Bambi's Thoughts
This brief post is meant to express the following wishes:
May everyone who will be celebrating the 4th of July tomorrow have peace of mind, be safe, and as joyful as possible.
May the year ahead be filled with hope and happiness.
May wisdom, unity, freedom, peace, and prosperity prevail not just in the United States of America, but also in the neighbouring Canada and the entire world, including the Middle East.
Happy 4th of July to all wherever they are at home and abroad ❤️!
As many of you know, Bambi adores Mr. Kendji Girac whose songs are often featured on this blog.
On April 22nd, 2024, he and his family went through an ordeal that could have ended his life (https://shorturl.at/0OI9D). Thank Goodness, he has recovered. Indeed, he is on a healing journey and he wants to live, move forward, love, be loved, and sing again.
This post, which is meant to send this young and HIGHLY talented French singer/songwriter positive vibes across the ocean, will share his own heartfelt message while ending with his uplifting music.
Because Mr. Girac’s message is expressed in French, it will be followed by a quick English translation (thank you, Mr. Google Translate).
As for you Mr. Kendji Girac, please keep on taking good care… and BRAVO for your inspiring courage!
“I am so stressed and happy at the same time to address all of you.
Since my message of May 10, I have not given you any news because I had to take care of myself and think about what had happened to understand how I got to this point and, above all, make the right decisions for the future.
I also wanted to let justice do its work. Now that this is the case, I am keen, since I am better, to speak out. I am reaching out to you with my words to tell you how much I truly regret everything that happened.
Before the accident and for some time, I had developed bad habits. I had entered a spiral that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. Despite the advice of those around me, I was not aware of it at all and unfortunately, I got lost.
All that is not part of me, I’m not a boy like that, that’s why I’m telling you that I got lost and that I want to apologize to you today.
I almost lost my life, the love of my family, my audience, my friends.
My daughter almost lost her father.
I don’t know what happened. So I don’t plan on doing all these things again, obviously. I want to go back to being the boy I am deep inside.
The most important thing is to learn from our mistakes. We can always get back up in life. The most important thing is to understand it. To get the needed help so we don’t start again. That’s actually what I’m doing today.
I also understood that there are a lot of people who love me: my family, my friends, my daughter, my wife, my audience. All of this is the centre of my life, this is why I want to apologize to those I have hurt, to whom I have caused pain. I never wanted that.
God gave me this second chance. And it’s not for nothing. It’s to make things more beautiful. Now it’s all behind me”.
From the bottom of her heart, Bambi thanks Dr. Gábor Lukács for giving her the permission to share with you all his very thoughtful article, which was published today on LinkedIn (https://shorturl.at/hmoin). July 1st is not over yet :). Happy Canada Day again and enjoy the rest of the week everyone ❤️!
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“A plea for restoring tolerance and ending division
For the past sixteen years, I have been fortunate to be able to keep my advocacy work and personal political views separate, and have deluded myself that I can keep doing so.
My wake-up call came on Canada Day 2024 in the seemingly benign signature line of an interview request, identifying the reporter as a “settler” in Canada. The reporter, whose work and intellect I greatly respect, seemed utterly oblivious that some people may find this terminology and the related identity politics offensive and divisive, and that it may make others feel unwelcome in Canada.
Perhaps it is my fault and the fault of other like-minded Canadians that we have remained silent for too long, and have allowed a vocal ideological fringe group to create the illusion that they are the majority and their views are what average Canadians believe. It is time to speak up.
I am an immigrant to Canada. I was born in Hungary, lived in Israel from age 8 to 16, and came to Canada by myself before my 17th birthday as an international student to do my PhD in mathematics at York University in Toronto. Back in 1999, York University was an amazing place that truly celebrated multiculturalism and diversity, provided spaces and venues for a wide range of political views, and had a large variety of student groups and clubs reflecting these values. In those days, students’ racial, ethnic, cultural, or national origins just did not matter at York. The unwritten rule was not to bring “political baggage” from our “old home” but to debate every topic, including sensitive ones, as academics.
Typical of those times, one of my non-academic mentors turned out to be the late Father Massey Lombardi, a Roman Catholic priest who kindly allowed me to practice my meager keyboard skills on the organ at his church. Father Lombardi’s best friend was a Jewish rabbi, and both of them accepted me as an atheist.
It was this culture of tolerance and acceptance, the urging of my amazing professors at York and of Father Lombardi, that persuaded me to apply for permanent residence in Canada. It is thanks to them that in 2005 I became a permanent resident, choosing Canada as my home, and that in 2009 I became a Canadian citizen. My intent was to be an equal among equals, nothing more and nothing less.
It is this culture of tolerance, acceptance, and equality that I am being robbed of gradually, over the past few years, and I am feeling increasingly unwelcome in Canada.
The reporter’s signature as a “settler” was the last straw. How ironic that it came on Canada Day.
If a person born and raised in Canada is a “settler,” a kind of second-class citizen, then what am I in Canada? A “newcomer”? A “hunky”? A third-class citizen? What happened to “a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian”?
Like any other country, Canada too is built on the ruins of injustices; but two wrongs do not make a right. Turning one group of Canadians into scapegoats and unwelcome second-class citizens is not the cure for the countless historic injustices committed against other groups; rather, it is bound to alienate allies, and ultimately members of marginalized groups will end up paying the price for being used as pawns on the political chessboard.
It is high time to restore the culture of tolerance, acceptance, and equality that used to nourish Canada, and to end the division and the pitting of Canadians against each other under the guise of identity politics.
Those who seek to “decolonize” Canada may wish to consider exercising their right under s. 6(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, with particular emphasis on its last two words.
We, the silent majority, however, prefer to live in peace with our fellow Canadians, and have no interest in importing any culture war into our lives, workplaces, and cities.”
“Identity Politics destroys the unity of a country” by David Hunt and Rima Azar in The Epoch Times, June 29, 2024): https://archive.is/cz1DJ .
“David Hunt is the Research Director at the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy.
Rima Azar, PhD, is a Senior Fellow at the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, an Associate Professor of Health Psychology at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, and the Founder and Director of the Psychobiology of Stress and Health Lab (PSHL) there” (https://archive.is/cz1DJ OR https://shorturl.at/uVPsD).
Happy Canada Day ❤️! Bonne Fête du Canada ❤️!
Did you know that today is devoted to cameras in all their “forms”? Yes, it is National Camera Day (https://shorturl.at/J4Hj2). Bearing the latter in mind, Bambi is grateful to Brittany for her artistic skills in using her camera as well as for her generosity. Indeed, thanks to her friend’s lens, this post is devoted to the beauty of the Atlantic Canadian province of New Brunswick (NB). Of note, the eleven pictures and two videos, shared below, were taken in the region of Alma (Fundy-Albert; https://shorturl.at/3lN4z), Crooked Creek river (https://shorturl.at/rD8t0), and in Quiddy Falls (https://shorturl.at/MDTbT). This post will end with The New Brunswick Song by the talented Mr. Ethan Ash and Mr. James Mullinger. Thanks again and happy Canada long weekend, Brittany :)❤️!
Many thanks, and bravo, to the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy for the much needed mini-documentary shown below, which is entitled “George Orwell comes to Canada: Is our history heading for a 1984-style memory hole?“. This clever video ends with “three ways on how to help other Canadians restore reason and sense in Canada“.
Bambi is proud to have contributed a chapter to the book mentioned at the end of this mini-documentary, namely: “Azar R (2023). I know what Identity politics does to a nation: I’m from Lebanon. In M Milke (Ed.). The 1867 Project. Why Canada Should be Cherished_Not Cancelled. Calgary: The Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy”.
Bambi will spare you a City News Montreal video showing protesters trying to topple down Queen Victoria’s status two nights ago. Instead, she will only share a picture, with the following absurd slogan (in English, not in French, mind you): “Peace is the white man’s word. The word resistance is ours“.
On which planet does the person who came up with this slogan live? Although it is a planet of activism (i.e., regardless of the cause du jour), it does not seem to be a planet of reality, nuances, common sense, and… humanity, despite any good intention.
This being said, may God/Allah/G-d/Gods/No God (pick the word you wish; they all apply) of love have mercy on the Middle East, and all ongoing armed conflicts, to protect ALL the innocent citizens caught in the middle of unwanted violence. May peace prevail. May love triumph… and may everyone be safe and sound.
As for Montreal, Québec, and Canada, may common sense know how to find its way back to them again. It is about time.
A couple of years ago, Quebec Deposit and Investment Fund (in French: the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec ou la CDPQ) was the target of much social pressure, and even shaming, to divest from companies related to fossil fuels in the name of climate emergency (https://shorturl.at/DeUvf) ). Today, the same network of people are busy occupying Montreal public streets with their so-called Pro-Palestine tents to put pressure on the CDPQ to divest from companies they say are closely, remotely, or vaguely related to Israel. What would be the next cause du jour, following the Middle East and climate emergency, Bambi cannot help to wonder ahead of time?
These demonstrators, shown in the City News video below, seem to be unable to have a wider vision, contrary to their fellow citizens who have been on the job market for more years (maybe even more than their ages). They seem to be too fixated on the idea of boycotting or divesting from this or that, that they do not seem to care if they are lacking empathy and/or common sense. Instead, they impose their own morality on the rest of the population. Is this fair to their hardworking fellow citizens and tax-payers, including maybe their own families?
One cannot help not to wonder why they seem to insist on pushing their idea that far, without considering its potential effect on society in the longer term. In other countries like Lebanon, Syria, or maybe Palestine that they speak in its name, hyperinflation ridiculously devalued people’s pensions (i.e., no purchasing power to even buy food). Why do we keep pushing for more taxes or less opportunities for investment and growth in the name of a virtuous cause du jour?
Regardless, in an attempt to try to help these demonstrators achieve their goal fast, while preventing future similar campaigns and crises, Bambi has a suggestion to the CDPQ for a simple solution: please open an investment fund account for the demonstrators. You may even perhaps call it “Le fonds d’investissement pour les causes du jour” (or Investment Fund for the Causes du Jour in English). Let citizens who want to invest in it, like them, be absolutely free to be as socially virtuous as they wish in the management of their finances and in their poorer retirement. However, for God’s sake, let their fellow citizens remain free in their investment choices without shaming them in the name of this or that cause du jour. After paying much taxes and now living with more housing expenses, the least would be to allow them to be able to still enjoy a financially stable retirement. Yes, they deserve to live with a decent quality of life.
To conclude this post, Bambi has a burning question for Mayor Valérie Plante: how come homeless people cannot have encampments in public places in Montreal whereas these demonstrators can? In other terms, why the double-standard? And what is next for the beautiful yet troubled Montreal? Merci.
Happy Birthday, dearest Sally. Thank you for being yourself and for regularly enriching this blog with your comments. With love, Bambi wishes you a great day/year.
As for you Jeannot (or Jean) and Jean, Happy Name Day and best wishes from Bambi who is thinking of both of you.
This being said, now is the time to wish all the Francophones of North America, including those in Atlantic Canada and especially Québeckers a Happy Saint-Jean. As for you, beloved Québec, “Bonne Fête Nationale” .
For those of you who do not know it yet, Bambi loves the province of Québec a lot that her brain feels that she has a long weekend (even without the latter). Indeed, she has felt like this on every June 24 for the past twenty years. Yes, our brain is not only a complex but also a strange organ sometimes :). Who knows? Maybe Bambi’s brain is simply being like Québec’s slogan: “Je me souviens” [I Remember]!
This picture shows a scene, which is starting to increasingly smell like our collectively insane times during the violent demonstrations in the name of BLM. Where is Ms. Valérie Plante to react to this vandalism at Square Victoria? How sad it is to, once again, use the Palestinian cause to destroy our beautiful Montreal and Canada. Enough of violence in Canada, this time in the name of the Middle East.
