Québec (but she is not).
Can you see the irony of all this?
Québec has the courage to be what it is. Québec is one of the most progressive places in the world (in Canada for sure, especially nowadays). Québec is welcoming. Québec is loving. Québecers are the most open-minded and generous people Bambi has ever met, although they are a minority themselves.
At least, they know how to protect their language,
their values, their collectivity (yes nationalism and nationalism is healthy)
whilst being open to the rest of the continent/world.
Why can’t the Canadian media understand that Québecers
have a different culture? Their conceptualization of secularism is different,
not better and not worse. Just different. Plus, it came after 10 years of a public
debate. Bravo to Québec for knowing how to discuss society’s important topics (i.e.,
reasonable accommodations).
Although in the spirit of other countries, namely in
Europe (Switzerland, France, etc.), Québec Bill 21 is moderate, pragmatic, and
as fair as it can be. It would have been of course, better, not to have to
resort to such a bill but this is the reality.
Same for Bill 101 (protecting the French language). It
was needed, even we can criticize its apparently unfair consequences on a few that
do not speak the majority’s language. Québec remains an example to the world, including
Lebanon, on how to protect its beautiful Francophone language/culture.
Anyhow, here is Facal’s article published in the
Journal de Montréal (in French):
Until the
federal election on October 21, the elites of English Canada were careful when
they tackled Québec secularism.
We did not
want to blow on the embers of our nationalism.
The
resurrection of the Bloc removed all restraint.
History
We read the English
Canadian media and we want to throw up: Québec is portrayed as a bunch of
racists who disregard the rights of minorities, especially these “pooorrr”
veiled Muslim women.
Bill 21, to
which one says what it does not say, is only the most recent excuse to reactivate
a collective process, which has been going on for two centuries.
The truth is
that we have no lessons to learn from English Canada.
The settlers from France had, with Indigenous people, relations infinitely less violent than those of the British or the Americans.
In 1807, the voters of Trois-Rivières were the first in the entire British Empire to elect a Jewish MP, Ezekiel Hart, when McGill University was forbidden to Jews.
In the 1838 Declaration of Independence, the patriots proclaimed the equal rights of Indigenous and non-native folks, a pioneering idea for the time.
When my family and I immigrated to Sherbrooke in 1970 from our native Uruguay, we were greeted with fraternity.
We knew how to distinguish incomprehension from racism.
On November 15, 1976, the voters of Papineau elected, under the banner of the PQ, Jean Alfred, of Haitian origin.
Then the Québecers opened their arms to Vietnamese people fleeing in makeshift boats, to Lebanese people chased out by the civil war (P.S from Bambi: She can only agree and will endlessly remain grateful!), as they had once welcomed waves of Italians, Greeks and Portuguese.
When Latin America experienced its wave of dictatorships and civil wars, we welcomed Chileans, Argentineans, Salvadorans, and so on.
In 1980 and 1995, when the sovereignists came up against the massive, monolithic rejection of their project in communities of recent immigration, they swallowed their pill without violence or a spirit of revenge (P.S: Again, Bambi can only agree and admires both civility and democracy, despite her capacity to understand those disappointed).
When fake refugees used Roxham Road to enter our home illegally, no one proposed building a wall or using violence.
Anger
On the contrary, this Canada that has been moralizing us for over two centuries is the same country of the reserves and of residential schools.
It is the internment of Italo-Canadians and Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War.
It is the one in which all the provinces except Québec, all, adopted Bills banning teaching French between 1870 and 1912.
Today, Canada does not care about the assimilation of francophones outside of Québec.
It is Canada that applauded sending of the army to Québec in 1970, the arbitrary imprisonment of innocents, the unilateral imposition of a constitution, and referendum cheating in 1995.
And these people allow themselves to insult us?
Unfortunately, the ability of some Québecers to accept everything is infinite. When two colonized people meet, they speak well of their master.
A 22-year-old social justice hardcore activist, called Maisaloon Al-Ashkar (https://checkyourhead.org/people/maisaloon-al-ashkar/) and her peers, calling themselves “No Blackfaces in Vancouver” protested against a theater play in Surrey. The school hosting the production decided to cancel it:
Funny, how these cultural “terrorists” (killing any form of arts they find offending) did not pick up on a man playing the role of “Im Hussein” or another lady (“Im or Om Hussein” refers to his mom in Arabic). They did not start a whole saga around gender appropriateness.
Maybe they tried? Who knows? Arab-Americans do not seem to see themselves as victims to that degree that Bambi calls “acute victimhood” (she usually uses the term in French, “victimite aiguë”).
Of course, Bambi is saying this and she is 100% against
disrespect to any person or any group in our society, from any origins (African,
Haitian, Chinese, Arabs, French-Canadians, Anglophones, Iranians, Jews,
Muslims, tall folks, short people, and what have you).
In the context of arts, painting one’s skin or wearing a mask or pretending to be a black person or an Arab or whatever else is NOT blackface in the true sense.
This is simply art, even if artists would be satirically imitating someone.
Arts is all about free creativity.
If we do not like this sort of art, we do not have to purchase a ticket. Plus, how about learning to grow a thicker skin for once, whether its colour is yellow, black, or white?
Artists may choose to pretend to be a chair, if they wish, or even an insect (e.g., “Greta’s” new insect, if they like; yes there is a species now called Greta as tribute).
They may imitate a Moose or even God, if they wish.
P.S: This is clearly different from the blackface
meant to make fun or humiliate black people (a hate act).
Why are we allowing this form of censorship of arts to
take place again and again?
And who gets to decide what is morally acceptable or
morally worthy of censorship?
Bambi does not know this theater company (from the States, it seems). She was curious and googled it. She also listened to its artistic director, Mr. Aziz Al-Sharabati. He seems like a reasonable man. He uses art to combat prejudice and racism, it seems. How ironic all this?
Because of this illuminated young radical activist and her peers, there has been more pollution in the skies and less art in Vancouver schools.
As for the school that took the decision to cancel the
show, it is sad to see no push back to silliness in our society, not even an
opportunity to have a clever discussion on where to draw the line between freedom
of expression and what may seem to be offensive like this sort of costume.
Talking about costumes, this brings Bambi to Mr.
Trudeau. Of course, he is not racist (just hypocritically incompetent, although
well-intentioned).
Regardless, Canadian voters seem to have forgotten and forgiven him for his stories of blackface and other costumes abroad. They voted for him, even if this time with a minority government.
We forgave and re-elected him. However, we are/remain too harsh with each other and… with our guests? Our media even called this theater play “racist”.
Is this a form of double-standard (apartheid?) in the
accusations of racism?
“A political party as well as an armed group, Hezbollah has become caught up in a storm of protests sweeping the country. As part of the government, it has been accused of complicity in corruption and failing ordinary people” (France 24, November 2nd, 2019).
The response of the Lebanese people came today, clearer than ever: “All of them = all of them” (meaning all the politicians must step down, implicitly meaning the Hezbollah and their allies), as can be seen in this impressive demonstration of people from Tripoli and from elsewhere across the country. They did not even wait for dawn. All this happened during last night.
Another massive demonstration is currently under way in Beirut (where even psychologists and psychiatrists are offering FREE counselling, especially to parents worried about their children’s stress levels, as per the L’Orient Le Jour. Bravo for making room for mental health!).
Demonstrators are gathering again in Beirut downtown, from Naharnet, Sunday, November 3rd, 2019
Of course, all this seems to be a sort of a “peaceful” war between forces of Hezbollah (likely potentially diminishing, if Iran is being cornered by the USA? But who knows what is happening behind the scenes?) and forces pushing back (ALL, if not MOST of the people of Lebanon insisting on the end of corruption of all!).
Anyhow, Bambi wrote above MOST of the people because not everyone wants to be on the streets (from Day 1 likely) and some prefer their “own” streets, namely Hezbollah supporters or indirect Hezbollah supporters (supporting the President of Lebanon today and his party led by his own son-in-law, it seems). Perhaps they believe that Lebanon is better in his corrupt status quo. Perhaps they trust Hezbollah’s power in protecting them from I do not know what. Perhaps it is true that Hezbollah can be protective in addition to being corrupt, like the rest of its peers from the other parties.
Some fascist supporters even prefer to beat demonstrators, including women (see earlier post).
This crowd (counter-demonstration) is of course free to have its own opinion but it is sad not to see them hand in hand with the rest of the population, including and especially those literally risking their lives or losing their jobs, as described by the young Lebanese man in the video above [he is from Hezbollah’s own community and he wants to live in a “clean” (= non-corrupt) country, to use the own words of the President of the Lebanese Republic].
Lebanese people, and by extension, Middle-Easterners have a sad tradition of glorifying their own leaders or sometimes own clan (religious, tribal, etc.). Here, for the first time, we are watching a whole nation united in its demand: All of them means all of them.
Of course, we do not want to be naive. Things could degenerate but could change and the change can be for the best. Why not? Why should the destiny of a country be always fear, blood, and continuous immigration to search for safety and to feed one’s family. Why should families be shattered across the globe from generation to generation? Why should Bambi, and millions like Bambi, always worry about their loved ones’ safety and not know if they could see each other during their only opportunity of the year to hug each other. Why?
Isn’t enough enough? Regardless of whom will end up governing the country and having the bigger piece of the cake (whether in the government or outside it, whether in times of peace or unrest), let families live. Let people work. Relieve tax payers. Hands off Lebanon to all those external ferocious forces. No more proxy wars and no more internal stupid and corrupt governance.
Bambi is not a lawyer (thankfully, her spouse would have said—there are too many of them ?).
However, yesterday evening, she came across an interesting video by Dr. Bruce Pardy, Professor of Law at Queen’s University whom she happens to think highly of. Food for thought.
She is sharing here with the following disclaimer: If you are too rigid in your thinking, perhaps you need to relax your brain neurons before watching.
If you find the latter too challenging and become too triggered, you can always consider trying Rosenberg’ nonviolent communication (NVC). For a quick description, you may wish to read the earlier post :).
Lebanese Dr. Rita Ayoub & Rosenberg’s Nonviolent communication
Ms. Roula Azar-Douglas is one of Bambi’s sisters
living in Beirut, Lebanon. She is a journalist, editor, and author (in addition
to being a PhD candidate and a mom).
Azar-Douglas’ article was published this morning in the Campus section of the L’Orient Le Jour (a francophone Lebanese daily). It is entitled “Apprendre aux jeunes à mieux communiquer”, which literally means “Let’s teach our youth how to better communicate”.
In each of her articles, Ms. Azar-Douglas highlights the
inspiring work of students or researchers from across Lebanese university campuses
and sometimes beyond.
Today, her article is about the work of Dr. Rita
Ayoub, from the Université Saint-Joseph (USJ) who is promoting non-violent
communication (NVC model or CNV in French), as a simple, practical yet
non-magical way to counter broken communication and hate on social media and on
the streets of Lebanon.
First, what is CNV or non-violent communication? This
method or rather communication process was developed by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg,
since the early 60s.
Dr. Rosenberg, who died in 2005, was an American clinical
psychologist, a mediator, teacher, and author. His method supports partnerships
and resolving conflicts among people, both in relationships and in society at
large.
One of Rosenberg’s famous quotes goes as follows:
“Everything we do is in
service of our needs. When this one concept is applied to our view of others,
we’ll see that we have no real enemies, that what others do to us is the best
possible thing they know to do to get their needs met.”
To come back to the Lebanese Dr. Ayoub, she is trained in Rosenberg’ non-violent communication and acts as the Coordinator of a Training Program in Islamo-Christian dialogue at the Institute of Islamo-Christian Studies of the USJ. Recently, she has offered demonstrators free sessions of 90-minute-training workshops in downtown Beirut.
From Roula Azar-Douglas, L’Orient Le Jour
With Rosenberg’s nonviolent communication, youth can
learn to identify their own moral judgments against others in a specific moment.
With the use of words, the underlying idea is to allow
them to move from their moral judgments into an expression of their own needs.
Together, they try to identify each person’s feelings
when they are judging (e.g., someone may not accept that another person may have
a different opinion or may not wish to participate in a demonstration or may
judge those who are demonstrating, etc.).
Of course, this process cannot help counter ferocious regional
violent forces blowing on tiny Lebanon. However, it can perhaps help plant
small seeds of peace in people’s minds, here and there, to keep communication channels
open.
Who knows? This may in turn perhaps serve peace in the
region in the bigger scheme of things.
This is crucial for a nation that is sick and tired of
violence in the Middle East.
A country that simply wants to live in dignity and
keep collective hope alive.
All this whilst courageously standing on top of a mountain
facing a deep valley made up of the ghosts of civil and regional wars.
May respect and love prevail, despite the increased polarization
in Lebanon.
Raya Hafffar El Hassan, Lebanese Interior Minister
In the first part of this exclusive interview, Lebanese Interior Minister Raya Haffar El Hassan tells Ms. Becky Anderson that Lebanon’s “political elite can no longer weasel its way out of protestors”.
In the second part of the interview, Ms. Raya Haffar El Hassan adds that “despite painful US sanctions against Hezbollah the group are part of the country’s social fabric — and aren’t going anywhere”.
President of the American University of Beirut (AUB)
Whilst searching the internet for the latest news from Lebanon, Bambi came across this interesting text by Dr. Khuri, the 16th and current President of the American University of Beirut (AUB).
Dr. Khuri is a hematologist/oncologist and a lung and head/neck cancer expert. His is also the Editor-in-chief of ACS Journal Cancer.
His article is entitled “Lebanon
Doesn’t Need Heroes. The destiny of the well-intentioned citizen leader need not always be
that of the martyr”.
