Bambi's Thoughts
From self-hostage by financially, morally, and military corrupt warlords.
To a hostage of a decaying sectarian system, despite its inspiring aspirations for democracy and fairness.
To a harsh battleground for the world’s powerful states and for destructive ideologies.
When will tiny yet resilient Lebanon finally become a sovereign state?
The world lost Mr. Charles Dumont today at age 95 ( https://shorturl.at/fi6I7). What a highly talented French singer-songwriter. May his soul rest in peace… and long live his BEAUTIFUL song, “Non, je ne regrette rien” [No Regrets]!
As older or newer immigrants, we leave Lebanon yet it does not leave us.
From crisis to crisis, from war to war, from tragedy to tragedy, it follows us.
It is constantly in our hearts and prayers, even when we take an emotional distance.
How will Lebanon survive the current absurd yet CRUEL war of others on it? When and how will the latter end?
Will a settlement to end war in the Middle East be at the expense of Lebanon?
So many questions awaiting answers.
In the meantime, the shelling is intensifying and the people of the land of the Cedars cannot take it anymore.
It is Bambi’s hope that the spirit of the Lebanese anthem, entitled “All For The Homeland” [Kuluna Lil Watan in Arabic], will prevail when the cannons will fall silent and the skies of Lebanon will be free from drones and military airplanes.
Below is a quick translation of a thoughtful column by Mr. Mario Dumont published today in the Journal de Montréal (https://shorturl.at/sCkxe). It is about the difficulty to access the health care system. Thank you Mr. Google Translate for assisting Bambi in translating it to her dear readers.
“It’s free. Thus, the price is not in bucks, but in hours of waiting.
The CSN [this refers to the “Confédération des syndicats nationaux” or Federation of National Trade Unions] commissioned a survey of Quebeckers on the health care system. No surprise, the mood is neither one of rejoicing nor great optimism. For decades, the population has been aging, needs have increased while the system has become more entrenched. As a result, it is not always easy to be cared for.
This survey provided fundamental data to fully understand what is happening. Many Quebeckers reported that they are depriving themselves of health care because of waiting and the difficulty of finding access. Last year, this was the case for 43% of the population!
Why is this number so important? Because it is not the result of chance. Canada has chosen to offer free health care. It is forbidden to charge for services in the public network, it is not even legal to set up a co-payment in the emergency. Few countries have made this choice. We understand why when we see our results.
Free of charge
The economic theory is simple and clear: when a good or service is free, demand naturally explodes. Forget the balance between supply and demand when the price is zero. We must therefore find other ways to restrict demand. In most cases, this obstacle is waiting.
In communist countries, the government set the price of bread at a level that made it accessible to everyone. Nice principle of equality, but in practice you had to wait hours to get a piece of bread and there was none left for the last ones in the line…
This is a bit like what happens in health. The length of the wait and the complexity of accessing services put a damper on the demand for services and thus make it possible to keep costs under control. In other words, the 43% who deprive themselves of service is not an accident, it is by design in the so-called free and universal Canadian health system.
Ultimately, everything must have a price. In the case of health care in Canada, past governments made the choice that the price could not be financial. The price would therefore become time. To wait for.
Do I have time?
There were fears that people without money would be poorly cared for. We decided that money would no longer be a factor. The new factor in obtaining care will be to devote time.
What was overlooked was that the burden had just been shifted onto the backs of people who don’t have time. Self-employed people, small business owners, farmers, everyone who can’t waste a full day to go see a doctor for five minutes.
These busy people become the uncared for. Unfortunately, it turns out that these people are also the government’s cash cow. It is on their shoulders (especially their taxes) that our entire beautiful social system rests.
Are we surprised that some of them go to the private sector?“
This morning, upon opening her eyes, Bambi watched a surreal video shared by her sister. As you can see with your own eyes, an airplane of Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines (MEA or Air Liban) landed in Beirut at the same time of the nearby intense Israeli shelling.
This post is meant to pay tribute to the highly professional team of the Lebanese airline company. Related to the latter, a couple of weeks ago, Bambi listened to a news interview with a passenger returning to Beirut from Doha at the time of airstrikes around the airport. This passenger who happened to be a journalist spoke highly about the legendary calm of the MEA crew and the excellence of their service. Despite the intense shelling, for MEA, it was business as usual with the smiling faces of its crew members. Indeed, the airplane landed safely to the soothing voice of Fairuz. Bravo to the pilot/co-pilot (et al.).
Much love and healing to Beirut with Ms. Hiba Tawaji’s BEAUTIFUL voice. May God protect all the travellers and residents of the Lebanese capital. May reason and peace prevail not only in Beirut, but also in each village of tiny and traumatized Lebanon as well as in all of its aching neighbourhood. Enough of senseless wars in the region. Enough of death, destruction, and displacement in Lebanon. ENOUGH!
Domestic violence involves an imbalance of power between partners. It often includes recurrent episodes of control, resulting in harmful violent behaviours (https://shorturl.at/XO2gB). The latter could be physical, verbal, sexual, and/or emotional.
Domestic violence can occur to anyone in all types of couple relationships, whether intimate or not. These relationships may be heterosexual or homosexual. Last but not least, domestic violence can be experienced by men too. However, it mostly affects women, regardless of their age, socio-economic status, culture, and/or income (https://shorturl.at/XO2gB).
The above being said, Bambi was touched by Mr. Claudio Capeo’s new song devoted to the theme of domestic violence. Following the YouTube video, you can find an English translation of its French lyrics. Thanks to Mr. Google Translate for his assistance.
Lyrics of the song “T’en aller” [Time to Go] by Claudio Capéo
He tells you that he loves you and that you are beautiful
He caresses you with rose thorns
He promises you the moon and promises you honey
He tells you it’s your fault when he explodes
He hurts you, he hurts you
But love to death is nothing normal
He knows he’s wrong, he knows you’re hurt
But love to death
Swings all his letters to the wind
Regrets every time
All is calm before the storm
But you have to go
And leave his arms of hell
You have to leave the boat drunk
You need to talk about it
And raise words so that we can help you
Before the worst happens to you
But you have to go
But you have to go
Where did the love go? Where did the charm go?
What do you do when you’ve become his thing?
What to say when the pillow has become a weapon?
When your freedom is a closed door?
When words are strong and words are hard
When love to death becomes a sure hit
And all the gold in the world is not armour
When love is wrong
Swing all these letters to the wind
Regrets every time
You think about the promises he made to you
But you have to go and leave these arms of hell
You have to leave the boat drunk, you have to talk about it
And raise words so that we can help you before the worst happens to you
But you have to go
But you have to go
During the day the wind rises and the horizon is clear
There will be traces left but you will finally be freed
But you have to go and leave these arms of hell
You have to leave the boat drunk, you have to talk about it
And raise words so that we can help you before the worst happens to you
But you have to go
But you have to go”.
Thanks to Mr. Jonathan Kay for informing of the following:
Is there anything more unwise and divisive as the above? Why are school boards getting into such illogical reasoning, which may be stemming from extreme multiculturalism to the extent of denying one’s own heritage? Even in the Lebanon where Bambi grew up in the middle of bloody civil war, people celebrated Christmas with joy. Many decorated their houses for the event, even without being of the Christian faith themselves. So, now you are going to convince Bambi that an event in the month of December is disrespectful to people who do not celebrate Christmas? Nonsense. Once again, this mentality seems to be stemming from a cultural form of self-hate. How can you pretend to be welcoming to newcomers from different cultural backgrounds when you do not validate your own cultural tradition? And haven’t you thought about more local people as well as immigrants who may love Christmas?
In the same spirit of collective self-disrespect toward one’s own history, there was another unacceptable story in a different school of Ontario, namely in Ottawa. Thankfully, the principal came to his senses and “apologizes for song played during Remembrance Day assembly” (https://shorturl.at/lo66p). The song was a Palestinian Arabic song related to the current round of war in the Middle East, which clearly did not not have any place in a ceremony meant for Remembrance Day. How sad it is to hijack such tribute precious time to score an ideological (political or religious or whatever else) point of view. How unwise it is to do so, regardless of the theme or language of the song, whether in Hebrew , Arabic, or in Farsi.
For God’s sake, enough of sectarianism and tribalism. This day is just one per year where Canadians come together to honour those who gave their lives to serve our beautiful country. Leave the Middle East out of it. Those of us who left the latter did it precisely in order not to hear about it on a such a meaningful day as Remembrance Day.
Today we commemorate the armistice agreement that ended the First World War, which took place on Monday, November 11, 1918, at 11 AM.
This is the day to express our gratitude to our fellow Canadian men and women who have served during times of both peace and war. They have contributed to make our world a safer and freer one. Thus, many thanks to each one of them for either their past sacrifices or their continuous service in the Canadian Armed Forces.
This being said, Bambi is grateful for the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy for its inspiring five-minute documentary entitled “Remembering Those Who Served”. She hopes you will enjoy it as much as she did.
Mr. Yves Montand was born on October 13, 1921. Of note, he shares this birthday with Ms. Nana Mouskouri, born in 1934 (https://shorturl.at/CxUgh), as well as with one of this blog’s friends and a dear relative who will recognize themselves in this post : ). Mr. Montand died at age 70 on November 9, 1991 (https://shorturl.at/agjLW).
For those who do not know it, Montand’s real name was Mr. Ivo Livi. He was born in Monsummano Terme, Italy. His family migrated to France following Mr. Benito Mussolini’s rise to power (https://shorturl.at/agjLW). He grew up in the charming Marseille where he started a career as a music-hall singer. He was later discovered in Paris by Ms Édith Piaff (https://shorturl.at/agjLW) with whom he had a beautiful love story. May his and her memory be eternal.
Thanks Salome for the lovely Dutch view ❤️. Long live the charm of your country!
