Author: Bambi

Bambi discovered this song whilst visiting Beirut in December. It seems that it naturally became one of the songs of the Lebanese revolution, although it is an older one written in a different time and context.

Is the current context that different from the earlier one(s)? Maybe but in as much as a context can be different when history tends to repeat itself, sometimes endlessly. This happens especially when people do not seem to learn valuable lessons from their rich history.

Anyhow, an amusing story about the famous singer (video above), Mr. Rabih El Khawli, is that he became a priest it seems. Yes, this rather handsome former artist turned his back to his artistic success and international career. It seems that he found his inner happiness in his faith during a personal spiritual journey, after the tragic death of his brother in a motorcycle accident. Good for him for his new life, if he is happier. Bambi is grateful for this beautiful song.  

Here is an English translation of the lyrics:

“Revolt for once, revolt” (title)

You who were waiting, what are you waiting for? What do you expect from those who stole the sunshine and sold the wind, along with their conscience? From those who stole the country and built houses larger than its squares?

You who were waiting, what are you waiting for?

Revolt for once. Stand up in those squares and tell them: You have stolen, you have killed, yes you have assassinated the people, the country, and the dream…. And you turned this land into a refuge for the Pharisees (or self-righteous)”.

Today, the Lebanese population went down to the streets again, calling for a “week of wrath” (“semaine de la colère”). After over 90 days of revolt, their politicians are still stuck at square one, with no government. They are simply demanding: (1) the formation of a government, that is independent of them, AND (2) new parliamentary elections.  

Of course, some would say that the first demand may be too idealistic in a country known for sectarian politics. Maybe but how do you solve this issue of this increasingly severe economic crisis, disconnected politicians, and the resulting distrust of a nation?

Anyhow, Bambi’s heart goes to the people of Lebanon today more than ever, hoping that the dark days will end and the sun (of hope) will shine again!

P.S: This post was written by Bambi on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 before a trip to the Middle East and before the latest development in the area. As she got too busy, she did not have the time to post it. Thus, it is only being posted now as it is, that is without any editing.

The post begins below:

A few weeks ago, Bambi came across a picture from the South border of Lebanon, similar to the one below. Next to the Lebanese beautiful flag (that looks like the Canadian flag to a great extent), we can see the yellow flag of the Hezbollah party:

Why is that still the case, even after 19-20 years since the end of a 20-year-Israeli occupation?

In any sovereign country, the only flag that tourists, migrants, and/or enemies should see must be the official flag of a country. The latter usually has a single army.  

Bambi is not an expert of Lebanese political parties. She knows that there are too many of them, from the left to the right wings. There are even some parties that have an ecological platform, including a green party. Nevertheless, there are two of them that are the strongest (Hezbollah and one allied to it) and maybe a third closed to the Hezbollah as well.

To come back to the yellow flag of the Hezbollah, the latter literally means “God’s party”. Do you see the irony that Bambi sees? In her mind, God is all about love, forgiveness, kindness, and peace. It is surely not about rifles and weapons.

Even resistances, they do not have to take a violent form all the time and endlessly. They can take all sorts of forms, from poetry to arts, from pacific actions to deep reflections. We have all resisted in our own ways to this or that injustice. We even resist to collective stupidity sometimes.

Anyhow to come back to the Hezbollah flag, a Wikipedia page describes it as follows:

“The first letter of “Allah” reaches up to grasp an assault rifle, which has elements of the H&K G3 battle rifle and the AK-47 assault rifle combined. The logo also incorporates several items, includingy a globe, a book, a sword, and a seven-leafed branch. The text above the logo reads فإن حزب الله هم الغالبون fa-inna ḥizbu llāh hum al-ġālibūn) and means “Then surely the party of God are they that shall be triumphant” (taken from the Quran), which is a reference to the name of the party. Underneath the logo are the words المقاومة الإسلامية في لبنان al-muqāwamah al-islāmīyah fī lubnān, meaning “The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon”.

The Wikipedia page continues: “The flag was designed by Mr. Ali Salih who is an artist from Brital, with the assistance of Mr. Abdul ar-Rahman Mazlūm from the same village. The flag has some similarity with the emblem of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard”.

Two questions beg each other here: 1. Who said that God needs a party, a heavily armed one on top of that? And 2. Why would a so-called resistance have to be just Muslim or…rather Islamic? How about Lebanese for a change? How about the country’s own army? An army that is as diverse as Lebanon?

Bambi asks these questions, knowing that there is a risk in doing so. People can be too narrow-minded sometimes. You criticize an entity like Hezbollah. So, you must be fond of Israel then. A bit like when we used to criticize the Israeli occupation, someone could say to us, well you prefer the Syrian occupation, don’t you? Or you criticize the latter, then you prefer the former. We criticize Iran, so we are fond of Saudi Arabia or vice versa.

The truth of the matter is that we can love all the above. At the same time, we can dislike them all, for almost the same EXACT reasons: Extremism breeds extremism. Often, these entities project their hate onto each other. Usually, innocent populations (here and there) suffer from extremism.

Another milder example may be: You love Canada so you cannot love Lebanon or vice versa. You love your mom. So, you do not like your dad. You like Montréal, so how can you love Toronto at the same time ?? Or both Montréal and Québec City? Well, Bambi loves all Canada at once from Coast to Coast to Coast, including Sackville.

To come back to the picture above, with all due respect to all the political parties of the world, that is including the political wing of the Hezbollah (despite the weird name of the latter), Bambi thinks the following: Only one flag should be flying above the Lebanese nation and its borders, from the North to the South to the East (the beautiful Mediterranean sea is to the West side). Yes, the Lebanese flag ONLY.

Today, Naharnet published “Iran’s statement on downed Ukrainian airliner”, based on Agence France Press:

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/268101-iran-s-statement-on-downed-ukrainian-airliner

The bolded text is Bambi’s reply to the statement.

“Iran said on Saturday that its armed forces had “unintentionally” shot down a Ukrainian airliner, killing all 176 passengers and crew on board.

Why did you deny this at first and pretended the West was lying? What has changed now? Are you too worried? Is this a game of some sort? Or are you genuinely sorry?

The incident came hours after Iran launched a wave of missiles at Iraqi bases housing American troops in retaliation for the killing of Qasem Soleimani, one of Iran’s top generals, in a US drone strike.

The Iranian armed forces were first to acknowledge the error, saying the Boeing 737 had been mistaken for a “hostile target” at a time when enemy threats were at the highest level.

Following are the main elements from the five-point statement:

The armed forces said it had opened an investigation into what it called the “heartbreaking incident” after the Ukraine International Airlines plane (UIA) was brought down on Wednesday.

1. The Iranian armed forces had been on their highest level of alert after launching missiles at Iraqi bases housing US troops and following “threats by the criminal American president and military commanders”.

OK, if the Americans are criminals for killing a criminal, how do we call you and call ALL the other freaky (religious or so-called religious or just dictators) of the Middle East, regardless of their own side of insanity, for terrorizing innocents?

When will you let the innocent people simply live in dignity and peace?

2. Flights by the US military had increased around Iran after the missile operation and following some reports of aerial targets moving towards “strategic centres” in the Islamic republic.

3. After taking off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, UIA flight PS752 turned, got close to a “sensitive military site” of the Revolutionary Guards and appeared to fly like a “hostile target”. Due to “human error”, the plane was hit, which “unfortunately led to the martyrdom of a number of our dear compatriots and loss of life of a number of foreign nationals”.

OK, your own folks are “martyrs” and the others suffered from “loss of life”. Do you think the word “martyrdom” will comfort the grieving families? Plus, what is martyrdom to begin with? And did they ask for it? No, all they wanted was to come back home to their loved ones and their dreams. They did not have this chance because of you.

Are the 1500 Iranian citizens the Iranian regime killed during the latest uprising also “martyrs”?

What about those killed during the stampede of the funeral or Memorial of the killed general? Are they “martyrs” too?

What about those dying a slow death in countries where you fund terror? Are they or will they become “martyrs” too, if not yet?

4. The statement expressed “condolences and sympathy” with the families of those who died and gave an assurance that a “repetition of such mistakes would become impossible” through changes in operational procedures. It also said the armed forces would immediately present the “culprit” to the judiciary.

Is the person who followed the orders of shooting the airplane already a “martyr” too?

Most importantly, are you going to compensate the families of the victims for your mistake?

5. Finally, it said “relevant officials from the Revolutionary Guards should, as soon as possible, give detailed explanations to the honourable people in the national media”.

“Honourable people” are your followers?

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/lebanon-beirut-economy-protests-margaret-evans-1.5421371

The above is an interesting article on Lebanon by Ms. Margaret Evans.

Ms. Evans is the CBC Europe correspondent. Her bio describes her as follows: She is” a correspondent based in the CBC News London bureau. A veteran conflict reporter, Evans has covered civil wars and strife in Angola, Chad and Sudan, as well as the myriad battlefields of the Middle East”.

It is incredibly sad to watch the pictures and read the stories of each of the victims. May their memory be eternal… and may God knows how to comfort their families and friends. Bambi can only imagine one drop of the ocean of their pain facing the tragedy.

Bambi would like to also extend her condolences to Canada at large. This is a huge loss for our country, not only families across cities and provinces. Indeed, the victims of this tragedy are talented, and even highly educated, citizens. Some are students with great potential. Others are kids. Yet others may have been dreaming of having kids one day, as a newly-wed couple from Québec.

There is no word to describe the sorrow. It may be silly for Bambi to think to herself: If it is a missile, it means that maybe they did not have the time to be afraid or to suffer in their last seconds of life. Does this provide any comfort despite the sorrow or anger in a grief journey?

Mr. Trudeau did a dignified job in his press conference above. He even had some tough questions but he smartly managed his way around them. He is right: Canada needs to have answers, families need to have answers, as our Prime Minister, he also needs to have answers.

Will Iran cooperate with the Canadian investigators (via the Ukraine authorities, or other countries, or by exceptionally providing visas)? Will they have the decency of keeping all the evidence, as more than one journalist asked in both official languages?

Will this tragedy make any difference if it is a mistake (likely) or… an intentional act of war (perhaps less likely?), as many journalist asked? The victims are all gone in either case. This is the sad reality. It is even a personal tragedy to the person who may have been responsible, if the hypothesis is confirmed. Perhaps that person has already been punished by his regime now? Who knows?

The text below is a translation of the French article below (Journal de Montréal, January 9, 2020):

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/01/09/toujours-la-faute-de-loccident

“Yes, Donald Trump is untimely and unpredictable.

Yes, he probably only did what he wanted to do, without consulting anyone, on the pretext that one does not need to consult anyone when one is a genius.

Yes, in geopolitics, you have to think about the long term, predict the next 10 moves of your opponent and calculate the consequences of each of your decisions, like when playing chess.

Yes, we have every reason to criticize the United States.

But why don’t we be as harsh on Iran?

Reading what is written these days, one has the impression that the American government is more dangerous than the Iranian regime!

ALL IRANIANS ARE CRYING?

“Yes, but we must not excite the Iranian regime,” we repeat.

Do you think he needs Trump to get excited, the Iranian regime? To shed blood?

It’s always the same thing: when the West reacts to the provocations of its enemies, damn! we blame the West.

“We must act with caution, restraint, and above all not pour oil on the fire …”

And the ayatollahs? Do they act with prudence and restraint?

As far as I know, if you don’t want to add fuel to the fire, there is a fire in the first place, no?

Can we ALSO blame those who turned it on?

Concerning the demonstrations of anger of the “Iranian people” against the United States and their president …

Could it be that many Iranians support Trump?

Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad wrote in the Washington Post on Monday that she is overwhelmed with messages from Iranian citizens who welcomed the death of the “general” (“terrorist” or “war criminal” would be a more appropriate term) Qassem Soleimani.

“I have more than four million subscribers on social media, and I have received thousands of messages from Iranians who are happy that Soleimani is dead.

“Do not believe the propaganda of the Iranian regime. The government ordered merchants to close the doors of their shops and forced students to go and demonstrate. In addition, in elementary schools, they force young people to write messages of condolence …

SELECTIVE INDIGNATION

Of course, you have to criticize Trump.

But it takes two people to dance the tango.

It all reminds me of Charlie Hebdo.

What did writers John le Carré and Michael Ondaatje say after the January 7, 2015 massacre?

That Charlie Hebdo journalists “had brought it upon themselves” by “adding fuel to the fire.”

What did those who currently criticize Donald Trump say when Qassem Soleimani and his Revolutionary Guard massacred their enemies?

Nothing.

As they don’t say a word when the ayatollahs hang homosexuals and imprison feminist activists.

The self-righteous have selective indignation.

It is present when the time comes to criticize the West.

It is absent when the time comes to criticize Islamist regimes.

Same old song…”

Ms. Roula Azar-Douglas’ latest novel entitled «Le Jour où le soleil ne s’est pas levé» is among the five finalists of the prestigious «Prix Hors Concours»; as chosen by 437 French high school students!

This book, which is a beautiful novel about life and death, is a delight to read.

Regardless of the outcome of this prize competition, Bambi is proud of her sister!

Bambi would like to quickly comment on an article in the New Wark Times that presents many promising ideas by our MLA, including addressing conversion therapy or improving access to medical care:

https://warktimes.com/

Among our MLA’s ideas, one stands out as being the worst political idea that Bambi has ever heard, namely the basic income guarantee for all New Brunswickers (https://www.basicincomecanada.org/about_basic_income).

Bambi does not even wish it to happen in a broken country like Lebanon because it would make the Government more pervasive.

History has proved it over and over in many different parts of our world: communism does not work. It does not yield neither justice nor poverty reduction.

Plus, we are already a bit too socialist in our economic approach in Canada. So why are we promoting dependence ideas on the Government like that instead of encouraging entrepreneurship and business creation?

FIRST picture (published in the An Nahar on January 7, 2020):

The ad in the above picture reads as: *Remove your dirty hands off the justice system”.

This demonstration took place yesterday, January 6, 2020 in the streets of Beirut. Other actions also occurred in front of Governmental institutions, including two telecommunication entities, and banks as well as the Lebanese University (asking for its independence).

Bambi salutes the courage of these people (against all odds…). When the legal system of any jurisdiction is too dependent on any powerful political force and/or corrupt entity, we can say good-bye to the realistic hope for a healthy democracy. Luckily, there seems to be a slight yet realistic hope for a change in the legal sector there, it seems. Indeed, Lebanon has many talented professionals. What a shame not to benefit from their reformist and/or visionary actions.       

Second picture (also published in the An Nahar on January 7, 2020):

For Bambi, this picture is hard to look at for several reasons: (1) It represents an elderly man with a deep sad look in his eyes. Because he is Lebanese, this man could have been Bambi’s own dad or uncle, who knows? Bambi feels for his sad expression of feelings. His picture was taken in the Memorial service, organized by the Lebanese Hezbollah last Sunday, for the Irani General Suleimani who was recently killed by the Americans in Irak; (2) The second sad reason is when Bambi stops to imagine the personal story of this man? Why is he that attached to the killed general? Was he himself a fighter with the Hezbollah in his youth? Or did he lose a child in Syria where the Hezbollah went to war behind the back of the Lebanese Government, so to speak? Or is he simply a man of his context and time… or, is he simply too brainwashed by a fanatic religious ideology?; (3) Last but not least, perhaps the saddest part is what this man is wearing on his head. On the yellow flag of the Hezbollah, it is written: “Death to America”, a slogan the Iranian regime has always loved to repeat for years (of course now more than ever).

The tragedy here is that this man is Lebanese, not Iranian. The picture was taken in Beirut, no Tehran… Next to this man, there were probably hundreds of other men, women, children, wearing the same bandana with the same slogan.

Today, Bambi read in the same newspaper that the President of Lebanon, Mr. Michel Aoun, wants to ensure that Lebanon will remain out of the USA-Iran conflict. Noble intention? Likely but how can this realistically happen when people (including him) know who is in charge, not just in the country but in the whole region?

Plus, will any Lebanese strategy resemble its older official policy (of neutrality) a few years ago when the Syrian war started? Plus, how could Lebanon be truly protected, if external forces decide otherwise, and/or when a (large?) part of its population wears the same bandana as the elderly man in the picture above. They sadly wear it not just on their head, but more alarmingly, they hide their own eyes with it, following what their leaders tell them to do.

With this regard, when Bambi recently visited Lebanon, she met with a childhood school friend (after 30 years!). The friend reminded her of a story that she has forgotten about herself: Bambi was the delegate of the class and it was civil war times back then. When militiamen came to force high school students, of all the nearby institutions, to go applaud to a certain politician, Bambi stood up and firmly said: “We are not sheep and we are not going with you!”. Sadly, the heavily armed men decided otherwise in the end. All the students of all the schools walked out of their schools to attend the event in question… except Bambi herself. Well, she went to hide in the washroom to avoid being forced to go applaud to the politician in question ?.

On this rather now amusing note, Bambi hopes that people will open their eyes to see matters critically and to take a look at the whole picture, before jumping into conclusions… and filling their hearts with hatred.