Bambi’s heart is deeply sad after reading this BBC article about Lebanon (https://bbc.in/3gWHREh). Indeed, her birth country has failed itself and its citizens, despite any leftover good intentions, or unknown efforts, to solve its multiple crises.
As per the BBC, Ms. Higgins’s organization, UNICEF, has warned the Lebanese authorities of the risk of a cholera outbreak for the past year. Yes, poor Lebanon was dealing with a Covid-19 pandemic like the entire planet, in addition to the preceding crash of its banking sector under the weight of corruption (and mismanagement of public funds?).
Lebanon has been struggling to rise above its economic tragic situation. Is this an excuse for not preventing problems whether health-related (cholera) or safety-related (Beirut blast)? Bambi is saying this, even if more than once of this blog, she has saluted the Ministry of Public Health work over the past couple of years (regardless of who is in charge of it).
If she may, Bambi would like to echo the thoughtful and powerful words of Mr. Mohamad Akl (a cholera patient cited in the BBC article): “There is a Nobel prize for peace? Lebanon deserves the Nobel prize for failure. All of our politicians are corrupt. It’s no surprise we got to this situation.” To conclude this post, once again, Mawtini [my country] comes to her mind. It is interpreted below by Ms. Talia Lahoud. It is subtitled in English.
How sad to see destructive behaviour in action, as shown in the videos below from out of Europe.
The world is already sensitive to environmental issues. So why are these young people acting in an non-strategic and violent way? Won’t they lose their allies like that?
And, beyond vandalism, what solutions are they proposing?
Bambi discovered this lovely song yesterday evening. It played again on her internet radio today. Well, she cannot stop singing it and she feels the urge to share it with you. She hopes you will enjoy it too :)!
How sad to see words being emptied of their real meaning again and again.
Why don’t we respect the Indigeneous people/tragedy more by using more precise words? Don’t they/their suffering deserve such linguistic rigour?
A “cultural genocide” is HORRIBLE in itself. Does it need to be made even more horrible by calling it “a genocide“?
And would calling “a cultural genocide” a “genocide” change the SAD reality of systemic assimilation? Most importantly, how will it better serve the Indigeneous cause and bring justice, healing, and concrete solutions (not just words)?
Bambi is writing the above, title and post, after reading a CBC article informing us of the following (https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/house-motion-recognize-genocide-1.6632450): “Members of Parliament gave unanimous consent Thursday in favour of a motion calling on the federal government to recognize Canada’s residential schools as genocide. Leah Gazan, the NDP member of Parliament for Winnipeg Centre, introduced the motion following Question Period Thursday afternoon. Gazan brought forward a similar motion in June last year, but it did not receive unanimous consent.”
You may or may not agree with MP Gazan. Bambi does not… and no, she is not encouraging colonization by writing so. She is just asking for linguistic accuracy.
This post will raise one question, as per its title: Why should shelters for women, victims of domestic violence, be segregated by religion now in Winnipeg, Canada? Is this a good thing in our societies in general and for these women in particular?
Bambi will spare you her questions and thoughts, hoping this post and the video below will encourage you to think and make your own opinion.
To end this post on a musical note, and out of solidarity for ALL victims of domestic violence, in Canada and abroad, Bambi will end this post with two beautiful songs: The first, entitled “Khalas” [“Enough” in Arabic] by Ms. Karol Sakr (subtitled in English) and the other, entitled “Chanson pour Marie” [“A song for Mary” in English] by Mr. Nicolas Ciccone (subtitled in French).
First and foremost, bravo to Lebanon for working on the demarcation of its maritime borders with Israel (deal signed today), Syria (delays on this front), and Cyprus (likely an easier one) in order to facilitate gas extraction in the future (https://bit.ly/3U53LU6).
Bravo to both neighbouring countries for putting their respective economy first, not ideologies or, may God forbid, any future war(s).
Bravo also to the Hezbollah for endorsing this deal, even if Bambi has mixed feelings here. Indeed, deep inside, she cannot help not to wonder what guarantees did the US and France give to this group (or indirectly to Iran) in return.
This being said, a big bravo to the US Biden Administration (i.e. Mr. Hochstein) for making this deal possible. This is a big diplomatic achievement, even there was no official signature in the same place (or on the same page even!), no pictures, and no champagne or sparkling wine cocktails.
To conclude this post, best wishes to both Lebanon and Israel, and especially to the Lebanese people. They BADLY need an economic miracle to get them out of their country’s fiasco. Best wishes also to Europe, which would eventually benefit from the promising gas to survive its colder days. All in all, this is most likely the happiest news of the day… AFTER Bente’s birthday, of course 🙂 (as per the earlier post shown below).
Happy Birthday, Bente, from Bambi, her spouse, and their/”your” entire family in Beirut, Montreal, Dubai, Paris, and London!
Bambi loves you and misses you a lot ❤️ (along with your/”our” dear family)! She wishes you a wonderful new year filled with beautiful discoveries, exciting projects, and continues successes!
To make you smile, Bambi silently sends daily “Greetings from the Netherlands” at her workplace [hint: coronavirus] :).
To conclude, and for fun, here are a few songs for you, hoping you will enjoy them :).
In this post, Bambi is assisted by her friend, Mr. Google Translate, in translating a thoughtful (and funny!) article by Mr. Richard Martineau published today in the “Journal de Montréal” [https://bit.ly/3F9WChj].
Of note, if you do not have a leftover of a sense of humour, taken away by much political correctness, maybe you should think twice before either reading this article or celebrating Halloween… at least in the province of Québec :).
This being said, here is Mr. Martineau’s article:
“The Ordre des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec (OIIQ) [the governing body for Registered Nurses in this province] has launched a campaign against sexy nurse costumes.
We got there, friends.
The healthcare system is cracking everywhere, 18-month-old babies are sleeping on stretchers in the corridors of Sainte-Justine Hospital, nurses are on the verge of depression from working overtime, healthcare workers have to be brought in from abroad to compensate for the labour shortage in our hospitals… And meanwhile, the OIIQ is launching a campaign against sexy nurse costumes…
As if that was the big problem of the Québec’s healthcare system!
Girls wearing fishnet stockings to their Halloween party instead of beige compression stockings with big rubber boots!
After that, we wonder why so many Québecers are on antidepressants…
THE PRIESTS’ FESTIVAL
It’s Halloween, damn it.
We dress up, we eat candy, we scare each other and we have fun.
Can we have fun one day a year, just one day a year, without a group, an organization, an association, a federation, a union or an NPO lecturing us?
What’s next?
The Ministry of the Family will get involved? The government will set up a committee to oversee Halloween?
I never thought I would say that, let alone write it, but I miss priests. The real priests, with a cassock and a Roman collar. At least, if we didn’t want to hear them, we just didn’t have to go to mass, we had peace.
Whereas today, priests are everywhere.
Have you noticed ? We have never had so many priests since there are no more priests!
And they are interested in every aspect of our life.
What we eat. What we drink. How we move. What we are looking at. What we read. What we listen to. What makes us laugh. What excites us.
What name do we give to our children? What colours are their pajamas. How many centimetres there are between our thighs when we sit in the subway. What pronoun do we use when talking to our neighbour?
And how we should dress up on Halloween.
No sombreros! No feathers! No kimonos! No djellaba! No sugar! No crisps! No gendered clothes! No sexy costumes! No blood!
The list of prohibitions grows every day.
LONG LIVE EQUALITY
I am for equality between men and women. At 110%.
What’s good for Kitty should be good for Puppy.
We fight sexy nurse costumes on the pretext that they are… sexist? Perfect!
But let’s also fight the costumes of sexy firefighters, sexy policemen, sexy soldiers and sexy cowboys [oh no :)].
Let’s ban the group Village People!
Hey, let’s all carry potato bags on Halloween!
That’s right, potatoes! And that would be ecological…“
Happy news out of Lebanon have been rare over the past three years, except when it comes to the talent of its people across all fields (e..g., arts/music, science, sports, etc.).
Well, here is a post meant to share happy news with you about the international success of Mr. Marc Reiady Baz in Turkey – thanks to 961 for keeping us informed (https://bit.ly/3stcST3)!
A picture taken from 961. Bravo and “Mabrouk” to Mr. Marc Reiady Baz for winning the Foreign Music Artist Award at the “Altın Çilek Ödülleri” [“Golden Strawberry Awards”] in Turkey!
If you are interested, you may listen to Mr. Reiady Baz singing “Rise Like a Phoenix“!
To conclude this brief musical post, and if she may, Bambi would like to offer Mr. Marc Reiady Baz the famous “Mabrouk” song of Mr. Rami Ayach. Please keep singing while being an Ambassador of talent and hope to your country!
