Author: Bambi

Have you ever looked for extra ways to make yourself smile or laugh when you are in pain? It is called distraction and this is what Bambi is doing through this post.

Distraction a coping mechanism meant to relieve pain by focusing our mind on something else. This being said, Bambi’s pain stems from an injury to two fingers due to an unfortunate window accident, which happened to her yesterday afternoon when heavy rain started suddenly. If she may, she would like to use this incident as a free teaching moment for all of us, including you and the future version of herself: please be careful when closing (or opening) house windows, especially older ones, because they can fall on your hands.

Enough of pain now, time to laugh instead! if you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that Bambi recently became a fan of Mr. Rudy Ayoub [hello and thanks to Fred :)]. Well, this post is meant to share two of Rudy’s recent short videos. The first one is the most recent and it is entitled “Police in 2024″. It is about an interaction among a police officer, a thief, and Rudy. The second short video is entitled “What Happens in Heaven“. Remember, all the characters are usually played by Rudy himself, including his good friend Clark, his highly narcissistic dad, and what could be an angel in heaven.

To conclude this post, Bambi hopes that, if Louis is reading this post until now, he will take the time to listen to the second video until its very end. It seems to be tailored for him [OK for her too with regard to the specific product in question :)]. Last but not least, it is Bambi’s wish that you will all have a wonderful weekend. May it be pain- and theft-free while being filled with safety and fun, regardless of what the latter means to you personally: rest or work that needs to be done, a good laugh (alone or with others), and lots of smiles, whether to the sunshine or to heavy rain through a safely open or closed window.

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Older posts featuring Mr. Rudy Ayoub:

Time to laugh with Mr. Rudy Ayoub!

Mr. Rudy Ayoub: how about some lightness and laughter with him?

Did you know that today happens to be the “National Aunt and Uncle’s Day” (https://shorturl.at/2EeoS)? For many, aunts and uncles are like second mothers and fathers. For some, they may act like Godmothers or Godfathers, especially for those of a Christian background.

Who knows? Maybe you are an official aunt or uncle to beloved, little or older, ones yourself? Maybe you love your friends’ or neighbours’ kids like your nephews and nieces; with or without being an aunt or an uncle in the strict sense of the word? After all, there is a reason that, in some cultures like the Indian or Lebanese ones, we call such close people Aunty (or Auntie) or Uncly (or Uncley).

Bearing the above in mind, Bambi will celebrate the so-called “National Aunt and Uncle’s Day” by introducing you to her late, and true Aunty, Nadia (or “Amto” Nadia, in Lebanese-Arabic since she is her dad’s sister). Nadia happened to also have been her Godmother. Indeed, she played this significant role for MANY kids of the Azar family.

Nadia devoted her life to not only loving her family or origin and spouse, but also spreading love around her until her last breath. In all the transitions of life, in times of wars and peace, Nadia was present for others: before and at birth to baptism, through childhood to adulthood, from graduations to weddings, to funerals, and in moments of grief. She opened her house to senior relatives and offered them the most generous quality of life at the end of their own journey of life. She received friends in need and accompanied them in their sickness until their last breath. She loved all the children, whether in the family or not, like her own.

Yes, all the above describes Nadia who was solid like a cedar and flexible like water. Above all, Nadia’s heart was made of gold. If you do not believe Bambi yet in her description of her aunt, she will now share a moving story from the summer of 2006.

Indeed, on July 13, 2006, a sudden war broke between Israel and Hezbollah. On this precise day, Bambi was giving a talk at a psychiatric conference in Istanbul and her parents were supposed to come to join her and her spouse from Beirut. Sadly, they could not because their bombarded airport closed unexpectedly. Over several weeks, Bambi who was worried about the Middle East searched the internet for daily news. This is how, on July 24, 2006, she unexpectedly came across a BBC article by Mr. Martin Patience, which was entitled “Lebanese open up homes for refugees” (https://shorturl.at/zq0qS).

Of note, Mr. Patience’s entire article reported a heart-moving interview with 70-year-old Aunt Nadia who “hosted” in her rather small apartment in Beirut, “four mothers and their nine children who have fled the south of the country” (https://shorturl.at/zq0qS). As stated in this article, although Nadia and these families shared their citizenship, they were not of the same religion. That was not surprising to Bambi since Nadia couldn’t care less about religion or anything else. What simply mattered to her the most in life was humanity.

If the above story is not one related to love, humanity, and generosity, what is it then? May Ms. Nadia Azar’s memory be eternal. With her aunt’s uplifting story, Bambi hopes that peace and love will fill all the hearts. May safety, healing, and peace finally prevail not just in Southern Lebanon, but across the country and in the entire Middle East.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (or DSM-5) was “crafted by hundreds of mental health experts” from the American Psychiatric Association (https://shorturl.at/U3BFC).

According to the DSM-5, symptoms of substance use disorder, which are measured on a continuum from mild to severe levels, are related to four categories: (1) impaired or loss of control; (2) social problems, which affect someone’s quality of life; (3) a risky use; and (4) physical dependence (https://shorturl.at/U3BFC).

Of course, there are several types of addictions in life. For instance, one can become addicted to tobacco, alcohol, and/or other licit or illicit psychoactive drugs as well as to daily life activities such as work, exercise, shopping, or smartphones, etc.

Regardless of the developed type of addiction, there is chronic suffering, which Mr. Claudio Capéo conveys so well in his beautiful song AND sublime performance. Bravo to him for his incredible talent and inspiring courage in sharing his vulnerability. For your convenience, an English translation of the French lyrics appear following the YouTube video (https://shorturl.at/cJENg).

Bambi, who hopes you will like this song, enjoyed reading the YouTube comments of Capéo’ fans. Of note, a reader called him the new Jacques Brel. Indeed, the calibre of Mr. Claudio Capéo’s performance is remarkable, whether we understand the French language or not. May he keep being healthy and increasingly happy. May his beautiful songs keep entertaining and, most significantly, inspiring us.

Shorter version:

Longer version:

“Oh, serve me
Another glass
Stay with me
Another hour
Don’t back out
We’ve done it a thousand times
You know well that the sea will wait

Come on, hurry me
Another beer
Toast with me
It’s the last one
Come on, pour me another
Stop your drama
Sooner or later, the sea will take us

It’s raining outside
The wind is rising
And I have fire in my body
At night I dream, friend, I dream
That it’s raining outside, that it’s raining
That the wind is rising
And I have fire in my body
Thirst on my lips, I dream

Oh, soul wave
Bed of bitterness
I have a heavy heart
Like an anvil
Don’t back out
The sailors down here
Know well that the sea doesn’t cheat

Stop there, look at me
She left, she will come back
Come on, pour me another
Stop your drama
Sooner or later the sea will avenge us

It’s raining outside
The wind is rising, oh
And, and I have fire, oh, in my body
At night I dream, friend, I dream
That it’s raining, oh, that it’s raining outside
That the wind is rising
That the wind is rising
And I have the devil in my body
Thirst on my lips

Enlighten me
Another glass
So I can drown in it
So I can dream in it
Don’t drift me away
Come on, I believe in you
You know well that the sea will wait

Come on, lend me
A piece of dream
A piece of star
A piece of fever
Don’t abandon me
The sailors down here
Know well that the sea will return

It’s raining outside
The wind is rising
And I have fire in my body
At night I dream, friend, I dream
Oh, it’s raining outside
The wind is rising, oh
And I have fire in my body
At night I dream, friend, I dream, oh
That it’s raining outside, that it’s raining
That the wind is rising, oh
And I have the devil in my body
I have thirst on my lips
I have thirst on my lips“.

Thank you Canadaland (https://shorturl.at/4jUsL)’s Jessy Brown for your chat with Dr. Gabor Lukács. What a highly informative interview!

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Older posts featuring Gabor (or Dr. Lukács)’ air passenger rights advocacy:

Dr. Gabor Lukács: thank you for addressing the House of Commons on the state of airline competition in Canada!

Dr. Gábor Lukács: Bravo and thanks for your oral arguments before the Supreme Court of Canada in the Airlines’ Air Passenger Protection Regulations (APPR) Challenge!

“Air Passenger Rights: Thank you CTV’s W5, Dr. Gábor Lukács, and Mr. Robert McNabb

Bambi was filled with pride when she learned that her friend Aline Acaf displayed her work at the Blue Heron Art Gallery in Lorneville, Nova Scotia (NS) on Saturday, July 20, 2024. What an achievement, bravo!

Below, you can find a few pictures and a video, which were taken at this open house event. You may also wish to consult earlier posts on Ms. Aline Acaf’s art (re-featured below). This post will end with four songs, meant to be taken together, to celebrate Aline’s artistic milestone.

As you can see with your own eyes, Aline’s paintings are very beautiful. Of note, she discovered her passion during the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, she kept refining her techniques by taking courses with an accomplished senior-level artist and simply letting herself express her soul in her painting.

Of note, Aline’s work is regularly exposed in stores in the Town of Amherst while having clients (and fans!) beyond its borders, including he nearby New Brunswick (e.g., Sackville, Fredericton, etc.) and as far as the Province of Québec (e.g., Montreal).

Aline is not only is a skilled artist. She is also an inspiring human being, a wise and beautiful woman, the spouse of a great yet humble fellow, the mother of three adorable adult children, a talented cook (mmm!), and a devoted volunteer in her community.

Indeed, among several community-related activities in her town of Amherst, Aline is a dedicated volunteer at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre where she is involved in different capacities. She had also acted as an interpreter for Syrian newcomers for over two years. She even received a well-deserved award for the excellence of this volunteering service with refugees/immigrants. In addition to her mother tongue, Aline is fluent in several languages. Perhaps most impressively, she excels in the most significant communication tool in the entire world, that is the language of humanity.

For all the reasons mentioned above, Aline makes us ALL proud. In addition to this shared pride, Bambi is blessed because Aline is part of her life as a very precious friend ❤️.

This being said, following the pictures and a brief video of the event, you can find Ms. Aline Acaf’s email address. Please feel free to contact her if you are interested in inquiring about or in purchasing her work. As mentioned above, you do not have to be residing in the Maritimes, or even in Canada, to become one of her clients. It is also good to keep in mind that since she is a still junior-level artist, you can benefit from the reasonable prices of her work despite its outstanding quality.

“Mabrouk” to Aline. Félicitations/Congrats to her! May she keep on mastering the art of embellishing our world!

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Earlier post on Aline’s paintings:

Ms. Aline Acaf found her passion for painting during the lock down!

Two additional paintings by Aline are shown in this more recent post:

Her name is Aline, she is awesome, and her birthday is today!

The late French singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer, and actor Sasha Distel died on July 20, 2004 (https://shorturl.at/0OXXC). This brief post will honour him with his own beautiful voice.

Bambi used to listen to Mr. Distel’s songs in Beirut during her childhood and teenage years. She likes many of them, particularly the Christmas related-ones and a song, which celebrates the ocean. It is entitled “Le bateau blanc” [The White Boat]. How could she not like the latter when it reminds her of wonderful summers, despite civil war, with family and childhood friends. Indeed, she grew up by the most beautiful sea (yes, she remains biased about the Mediterranean sea; so what?). Anyhow, even if she left the latter 34 years ago, she is lucky to currently live near the majestic Atlantic ocean?

Of note, Mr. Distel who had an “internationally” charming smile sang in German, Russian, Italian, and English in addition to French (as you can notice below). May his memory be eternal, today more than ever.

To conclude this post, Bambi will offer Mr. Sasha Distel’s last love song entitled “Les mots stupides” to Bente, if she happens to be reading this post. The reason is simple: she sings it very well, bravo to her. Who knows? Maybe she will practice it again, if she wishes :).

Bambi and her spouse just returned from a week-long business and fun trip to Warsaw. In her case, it was her first time visiting Poland, the country of Mr. Marek Halter, one of her favourite (Polish-born) French novelists when she was a teenager growing up in Beirut. She discovered him, thanks to her late mom who had several of his books.

Perhaps like you too, Bambi loves languages, including Yiddish, the mother tongue of Mr. Halter’s parents. She does not know about you, but she likes the first name “Marek” a lot (equivalent of Mark or Marc). Indeed, she will allow herself to share a little secret with you now: the latter happens to be one of the several names she considered, in her mind (or was it her heart?) when she had expected, had it been a full-term pregnancy with a male newborn. However, life decided differently with three recurrent miscarriages.

Anyhow, to come back to Warsaw, this post does not pretend to be fair by sharing its charm, some of its moving history (e.g., Jewish Museum, Museum on Communism, old buildings with memorials about massacres from World War II), the kindness of people, even in a different language, and hospitality of residents (i.e., with the 1-2 million Ukrainian people who escaped the tragic war), the elegance of women in their beautiful dresses, sometimes even while biking, and/or impressions about the DELICIOUS Polish food AND candies. Mmm!

What this post will do instead is to share ten pictures Bambi took from the airplane, a time and a space between geographical places and on top of clouds. Is there anything more promising than the existence of such temporary (even when long) time and space, close to landing, where we know our origin and imminent destination, but where we remain in almost surreal moments? She hopes that you will enjoy the scenes as much as she did.

As for you, beautiful Warsaw, “dziękuję” [thank you] for the wonderful memories until hopefully next time… God knows when ❤️!

Bambi has all the reasons of the world to be proud of Roula, her highly inspiring sister. Indeed, some of you may recall that on May 12, 2024, there was a post on this blog devoted to the successful defence of her doctoral dissertation.

Well, with the highest distinction of “Very Honourable”, Dr. Roula Azar Douglas has now officially graduated with a PhD in Humanities (or Human sciences), Specialty in Information and Communication Sciences [“Doctorat en sciences humaines, spécialité sciences de l’information et de la communication”]. This moving moment is captured in the official brief video shared below. The latter will be followed by a musical must: yes, the “Mabrouk” song by the talented Mr. Ramy Ayash.

As a reminder, Dr. Azar Douglas’ PhD dissertation is entitled: The Lebanese press through the prism of gender: from the visible to the invisible. Analysis of the representation of women in an-Nahar and al-Akhbar (January 2019 to February 2020 [“La presse libanaise au prisme du genre: du visible à l’invisible. Analyse de la représentation des femmes dans an-Nahar et al-Akhbar (janvier 2019 à février 2020“]. For more details, and if you are interested, you can consult the earlier post, which is shared at the end of the current one.

With MUCH love, and to conclude this brief yet heartfelt tribute, Bambi has the utmost respect for Roula who had one of the most challenging year at the personal, familial, and national levels. May she keep shining. Lebanon, along with the world, needs her light!

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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Bravo to Dr. Roula Azar Douglas!

Mr. Marc Miller, Federal Immigration Minister, is right and Bambi stands in FULL solidarity with him and with his staff: vandalizing his office is criminal and thus unacceptable.

This being said, it is a bit ironic that the current Government of Canada is filled with wokeism and extremists from this movement keep terrorizing it (i.e., likely ANTIFA, as per the symbol of the upside down triangle). This sad and shocking new development in Montreal is making Bambi think of what happened to Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante a few days ago, as per an older post shared further below.

Our levels of governments, like us all, are far from being perfect. However, to accuse Ms. Valérie Plante of providing weapons to Israel and now Mr. Marc Miller of killing children is pure delusion.

This story could be read in English on CTV News (https://shorturl.at/zu0iR) and watched in French on TVA Nouvelles.

Once again, why are we using the Palestinian cause, to self-destroy our beautiful cities? And how will this serve the Palestinian children, can someone tell Bambi please?

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Disconnect between wokeism and reality: the most leftist/woke of Québec’s mayors, Ms. Valérie Plante, is now accused of providing weapons to Israel. Is there anything more absurd than this?

Did you know that Mr. Jack Layton and Mr. Nelson Mandela were both born on July 18?

Indeed, Mr. Layton was a Canadian hero who was born in Montreal, Québec, on July 18, 1950 (https://shorturl.at/5nVIa). Being a highly inspiring politician, he led the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2003 to 2011 (https://shorturl.at/5nVIa). Canadian respected him. They loved him, even those who may have not fully endorsed the vision of his political party. How could they not to when he demonstrated that he was principled, authentic, and caring in his public service and political leadership?

As for Mr. Nelson Mandela, the HERO of his people (https://shorturl.at/wcGIJ) and the eternal worldwide source of inspiration, he was born on July 18, 1918 in Mvezo, South Africa (https://shorturl.at/FI7cm).

On this July 18, 2024, Bambi could not help not to wonder what would have these two men thought of our troubled Canada and world, had they been alive?

For instance, we live in a troubled country and/or world where many people are scared to express their authentic opinions. They self-censor themselves out of fear of not being politically correct. They walk on eggshells in order not to offend anyone who may professionally and socially cancel them or try to prevent them from earning a living.

We also observe that many politicians are disconnected from the population (luckily not all of them). Some are even disconnected from the best interests of their country. For instance, their loyalty may be to an external source or a to a group of interest.

Who are or would be the next “Jack Layton” and/or next “Nelson Mandela” of the world? Who would dare working for the freedom of their people and for peace in our world?

Bambi will stop her questions here as she is getting sleepy now. Please feel free to share any opinion on this blog or more privately, if you prefer. Until then, this post will end with some famous quotes by both Mr. Layton and Mr. Mandela. May their respective memory be eternal. May fairness, peace, and love triumph over the dark forces of hatred and violence. May everyone live in safety and harmony, whether in Canada or abroad.

Jack Layton

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world”.

“Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world”.

“A prime minister’s job is to make sure the government works for those who have elected him, and not for big corporations”.

“To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope”.

Nelson Mandela

“A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.”

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”

“I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.”

“Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.”

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

“A critical, independent and investigative press is the lifeblood of any democracy. The press must be free from state interference. It must have the economic strength to stand up to the blandishments of government officials. It must have sufficient independence from vested interests to be bold and inquiring without fear or favour. It must enjoy the protection of the constitution, so that it can protect our rights as citizens.”

“Real leaders must be ready to sacrifice all for the freedom of their people.”