Author: Bambi

Anti-semitism is known as a type of hostile prejudice targeting Jewish people. Zionism refers to the movement that created a Jewish state in the Middle East, which supports the modern state of Israel. In that sense, anti-zionism is the opposition to the latter movement. It is not meant to be anti-semitic in theory, but in practice it may be perceived in a different way.

Bearing the above in mind, how sad when the Lebanese State Minister of Culture confuses the latter with politics in the most limited sense of the term. Not any Minister. We are talking about an experienced former judge (https://bit.ly/3TByBUf). By the way, since we are at it, why would a former judge become a politician? Bambi thought that the judiciary and the government were supposed to be two separate worlds of power.

Anyhow, when it comes to the world of culture, writers make us dream. They inspire us while making us escape our own realities to imagine a more appealing world. In that sense, why is the Lebanese Minister of Culture preventing his people from access to such magic stemming from the beautiful French literature? The latter is featured in the francophone and international event, shown below AND initially supported by the Official Lebanon:

Why is Bambi writing the above about this Minister? Well, she learned from La Presse and confirmed it with L’Orient Le Jour as well as both French (https://bit.ly/3TyPZJm; https://bit.ly/3DbgC1w; https://bit.ly/3Tzglec) and international English-media (https://bit.ly/3EYI5oG) the following story:

About a hundred Francophone writers from all over the world, including of course the host Lebanon, began meeting in Beirut yesterday (at the “Beyrouth Livres“), an innovative cultural hub event in which the four finalists of the prestigious Goncourt 2022 Award will be announced. Sadly, it turned out that four members of the latter, namely Mr. Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Mr. Tahar Ben Jelloun, Mr. Pascal Bruckner, and Mr. Pierre Assouline, decided not to come to Beirut anymore. Why? Because, on October 8, the Minister of Culture of this country accused some writers participating at this event, without naming them, of supporting zionism. He then removed his message from social media. His words were something like the following: “He would not allow Zionists to come among us and spread the venom of Zionism in Lebanon“.

It seems that a Lebanese media called Al Akhbar, as per TV5 Monde (https://bit.ly/3gpqWdf) applauded the above words with the following terms: “Beirut is standing up to the Zionists”. However, thankfully, there are still courageous free spirits in Lebanon who refused attacks on the freedom of expression and who defended culture with a petition (https://bit.ly/3yWbdJj)!

As per TV5 Monde, this story reminds us of what happened to Mr. Amine Maalouf in 2006. As a reminder he is the winner of the Goncourt prize. What an honour to his birth country! Well, shortly after he had been the target of a vicious boycott campaign in Lebanon for giving an interview to an Israeli media.

The official Lebanon, through its Minister of Culture and at least one of its media, has forgotten that the Lebanese government (with the apparent blessing of Hezbollah) just settled an Israeli–Lebanese maritime border dispute. It means that they officially, both domestically and internationally, recognized the existence and even sustainability of Israel. They did so for economic (or may God forbid potential for corruption) reasons. However, when it comes to “Culture”, in their mind, their country must remain prisoner of cancel culture or boycott. Is there anything more hypocritical than this in life?

Bravo, and thank you, to the great Lebanese and Romanian artists featured in this post for their BEAUTIFUL performance!

All the names of these artists, which appear below, were taken from the description of the Youtube video of the “Ya Rayt” song. The latter is followed by the lyrics, first in Arabic and then in English.

For those who do not understand the lyrics in the beautiful Arabic language, from the Youtube post below, we learn the following: “This is a love song lamenting the events that occurred on a fateful day between two lovers, changing the course of their relationship. They wish that day to be undone, clinging to the idea that with love there is always hope and salvation”.

“Vocals: Mike Massy

Lyrics by: Ghida El Yaman

Music Composed by: Malek El Yaman

Orchestration and Piano by: Lucas Sakr

Performed by: Bucharest Studio Orchestra

Conductor: Alexandru Moraru

Strings Recording by: Andrei Barbu

Vocal Recording, Mixing and Mastering by: Ralph Sleiman

Director of Photography: Catalin Fatu

Camera Operators: Catalin Fatu, George Ionascu, Florin Hatmanu

Editing by: Sary Asmar

Produced by: Malek El Yaman

Lyrics in Arabic (English follows):

يا ريت فينا ننسى شو قلنا وشو اللي صار

بيناتنا يا عمري ونمحي من العمر نهار..

زعلنا وبكينا تفارقنا وقسينا

والقسا بير كبير معذّبتو الأسرار

بسّ قالو إنّو الحبّ أقوى من الدّني

وقادر إنّو يرجّعنا لعمر الولدني

يا ريت فينا ننسى شو قلنا وشو اللي صار

بيناتنا يا عمري تا نكمّل المشوار

***

يا ريت فينا ننسى شو قلنا وشو اللي صار

بيناتنا يا عمري ونمحي من العمر نهار..

من كلمة تجافينا وضاقت فينا الدّني

ومن كتر ما توجّعنا صار العمر ختيار

بتعرف إنّي بلاك ما بشبه أنا حالي

ومن دونك يا أنا عم ينطفي خيالي

بدّي تبقى حبيبي ورفيقي شو ما صار

خلّينا يا حبيبي نخبّي الحزن تذكار…

يا ريت فينا ننسى شو قلنا وشو اللي صار

بيناتنا يا عمري ونمحي من العمر نهار..

Lyrics in English:

If only we could forget

What we said and what happened

Between us, my love,

And erase a day from our lives

We fought,

We cried

We drifted apart,

Our souls hardened like stone

And separation is a deep, deep well

Tortured by all its secrets

But they say that love is stronger than the world

That it can bring us back to our young selves

…If only we could forget

What we said and what happened

Between us, my love,

So we can keep on going

If only we could forget

What we said and what happened

Between us, my love,

And erase a day from our lives

A single word tore us apart

And the world became so small

And with all that pain,

We suddenly grew old

You know, without you,

I don’t resemble myself

And without you, my love,

My shadow is dying

I want you to be my sweetheart, my friend,

No matter what

Let’s just hide sorrow,

Like a memory, a souvenir

If only we could forget

What we said and what happened

Between us, my love,

And erase a day from our lives”.

When Bambi read about what our federal government is suggesting to do to our BEAUTIFUL French language, she almost had the Marie Antoinette syndrome. Yes, her hair almost suddenly turned ALL white (mind you, she is eager to get to that stage, but a bit more gradually).

Today, she was VERY happy to read Dr. Mathieu Bock-Côté’s refreshing and sharp article , published in the Journal de Montréal, about this topic (https://bit.ly/3S6oKVm).

One thing is clear in her own mind: She does not know about you (you are free), but as far as she is concerned, she refuses to to take part in such a masquerade of the French language.

The above being said, below is a very quick translation of Dr. Bock-Côté’s article (thanks to Mr. Google Translate), with a few comments by Bambi inserted here and there. This post will end with Mr. Yves Duteil’s superb song on the French language (i.e., how it is still being spoken in North America). Why can’t we keep respecting it?

Bambi will stop here. Below you can find Dr. Bock-Côté’s thoughtful text. Thanks to him.

—

“Radio-Canada [the French CBC] recently informed us that Ottawa has produced a guide to promote and oversee what some call “inclusive writing”.

The latter is based on a paranoid and false thesis: the French language is patriarchal, sexist, transphobic and discriminatory, and it should therefore be reformed by imposing new rules on it, supposed to make visible women, trans people and non-binary people (those who do not identify as either masculine or feminine).

Paranoia

Thus, we will change our way of writing.

It will no longer be necessary to write the students, or even “les étudiants et les étudiantes”, but the studen.t.s. [étudiant.e.s. in French]. This rule can be applied to many words. It has the fault of making the language unreadable by hatching it.

We will also invent words. Rather than “celles” [female of those] et “ceux” [male of those], we invent “celleux” [what an ugly and absurd word]. And rather than he and she, we are pushed to write “iel” [grammatical nonsense].

We will also ban some words. We should no longer speak of deputies, but of parliamentarians, since this word applies to men, women and non-binary people. And so on.

Let it be said: this writing is part of the takeover of the French language by an ideological minority [how sad to make our beautiful French language that ugly, for generations to come, in order to satisfy an ideological minority, which will eventually get tired of being that ideological].

Worse, this way of writing is no longer exclusive to the most radical neo-feminists.

As I said, Ottawa promotes it, and non-binary activists want to generalize it. They even dream of making it compulsory at school in the name of inclusion.

This way of writing is becoming more and more essential in our media and in companies.

Worse: people who hate this way of writing now practice this Newspeak [“Novlangue”, thank you Dr. Mathieu Bock-Côté for this term].

Submission

Why? Because they will get noticed if they don’t. Today, writing in “inclusive” is a way of publicly adhering to political correctness, of showing that one is “progressive”.

But whoever refuses to do so will pass for an ugly conservative. Most dread this bad reputation. So they submit”.

Bambi thanks Aline for sharing the moving video below by Mr. Tom Fletcher.

Mr. Fletcher was the British Ambassador to Lebanon from 2011 to 2015.

Bambi would like to thank Fatma for attracting her attention to spread of cholera in Lebanon. What is cholera? It is a bacterial disease, which spreads through contaminated water or food. Cholera can cause severe diarrhea and, thus, dehydration.

The good news about cholera is that it is easily treated. Indeed, death from severe dehydration can be prevented with a simple and inexpensive sugar-salt rehydration solution. However, the worrisome news about this disease is the following: left untreated, it can rapidly be fatal, even within hours, not just in vulnerable people but also in initially healthy ones.

Luckily, in industrialized countries, adequate sewage and water sanitation have eliminated cholera. However, the latter disease still exists in countries like Haiti, in Southeast Asia, and in Africa. Tragically, the ongoing civil war in Syria has severely damaged water infrastructure.

Since September 2022, there is a new cholera outbreak in Syria. It has now spread to neighbouring countries, including Lebanon and Irak. By extension, it is also posing a risk to the rest of the Middle East.

As tweeted by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, in the past 48 hours, there has been 46 new Cholera cases. This raises the cumulative number of cases to 89 (mostly in North Lebanon). Sadly, there has been one mortality, which raises the cumulative number of deaths to 3:

Before concluding this post with Lebanese media articles on the topic in Arabic, English, and French, Bambi would like to express the two following thoughts: (1) How sad to see cholera in the Middle East. In the case of Lebanon, it is coming back after over three decades and (2) Even when bankrupt, and on its knees in so many ways, Lebanon is usually skilled in managing national crises (like consequences of armed conflicts, explosions, other crises, etc.). Specifically, the Ministry of Public Health has worked hard, and relatively very efficiently, in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic from the best of its capacity (despite the multiple crises of the country). Bambi wishes Lebanon all the best in all its efforts to control the cholera outbreak and to reduce death!

Arabic content:

https://www.annahar.com/arabic/section/77-

English content:

https://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/292975

https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1314886/lebanon-records-46-new-cholera-cases-in-the-last-48-hours.html

https://www.mtv.com.lb/en/News/Local/1317162/moph–46-new-cholera-cases–one-death

French content:

https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1314888/le-liban-enregistre-46-nouveaux-cas-de-cholera-en-48-heures.html

Gina is one of Bambi’s friends. She enjoys hiking and wild animals. Yesterday, she walked and climbed Mount Chauve, which is about 600 metres in altitude with a superb view of Mount Orford. During her visit to this national park, she bumped into a few deer. Once again, very kindly, she thought of Bambi :).

Thanks Gina for remembering your friend in New Brunswick and for your generosity, which will enrich her blog. Bambi trusts that the dear readers of this post will enjoy your beautiful pictures!

This being said, to end this post on a musical note, two songs come to Bambi’s mind: First and foremost, a French melody called “Octobre” by Mr. Francis Cabrel. Last but not least, Bambi also remembered Mr. Eric Clapton’s version of “Automn Leaves“.

Since October 17, 2019, the Lebanese population cannot have access to savings in banks. The people of Lebanon went down to the streets expressing their anger and frustration for many days, weeks, and months. No one listened to them.

Despite international efforts to force overdue financial reforms in Lebanon, nothing was done by its political leaders. Furthermore, no one went to jail over Lebanon’s Ponzi finance scheme.

There has been the Covid-19 pandemic and a surrealistic Beirut port explosion that destroyed half of the capital on August 4, 2020. Again, no one went to jail. Instead, the courageous Judge Tarek Bitar, investigating the blast, has been the target of legal and illegal intimidation (as a reminder, the first judge on the case was removed from his functions by the Lebanese authorities).

Today, the Lebanese politicians are fighting over who would become the next President of the Republic. There is still no government formed, if Bambi understands well. There is a scary hyperinflation, a bankrupt state that cannot provide basic needs to its citizens (power, water, etc.) and meat to feed its army for over two years now. In addition, there is a massive exodus of Lebanese professionals (including badly needed physicians and nurses), families, and young people.

Bambi is writing the above, and in all honesty, she does not have any clue where to go with this post and how to end it. She just wonders what the future holds for her birth country. With this question in mind, Bambi will leave you with a Lebanese song she posted twice on this blog before. Sadly, it remains timely as you can see from an English translation of its powerful 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)”

Bambi is blessed to have adorable nephews and nieces, including Nicolas.

Today is a significant moment of the year for Nicolas and for his entire family.

This is why, across the miles, his aunt [and godmother :)] Bambi is now virtually shouting: “Surprise, Nicolas“!

Yes, you got it right, dear Nicolas: this post is devoted to wishing you a Happy Birthday. Bambi is grateful to have you in her life. She loves you beyond words❤️.

Her wish for you is to have a wonderful day and a fantastic new year. May the latter be filled with love, continuous successes, and dreams/projects for a bright future!

Bambi woke up today with the Arabic version of the “Windmills of your mind” on her mind. She kept singing it through the day… at least thus far.

Out of compassion for your ears, she will spare you her own frog’s singing. She will instead share different versions of this famous song by some inspiring international artists, including two from Canada.

If you have the time to listen to these melodies, she hopes you will enjoy them!

First, let’s start with the great Arabic version of Ms. Hiba Tawaji, followed by Mr. Mark Hatem’s moving interpretation. This Lebanese song is entitled “La bidayi wla nihayi“, which means “No beginning and no end“.

Then it is time for the beautiful English original version with Mr. Omar Kamal who is known worldwide as the “Frank Sinatra of Palestine“. Indeed, what a charming voice!

The English will be followed by the wonderful French, which is the other original version by Mr. Michel Legrand. The song is entitled “Les moulins de mon coeur“. Bravo to Ms. Marie-Denise Pelletier and Mr. Daniel Lavoie!

Last but not least, this post will end with a lovely German version of the “Windmills of your mind“. It is entitled “Windmühlen” by Mr. Ziganando. Thank you and bravo too!

Bambi loves “Les Filles de Caleb” [let’s call it Caleb’s daughters” in English]. When she was a student in Québec, as a Christmas gift, she offered her mom the three books of this series written by Ms. Arlette Cousture. When she visited her parents in Beirut this past summer, she came across this book. Indeed, her mom was having fun re-reading it.

Recently, Bambi learned about another stupid censorship story. This time, it is by Netflix and it involves “Les filles de Caleb“. Dr. Mathieu Bock-Côté’s article, published in the Journal de Montréal about this saga is sharp and straight to the point (https://bit.ly/3eBhD9S). Bambi will translate it for you below:

“We are talking about it: Netflix, the famous American platform, which has undertaken to broadcast Caleb’s daughters, has above all decided to censor an episode.

The reason? A character paints his face in black to play one of the three kings in a Christmas play.

I should point out that the series, shot in the 1990s, takes place at the end of the 19th century, in Mauricie. But Netflix does not understand Québec history and its officials have decided to see it as blackface, a reason justifying the censorship of the episode.

Censorship

Everything is crazy in this story.

First, a famous Québec series is censored, in the name of the new American morality, based on racial obsession. We take the liberty of depriving Québeckers of their own cultural heritage. What will our crazed censors say if they find out that in “Lance et compte”, what they call blackface is even used by National players as a symbol of anti-racism?

Second, this decision testifies to the pressure of the neo-puritans who want to impose their conception of blasphemy on us. They don’t like a series scene? They censor it. They don’t like the title of a book, they want to ban it, as we see with “Les nègres blancs d’Amérique” [As a reminder, there is a historical reason why Mr. Pierre Vallières’ book is entitled like this]. They don’t like a professor using the word “nègre” from a pedagogical perspective, they ruin her career, as we saw at the University of Ottawa.

Wokeism

Third, blackface does not exist in Québec. It’s all about context, and our context has nothing to do with the United States. This is imported trauma. In the name of “decolonization” and openness to “minorities”, American cultural colonialism is favoured in Québec.

We must liberate Québec from wokeism and deliver it from American racial neuroses. And we must restore all of the Daughters of Caleb”.

Bambi can only agree with Dr. Mathieu Bock-Côté. Netflix must restore all the episodes of this series from Québec. Like he did in one of his tweets, and in solidarity with Québec culture being under attack now, she will also end this post with the music of “Les filles de Caleb”.