Category: Sackville’s Memorial park

Bambi will not spend much time commenting this article. It speaks for itself.

Many thanks to Dr. Bastien for his lucidity.

Why are we doing this to our beautiful cities?

Mind you, Montreal is not any city for Bambi.

This is where her Canadian journey began.

It is both shocking and sad to read about the narrow-minded, divisive “vision” that some have for their charming cosmopolitan city.

Without further ado, here is a quick translation of Dr. Bastien’s article (https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/03/04/les-derives-racialistes-de-projet-montreal):

“We already knew that for Montreal mayor [Ms. Valérie Plante], systemic racism exists in the city, especially within the police force. We did not know, however, that some within Valérie Plante’s party are pushing for a racialization of municipal institutions.

Those who doubt it can only listen to the remarks made by city councilor Marianne Giguère during a meeting of the Montreal Executive Commission, which was held on February 24. In order to promote diversity, the elected official from the Plateau Mont-Royal would find it interesting for the city to set up “safe spaces” for people of colour. It is, in her words, “to have instances where there are no whites, people find themselves between them as a safe space …”.

Divide people according to their race

For my part, it seems to me that dividing people according to their race, activity X for people of such and such a race, event Y for people of such and such another race, is the worst thing to do to build a society that promotes living together. Moreover, it is necessary to emphasize here that the colour of the skin of the people does not in any way determine their culture or their way of being.

Anyone of any race can belong to any nation or culture. In all Western countries, for example, you have people whose ancestors came from Asia or Africa, but who have adopted 100% of the culture of the country in which they live. It is the same in Québec, where many of our fellow citizens have origins other than European, but have nonetheless become, over the generations, 100% Québeckers [why do we always seem to forget that immigrants also have a responsibility in their own adaptation process to their host cities/countries?]. This gradual process of assimilation into the nation, and I use the word assimilation in its noblest sense, is absolutely vital to the functioning of our society [true…].

With its racialist excesses, that is exactly what Project Montreal is attacking. First, it is about locking people into a racial box and establishing a system of separation between them. The next step is to deny that two people with different skin colours can share the same culture.

Pairing system …

But Councillor Giguère is not stopping there. She also wants a system of pairing municipal councillors to be established. Each of them would be forced to have a diversity advisor. This would be a kind of political commissar. He would act as a duplicate of the elected official and would be responsible for monitoring and educating him so that he conforms to the racial and diverse orthodoxy that many espouse at Projet Montreal. This would, I imagine, reinforce messages of the type that Bill 21 constitutes systemic racism and makes Québec a model of supremacism, as Bochra Manaï, the anti-racist expert recently hired by the city, has already said.

I close by addressing Montreal Mayor. In her election year, it is imperative that she disown her advisor and make a clear promise that she will not go down this path. Racializing our institutions would be one of the worst things that could happen to us [indeed…]”.

How can we foster our intellectual curiosity, creativity, and decision-making skills?

How to broaden our minds, encourage debates, and reach out to others to welcome all the shades of different opinions and perspectives?

Perhaps one key element to achieve all the above is to continuously invent ways to nurture and deepen our critical thinking.

But what is critical thinking, to begin with?

As shown in the video below, it can be described as the process of “deliberately” analyzing information in order to make wiser decisions.

Could this wisdom be applied to both real and online lives (i.e., social media)?

To what extent can we be (or learn to be) congruent at all times, that is in our real and online lives?

What about respect? Or at least self-respect? Is the latter the cornerstone of this congruence?

Self-respect is a must in order to genuinely respect others by treating them well.

Respect does not mean hypocrisy.

Respect does not mean censorship.

Respect is a choice.

Respect is a re-choice.

Respect has a twin. It is called trust.

In both respect and trust, there are beautiful ingredients called integrity and transparency.

To conclude this post, Bambi will spare you her philosophical questions. She will just ask the following: In life, is there anything more simple yet beautiful than treating everyone with respect… and earning their respect back? Or is it self-respect that comes first? Oh, it is getting late…. time to sleep now.

Bambi is happy to read this text by one of our big and lucid brains in this country, Dr. Mathieu Bock-Côté. Bambi’s faithful readers know that she has the utmost respect for him… and perhaps now more than ever. Not only he has a brain. He has a spine when it is the time to defend democracy.

Without further ado, here is his thoughtful article published today in the Journal de Montréal (https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/03/03/le-risque-antidemocratique-des-reseaux-sociaux).

How can Bambi not agree with Dr. Bock-Côté when she spent her life reading all opinions and media (even in a country torn by civil war when it was much easier to choose to hate others for their different opinions… or bombs)?

Same for her youth in Québec. Collectively, her friends do not share the same political opinions about Québec (the second referendum and its aftermath). Her own opinion changes also, etc.

So, why are we falling into the trap of narrow-mindedness, censorship, intolerance, and even totalitarianism?

All different opinions/voices matter in life… It is called democracy.

Plus, we learn from others. We challenge our thoughts.

Yes, we learn from those whom we do not agree with.

We also learn from those we agree with on this or that topic.

We learn, period… and we can de-learn and re-learn. It is called critical thinking.   

We even learn from enemies, so-called enemies (of a country or a cause)… or so-called racists.

Perhaps this is why Bambi likes to take the time to check the primary source of information. She reads what this or that person is saying, and not only what she is reading about this or that person.  

All this being said, here is a quick translation Dr. Bock-Côté’s article:

“Donald Trump wanted, in recent days, to start his comeback. We don’t know if he really plans to show up in 2024: that would be surprising. We know, however, that he wants to exist politically.

The man is energetic, of course, but he struggles to renew himself and mentally locks himself in the myth of electoral fraud. His speech was laborious. Trump is making the same mistake he made in his 2020 campaign: he is stepping forward, but not carrying an agenda that could, beyond a few slogans, sketch a vision for the future for the United States.

Whatever people think of him, he remains a central figure in American politics. He still dominates the Republican Party. He even embodies, for the moment, the main opposition to Joe Biden.

Trump

This raises the question of his presence on Twitter.

A few weeks ago, Trump lost access to his Twitter account. He was banned for life. In other words, knowing the role that social networks play in contemporary politics, he was kicked out of public space. A little too quickly, several applauded.

But it is more than a man, as troubled as he is, who has been driven out: it is a whole political movement that is targeted through him.

Because Trump, let us not forget, gathered around his name more than 74 million voters last November.

And even though many Republicans are tired of him, he remains the spokesperson for a large part of the American people, who cannot be confused with the fanatic weirdos who stormed the Capitol on January 6.

But the essential is elsewhere.

Is it really up to social networks, these supranational digital empires of our time, to decide who has the right to access public space? Do they really have to master the public debate?

Can they sort between legitimate opponents and those who are not? Are they entitled to ban from the city, according to the ancient laws of ostracism, a whole political stream of democratic debate?

And who will be the next to suffer the same fate, and in which countries? Because they will come.

This is not about loving Donald Trump, but about remembering that in a democracy, no one has the right to muzzle or dissolve someone they don’t like.

Above all, social networks show a terrible arbitrariness in their definition of what is acceptable and what is not.

Twitter

If they see hate speech in a tough or even subtle critique of diversity ideology (I’m not talking about Trump, here, who is less muscular than garish, and especially not subtle!), They don’t see it in those who hate to hate him the wicked white man, turned into the scapegoat of our time. Against them, hatred is allowed.

One thing is for sure, this takeover of the public debate by Twitter and the like is far bigger than we would like to say.

There it is, the real coup against democracy.”

Les moulins de mon coeur in French and Arabic.

Ne me quitte pas by Jacques Brel… what a moving song. Perhaps the most beautiful French love song in the world?!

Avec le temps va… Bravo and thank you Ms. Hiba Tawaji for your talent!

Thanks Canada for your continuous support to tiny yet eternal Lebanon.

Bambi learned from Naharnet that our Canadian Ambassador in Beirut, Ms. Chantal Chastenay visited “Lebanese Army Logistic Brigade“, along with Brigadier General Michael Wright, Commander of Joint Task Force Impact and Defence Attaché Lieutenant Colonel David Jones and a delegation of our Canadian soldiers:

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/279853-canadian-ambassador-visits-lebanese-army-logistic-brigade

Thanks to our men and women in uniform for supporting the Lebanese Armed Forces (or Forces Armées Libanaises) in keeping Bambi’s loved ones as realistically safe as possible.

Bambi will conclude this post with the comment of one Naharnet reader (in Beirut): “Oh Canada” :)!

Bambi adores Mr. Georges Moustaki!

He left our world in 2013 (at age 79)… but luckily, music is immortal.

Mr. Moustaki was born under the name of Giusseppe Mustacchi in Alexandria, Egypt. His parents, originally from a charming Greek island called Corfu (or Kerkyra), were both francophile.

Thank you Mr. Moustaki for your beautiful song called “Ma liberté“.

Like Mr. Dumont, Bambi also noticed the sad change in Amnesty International. Here is a very quick translation of his interesting article published in the Journal de Montréal yesterday:

https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2021/02/27/amnistie-internationale-a-perdu-sa-boussole

“As a CEGEP student [CEGEP refers to professional or pre-university college system unique to Québec], I had participated in a few Amnesty International activities. The organization played an important role in exposing the plight of prisoners of conscience and challenging authoritarian regimes to secure their release.

I liked this organization, as I liked the offensive it led to defend the rights of Raif Badawi. Badawi is a glaring example of an individual who has committed no crime and finds himself incarcerated strictly because of his writings [absolutely!!]. Because his political convictions tarnish the image of the Saudi regime.

How surprised I was to read this week that Amnesty International no longer considered Russian opponent Alexei Navalny to be a prisoner of conscience! Yet Navalny is probably the number one prisoner of conscience right now.

After having denounced Putin

As he returns home after receiving treatment in Germany for a “mysterious” poisoning, his plane is hijacked and he is taken to an airport where he is stopped. The Russian authorities have nothing concrete against him except that his words could stir up Russian revolt.

Indeed, he broadcasted the images of what appears to be the royal palace of Vladimir Putin on the shore of the Black Sea. Putin denies it, but no one can clarify who really belongs in the ultra luxurious domain. All this in a country where assassinations and poisonings of opposition leaders have almost become commonplace.

According to the latest information, not only will he be jailed without valid justification, but he will be transferred to a labour camp. Material for Amnesty International.

So why, after certain steps to obtain his release, does Amnesty International no longer consider him a prisoner of conscience? Because he would have made nationalist and anti-immigration remarks twenty years ago. Positions he no longer holds today anyway. He is jailed for his opinions, but Amnesty International no longer considers him a prisoner of conscience because it dislikes his opinions … from twenty years ago. Odd, right? [absolutely, the issue is not this or that topic. The issue is freedom of expression or free speech, period!].

The breadth of the causes that are heard

What must be understood is that Amnesty International has lost its compass and has become a ninth movement of the so-called “woke” left [she does not know about you, but like Mr. Mario Dumont, Bambi misses the more beautiful left of her youth. It has genuinely been about protecting people’s rights and about truly standing up for justice]. On the organization’s website, there is less and less talk of prisoners of conscience and more and more of all the leftist themes in vogue.

The environment, racism everywhere, police violence, logging, all wrapped up under the guise of human rights. One more organization to repeat the refrains of this left which is radicalized. One less organization to defend the most fundamental causes for anyone who believes in democracy and freedom.

Let us recall the fight of Amnesty International against Bill 21 on secularism in Québec. Amnesty is more worried about an elected government that frames secularism for its employees in authority than it is about an opposition leader imprisoned in a labour camp under an authoritarian regime. Welcome to 2021!”

For Bambi, freedom of expression starts with self-tolerance.

Yes, tolerating our own freedom of thought. By this, Bambi means giving ourselves the freedom to use our brains to think, to question, to agree with, to be open to the world. This means tolerating our own thinking processes and brain plasticity, so to speak. We allow ourselves to be wrong, to be stupid, or to be wise.… and from ourselves, we extend this tolerance to others:

Tolerating their thoughts on this or that topic, whether we agree with them or not.

Why can’t we allow others to be wrong anymore?

Why can’t we allow others to be stupid anymore?

Why can’t we allow others to think differently anymore on this or that topic? The topic does not matter here. It could be related to politics, science, religion, arts or to anything else.

It is the intolerance that underlies them all…

Why should we mob, harass, cancel, vilify, exclude, destroy, and throw under the bus others when they express another opinion?

Freedom of speech is first and foremost about tolerating different speeches, precisely those with which we do NOT agree with.

There is a reason why freedom of expression is protected in our Canadian Charter and NB laws/charters, etc.

The laws are all beautiful on paper, but when a society does not feel the urge to stand up for freedom of expression anymore (especially of those with different opinions), the boat of tolerance sink… and we all drown with it.

Is it normal for a society to tolerate the harassment, mobbing, or vilification of citizens, professors, or politicians when we disagree with their expressed opinion?

Bambi wonders about how many of those who are repeating clichés, taking words out of context, making false accusations, and/or threats have taken the time to read this blog?

Why are they condemning the messenger if they did not read or like the message?

When one of us is under attack because of his or her opinions, we all lose. Yes, collectively, we lose our freedom. Collectively, we lose our tolerance. Collectively, we lose our compassion…

In addition to mobs trying to suppress a voice they do not like or endorse, is it compassionate to harass, mob or throw under the bus people we do not agree with?

Is it normal in Canada to tolerate abuses like that done to Dr. Jordan Peterson, Ms. Lindsay Shepherd, Professor Verushka Lieutenant-Duval, and many more… now even Bambi!

Is this the Canada that we want? If it is done to one of us, will it be done to all of us?

This is perhaps the main difference between the people of Lebanon and Canadians… There, people stand up for each other when freedom of expression is under attack.

Some risk their lives to defend it. Some literally give their lives. The latest victim was called Mr. Lokman Slim…

Ironically, in this tiny bankrupt, and extremely vulnerable Lebanon, and despite the power of one group over the others, there is more tolerance and more freedom of expression than now in Canada… Can you imagine the irony? There, you can write whatever you wish in media comments (always open by the way) and online. When people see threats to their freedom, they denounce it collectively… and keep it protected. We are talking about a country that was in war not a long time ago. We are talking about a neighbourhood with dictatorships…and yet, there is a light of democracy in Bambi’s birth country.

Where is the light of freedom, tolerance, and compassion in Bambi’s beautiful Sackville, New Brunswick, and Canada?

Bambi adores listening to her preferred internet radio station (out of LA). Well, an advantage of working from home is that we do not disturb our colleagues whilst singing [badly and in a weird language :)].

Below, you can hear one of the songs that played today. It is a Lebanese love song (The Voice TV show in France).

This talented artist is called Ms. Aline Al Katrib. She is the daughter of the great Ms. Salwa Al Katrib who left our world too early many years ago. Bambi grew up appreciating the voice of her mom (it is her song actually). It is only recently that she discovered the daughter’s talent. What a beautiful tribute to her mom!

Mr. Biden changed his position about China’s current genocide of the Uighurs (https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/account-02242021183743.html).

Bravo to Mr. Biden for having the wisdom of changing the rhetoric (i.e., much more logical than “cultural norms” to justify the abuse) whilst keeping many if not most of the policies of his predecessor about China (e.g., Huawei, etc.). This ensures continuity. Plus, if something seems to be working well, why revert it?

It is Bambi’s hope that Mr. Trudeau will learn something from Mr. Biden.

It is Bambi’s hope that Mr. Biden will learn something from Mr. Trudeau (yes, it is possible ?) when it comes to Iran.

Bambi worries about Iran’s hegemony in the Middle East (that directly affects her birth country and its neighbourhood). What will happen with the nuclear saga, she wonders? What would be the consequences on Lebanon?

To conclude this post, dealing with countries intimidating other sovereign entities requires leadership. Good leaders need to be courageous (in addition to other skills like wisdom, etc.). In the end, whether acts of intimidation are occurring at the macro- or at the micro-levels, Bambi sees a similarity: Omitting to interfere to stop an abusive process between two (or more) countries/entities, or empowering the source of the abuse, becomes part of the abuse, even with the best intentions in the world.