Author: Bambi

Only a mathematician of Mr. Blaise Pascal’s calibre can both come to the world and die on the 19th day of a month at the age of 39.

Of note, Pascal was more than a French mathematician. He was also a physicist, an inventor, a philosopher, and a writer. He is well known for the invention of the precursor of the calculator, called Pascal’s calculator or a “Pascaline” (shown above).

Since we are June 19, like the day of his birth in 1623, this post will share a few of his quotes and end with a song, by Mr. Nicola Ciconne [subtitled in French, if you wish to try to sing it :)]. This musical choice is Bambi’s attempt to honour Pascal’s first deep saying, which goes like this: “Do not try to add more years to your life. Better add more life to your years“. Indeed, Ciccone’s song is called “Je ne veux pas mourir avant d’être mort” [I do not want to die before dying]. It is about leading a meaningful life, or being full of life. According to the singer-songwriter, it is about living with a sense of urgency, so to speak. This implies making choices and taking decisions, which allow us to fully embrace life and enjoy it (https://shorturl.at/qVW02).

May Pascal’s sayings or calculator, along with Ciconne’s words and music, inspire you to have a meaningful and fun new week ahead!

To Antoine, Bambi’s “baba” or papy, with much love: of course, you are being honoured every day, not just on this Sunday. However, today is all yours. Enjoy it ❤️!

To Robert, Bambi’s father-in-law, with tenderness: today is also your special day, have fun ❤️!

To Bambi’s readers with positive vibes: have a lovely day too. Some of you may be fathers, grandfathers, expectant fathers, and/or aspiring fathers. Some do not wish to have children while for others life did not make paternity possible. Perhaps your own father and/or father of your children are in this place called heaven. May their memory and love legacy be eternal.

To conclude this post on a musical note, Bambi would like to thank her friend Spencer for introducing her to the second lovely (English) song. Happy Father’s Day to his inspiring dad!

Time flies… Already 33 years in Canada!

On this day, year after year, it is impossible for Bambi not to have gratitude in her heart for her parents who brought their children to safety in 1990 ❤️.

Today, Bambi has spent almost twice as much time in Canada as in her birth country. She is lucky to have lived in three beautiful provinces.

Number thirty-three sounds nice to the ears, her now-ready-for-the weekend-mind is thinking, because it is Jesus’ age (when he died), as they commonly say in her birth country :). OK, she is saying so while hoping she will outlive this number to celebrate June 17 again and again!

On June 14, 1965, The Beatles recorded their eternal Yesterday (https://shorturl.at/aBDS6). Fifty-eight years later, Mr. Nicola Ciconne sings it in such a beautiful way. Bravo and thank you, Mr. Ciconne!

Like today, in 2017, the French and international Rock icon, Mr. Johnny Hallyday, died at at age 74. Although he left our world, he remains in the hearts of his fans, including those of Bambi, her family, and many of her friends. May his memory be eternal.

Hallyday’s impressive career lasted for over fifty years (https://shorturl.at/qryEZ). Thank Goodness, his musical legacy will remain immortal.

To honour Mr. Hallyday’s memory, Bambi will share Youtube videos of his performance in both French and English. Some of the chosen French songs are sub-titled in English, for your convenience. You will hear him singing Brel, Ferré, Cossette, Piaf, Bonifay (Souvenirs, souvenirs followed by its English version), and Aznavour with an English duo with this late GREAT singer-songwriter.

To conclude this post, Bambi admits to being selfish. She chose songs she happens to adore, without thinking if they were Hallyday’s own melodies. Indeed, she started with her favourite French love song, Brel’s Ne me Quitte Pas (which later led to the “If you Go Away” song in English). She hopes you will enjoy listening to Hallyday’s unique voice and amazing performance, whether you happen to be his fan too or you are discovering him postmortem.

Bambi is honoured to be one of the scholars on the advisory Committee of the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, “a new think tank that aims to renew a civil, common-sense approach to public discourse and public policy in Canada” (https://shorturl.at/dvG49).

The vision of the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy is as follows: ” A Canada where the sacrifices and successes of past generations are cherished and built upon; where citizens value each other for their character and merit; and where open inquiry and free expression are prized as the best path to a flourishing future for all” (https://shorturl.at/dvG49).

To learn more about this highly promising think tank, you may wish to read the beautiful message of hope of its President, Dr. Mark Milke, with whom Bambi has been honoured to work over the past few months (https://shorturl.at/dvG49).

If you are interested, you may wish to watch these very informative and interesting videos on why this tank think (Dr. Milke) and why a Calgary Entrepreneur (Mr. Chuma Chukwulozie) is supporting it!

This being said, today is a big day in the short, yet very productive, life of the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy. How could it not be when its firs book, edited by Dr. Milke, has just gone live on Amazon paperback, Kindle e-book, and as a Kobo e-book (https://shorturl.at/eqtCT)!

Bambi invites you to purchase this great book (only CAD $25) and to encourage your friends and acquaintances to do the same, if you like it. Any constructive commentary is welcome on Amazon too.

To encourage you to learn more about this much needed book, Bambi will share excerpts and videos. First, some excerpts can be found in this link (https://shorturl.at/kzIV7) and four of them below, including excerpts from Bambi’s chapter along with those from a Law Professor she is fond of, Dr. Bruce Pardy (she never imagined being an author in the same book as him!). Last but not least, you can find four 2-minute-videos by four book authors, including Bambi.

To conclude, long live the Aristotle Foundation of Canada! Bravo for the new book whose message is about openness, intellectual diversity, and even love for our beautiful Canada. To those of you who are sick and tired of censorship and bullying, like Bambi, this book is for you. Let’s all promote it! 

She does not know about you, but Bambi loves flowers in all their shapes and colours, as you can see in the older posts shared further below.

Yesterday was a lucky day for Bambi as she received beautiful pictures of flowers from her parents as well as from Brittany and Fred, respectively. Her parents’ flowers are in the family of Gardenia Jasminoides [thanks again Nicole for teaching her this lesson]. Brittany’s flower is a Rhododendron canadense while Fred’s is a Petunias [to be on the safe side, Bambi asked them about these names. No, she did not become savvy with flowers all of a sudden : )].

Following the shared pictures, this brief post will end with Dalida’s “Le temps des fleurs” [Flowers Times] performed by a Lebanese singer called Ms. Carla Haddad. Bambi is happy to discover her. She sings in a “floral” fusion of the French, English, and Arabic languages.

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Do flowers, real or virtual, from loved ones make you feel lucky?

Mr. Zaki Nassif: “Lover of flowers” [“Ya Ashikata el Wardi”]

What is your favourite flower?

Cherry blossom season through the eyes of Rita!

Beirut: A new government, a balcony, and a song

This very informative video lasts less than five minutes. It is in French and sub-titled in English. Under the YouTube video, we can read the following:

“ Beirut, a city of refuge in the Arab world for the LGBTQ+ community? If the Lebanese capital has such a positive image, it’s not from nowhere. It’s the result of years of activism.

These few victories should not, however, conceal a much darker reality in Lebanon. The country’s political, social and economic crises are growing and have especially impacted the LGBTQ+ community, according to observers on the ground.

From the economic downfall to the explosion in the port of Beirut, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic, recent events have destroyed some of this community’s safe havens and reduced an already fragile level of freedom.

This is a step backward in a country that, despite its tolerant image, has always maintained a homophobic legislative framework, and where negative public perceptions of LGBTQ+ people prevail.

For Pride Month, a worldwide celebration held every year in June as a reminder of the fight for LGBTQ+ rights, we explain it all to you in just five minutes”.

Bambi just read an article in the Globe and Mail entitled “By supporting press freedom, Trudeau reaffirms Canada’s historic role in Ukraine” (http://surl.li/hygsd). In addition to a second surprise-visit to Kiev, along with a commitment of $500M more in military aid, our Prime Minister is again giving the world moral lessons, this time about democracy (http://surl.li/hwchg). He is good at it, being a great speaker and initially a teacher.

Of course, Mr. Trudeau is also absolutely right about the meaning of his words on press freedom and also on defending nations when they are barbarically attacked. In Bambi’s mind, the problem is twofold: (1) clearly, the domestic walk does not match his international talk (or it would only when it could be politically exploited); and (2) even just causes, like defending against attacks, will eventually, most likely, end with diplomatic international negotiations. So, why not try to give peaceful solutions an earlier chance instead of fuelling wars that can last for too long? Bambi may sound naive to some of her readers for saying so. It is true that she is neither a politician nor a diplomat. She is a simple deer who grew up during a bloody war from age 3 (2.9, precisely) to 17? She knows something about this type of life cruelty.

To come back to Mr. Trudeau, he is reported to be saying: “We’re going to continue to talk about the best practices of democracy with all of our friends, as we always do around the world” (http://surl.li/hygsd). Very beautiful words, but did he resort to best practices of democracy himself in his own country? Bambi is precisely thinking about how he did not talk to Canadian truck drivers and farmers who drove from all over our big and beautiful country to Ottawa, hoping to have a chat with him and of being heard? Instead of democracy, didn’t his government restrict the freedom of these people by freezing their bank accounts? And earlier, didn’t he, willingly or clumsily, contributed to pit us against each other during the pandemic by calling some of us who did not want to be vaccinated “women-haters, racists, and science-deniers“?

Plus, why is the CBC (or Radio-Canada) still resorting to censorship (http://surl.li/hygju), whether endorsed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in federal courts or not (http://surl.li/hygml)? Why can’t journalists pronounce full titles of Canadian historical books? Books that want to precisely score a point with their titles on top of that? Are these best practices of democracy, Mr. Trudeau? And aren’t our collectively insane times sad, both on the intellectual and social levels?

And what can Bambi say about Bill C-11 than her earlier post shown further below? A bill that seems to be harmless and some would argue needed; nevertheless, it could be legally used, while being socially acceptable, to restrict online freedom of expression (of some of us). And what about the numerous stories of censorship or self-censorship in our media or elite circles (http://surl.li/hygml)? Are these examples of “best practices of democracy“?

Anyhow, this post will not solve the issue of neither political incongruence nor censorship. It is just raising questions and perhaps also expressing increased disappointment. To end this post on a musical and amusing note, there is nothing like Dalida and Mr. Alain Delon’s love song entitled “Paroles, parole, paroles” [ Words, words, words]. Bambi has offered it to Mr. Trudeau in the past on her blog. If she may, she would like to do it again now.

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Too bad Canada’s Trudeau does not have an ounce of wisdom of Germany’s President Steinmeier and Chancellor Scholz

Bill C-11 seems to request “Canadian content” for internet porn. Is our government a joke?

Bill C-11 on online streaming: Why does Canada insist on possibly looking like Dubai, Qatar, Singapore… or worse, China?

Bill C-11 on online streaming: “sold” to Québec as a promoter of its culture while a tool for eventual censorship for Canadians?

Surprise, Jessy! For your birthday and to honour our childhood friendship, Bambi has a few songs for you today.

First and foremost, she will reassure you that your first personalized Happy Birthday melody is meant for a “Jessy“, not for a “Djéjé” [chicken in the Lebanese-Arabic dialect, which would be “Dajaja” in Standard Arabic]. She hopes you are smiling now :). Seriously, please consider this joke as Bambi’s way of publicly ask for your forgiveness for all her childhood and youth silly moments where she indulged in teasing to the point that chicken became like a slightly annoying habit and a contagious familial tradition.

Jessy, Bambi loves you so much ❤️. Her dream is to feature your superb, impressive jewellery creations on her blog one of these days. For now, she will just focus on thanking you for being her wonderful, and loyal, friend for the past 48 years . Long live le “Petit Jardin” where we met when we started our school journey together.

Despite being busy with your lovely family, inspiring teaching career, and extended familial responsibilities, you have always taken the time to check on Bambi’s parents. You have done it in times of peace as well as Lebanon’s historical drama. Indeed, over the past three decades, you have called or visited them, making them feel cared for and loved. As you know, they also love you a lot, like their daughter.

May you have a wonderful birthday, Jessy. Have fun and get spoiled too. God knows how much you deserve it!