Our words become senseless with the suffering of your people, oh Lebanon.
This is when music comes to our rescue, thankfully.
This moving patriotic song by Mr. Joseph Attieh, subtitled in English, is dedicated to Lebanon, and its innocent people, who once again find themselves caught in the crossfire of the wars of others on their beautiful land.
Sadly, history keeps repeating itself in the land of the Cedars.
However, Bambi will keep praying for her birth country. May the CRUEL unfolding tragedy eventually serve as an internal wake-up call for overdue changes: Committing/re-committing to putting Lebanon FIRST, that is before any foreign country AND any ideology, electing a President of the Republic ASAP, honouring the country’s constitution, institutions, and international laws, eventually finding ways to cure corruption, and re-building Lebanon (or what is left of it!). Without the latter, ceasefires and/or re-constructions would be meaningless. Indeed, they would only serve the interests of those who do not care about the land the Cedars.
May Lebanon survive its unfolding nightmare. May it rise and flourish once and for all.
Today Bambi read Mr. Mario Dumont’s latest column published in the Journal de Montréal. His thought-provoking piece is entitled in French “Est-ce que nos impôts subventionnent le terrorisme” (https://tinyurl.com/5bfxumkp)? The latter means: Are our taxes subsidizing terrorism? This post will translate it for you, with the assistance of Mr. Google Translate, Bambi’ s online best friend.
—
“In 24 hours, an organization goes from beneficent to terrorist… What a special news, right?
Through naivety, intentional blindness or pure incompetence, is it possible that Canada helped terrorist movements? I am talking here about helping financially. Two issues in two weeks seriously raise the question.
The Journal of Montréal revealed yesterday that the Canadian Muslim Association (CMA) was threatened by the Canada Revenue Agency with losing its charitable status. This association manages several mosques and community centres, which is completely legitimate. However, this organization would at the same time maintain international links with organizations that cause concern.
Surprisingly and intriguingly, the Revenue Agency has been investigating the AMC for “several years”. The Journalde Montréal finds traces of audits announced as early as 2015. We investigate, we worry, we make certain discoveries, but nothing enough to strip the organization of its advantageous tax status.
Long investigation
Among the big question marks are links to the Muslim Brotherhood, fundraising campaigns for unknown organizations in the Middle East and its close ties to other organizations that Canada has placed on a blacklist.
We also deplore the presence in important positions of people with disturbing comments. People who advocate terrorism, particularly by supporting Hamas, find themselves at the heart of the organization. We invited a speaker who justifies violent jihad. In the case of another, the worrying comments are published on social networks.
Despite everything, the Canadian Muslim Association still enjoys this advantageous status for its donors: it is a recognized charitable organization. And the leaders of the organization consider that these checks are simply Islamophobia. Obviously.
Last week we experienced an even weirder situation. The Canadian Minister of Public Security has listed the pro-Palestinian group Samidoun on the list of terrorist entities in Canada. The previous week, Samidoun members publicly burned a Canadian flag while chanting “Death to Canada” in Vancouver.
Beneficence?
What is astonishing is that this extremist group also had charitable status until the moment of this decision. Let’s admit that it’s quite astonishing. On Tuesday, you issue charitable receipts to your donors. On Wednesday, you are considered a terrorist organization. Only in Canada!
We need to understand what charitable status means for tax purposes. The donor receives a tax credit ranging from 15% to 29%. Here is the tax that would be due and for which the State gives the taxpayer a holiday. In other words, it is the government that pays part of the donation. Yes, it is a form of subsidy.
Obviously, there are two things happening in Canada.
We are too quick to give financial benefits to organizations.
We are too slow to detect organizations with terrorist affiliations.
The combination of the two means that we have probably subsidized terrorist movements. Big discomfort”.
Tonight, Bambi hesitated between this post and another one about Beirut’s surreal destruction, and heartbreaking loss of lives, in a cruel yet not surprising proxy war.
After thought, she decided to spare you any ugly news, along with her insights, about the Lebanese unfolding tragedy.
Who knows? Maybe Lebanon, and the Middle East, would be the topic of a future post? Until then, to answer the question raised in the title of this post, Bambi will say the following: Mr. Charles Aznavour, Mr. Georges Brassens, Mr. Jacques Brel, and Ms. Edith Piaf all happened to have died in the month of October (https://shorturl.at/r8ZIA). May the memory of each one of them be eternal. May their incredible musical legacy keep inspiring and entertaining us.
As for your dear readers, may you be safe and with inner peace, regardless of your perceived stress levels.
With its magic, nature can bring us solace when we are coping with uncertainty or grief. If only New Brunswick’s peaceful nature can inspire decision-making about war and peace in the world, Bambi could not help to think in the past 24 hours.
A picture of the backyard taken by Bambi yesterday (Sackville, NB).
A picture of the backyard taken by Bambi yesterday (Sackville, NB).
A picture taken by Bambi early this morning on her way to work (Sackville, NB).
A picture taken by Bambi early this morning on her way to work (Sackville, NB).
A picture taken by Bambi this morning at her workplace (Mount Allison University, Sackville, NB).
A picture taken this evening by Bambi in her backyard (Sackville, NB).
Bambi woke up this morning remembering a beautiful French song from her own childhood in Beirut during civil war times. Below you can find its English lyrics (https://tinyurl.com/mw4ta467), which are followed by a great performance of Kids United as well as Ms. Mireille Mathieu’s original performance in both French and German.
When will the doves of peace fly over Lebanon, instead of the scary drones and shelling? When will fear, displacement, destruction, and bloodshed end?
When will the same doves fly in the neighbouring skies so all the children of the Middle East live in peace? Yes, ALL of them, from Lebanon to: Palestine, Israel, Syria, Irak, Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and every country of the region as well as in the entire world, including the places of other armed conflicts.
ENOUGH of wars. Enough of absurdity, ideologies, and power struggles. All the Innocent people deserve to live in dignity, peace, and love.
“Winter is there on the village roofs The sky is white and I hear Children choirs In the old church, on an organ With the colours of time
Refrain May peace be on the world For hundred thousand years to come Give us a thousand doves To all the rising suns Give us a thousand doves And a million swallows Let some day all men become children again
Tomorrow is you, and no more war tomorrow Tomorrow everywhere, canons Will sleep under flowers A beautiful world it’s a world Where you live fearless
Refrain May peace be on the world For hundred thousand years to come Give us a thousand doves To all the rising suns Give us a thousand doves And a million swallows Let some day all men become children again
Refrain May peace be on the world For hundred thousand years to come Give us a thousand doves To all the rising suns Give us a thousand doves And a million swallows Let some day all men become children again“.”
The Journal de Montréal published an article yesterday entitled «Je ne crois plus que l’homme a marché sur la Lune»: Jeremy Filosa suspendu indéfiniment par le 98,5 FM pour des propos conspirationnistes tenus en ondes (https://shorturl.at/1N1eW). Its meaning is the English translation of this post. Wow.
To begin with, and of course, Bambi does not share the opinion of Mr. Jeremy Filosa, sports journalist. She does not know why, and in which context, he said what he said on the radio show in question. Actually, she does not care about the entire conversation. However, once again, she is worried as well as shocked by both the absurdity and violence of the response of the radio station employing him. Why did it suspend him indefinitely over a personal opinion or maybe a sarcastic comment or whatever it was.
Why should we add the emotionally-charged term “conspiracy” to any opinion that is different, awkward, maybe apparently crazy, alternative, or whatever else?
Where are common sense and a sense of perspective? Most importantly, where is freedom of expression? Why have we become slaves to cancel culture to this extent in our societies?
How sad to see this story occurring in Québec, which has traditionally been much more open to critical debates than the rest of Canada about topics, surely less trivial, than this one (i.e., 10-year-old debates on reasonable accommodations, referendum on sovereignty, etc.). Of course, that was before the changes of the past few years, which Bambi often calls on this blog “our collectively insane times“. Do you have another term to describe this phenomenon?
This post is meant to share two brief podcasts worth watching. Thank you L’Orient Le Jour for the moving insights by these children and youth.
Following the two podcasts, if you wish, you may listen to Mr. Mario Pelchat’s song on Lebanon’s cedars, with its powerful lyrics. Bambi translated them on her blog three years ago. For your convenience, she is re-sharing them at the end of this post. SADLY, this older French-Canadian song remains timely.
To end on a more hopeful and joyful note, the last song is a beautiful French song by Mr. Enrico Macias, entitled “Enfants de tous pays” [ Children From All Countries], that Bambi also posted in the past. An English translation of its lyrics (https://shorturl.at/uvO56) is also shared below.
May all the children be safe and able to play. May peace and love prevail.
A quick translation of “the Cedars of Lebanon” (by Mr. Mario Pelchat)
“Gaping holes
Like anthills where homeless roam
Where the people of Phenicia once lived
From the East of blood, genes and Arabian language
Screams, tears
And rage in the heart for so much violence
While we swim elsewhere under rains of abundance
It is often when we cry that we experience indifference
What are we going to say
When danger surrounds us,
To our children who question us
Who we try in vain to teach
The verb “to love”?
What are we going to do?
If not find some refuge,
Hope for another flood
Or kill yourself to understand
And forgive
Twilight
Like the life that disappears under the rubble
Another night to invent the end of the world
A new era where you are no longer afraid of your shadow
Sentries
Which remind us that we are not at liberty
On a land that we did not choose to inhabit
Under the wrath of a God we want to appropriate
What are we going to say
When danger surrounds us,
To our children who question us
Who we try in vain to teach
The verb “to love”?
What are we going to do?
Otherwise confide in the stars
Praying to the saints of the cathedrals
Because we are too little to understand
To forgive
A strong people
Who still believes that tomorrow will be different
Like a treasure that a giant knows how to recognize
As are, in the north, the cedars of Lebanon.”
“Enfants de tous pays” [Children from All Countries]
“Chorus: Children from all countries Hold out your bruised hands Sow love And then give life Children from all countries And of all colours You have in your hearts Our happiness It’s in your hands that tomorrow our earth Is going to be entrusted to go out from the night And our hope to see the light again Is in your eyes which awaken to life Dry your tears, throw out your guns Make of this world a paradise Chorus You have to think of our fathers’ past And of promises which they never have kept The truth is to love without any borders And give every day a bit more For wisdom and wealth Have just one address: paradise Chorus And on the day when love on the Earth Becomes king, you can rest When our prayers are covered in joy You can have your eternity And every laughs of your kingdom Will make a paradise Chorus”.
It is both easier and cheaper to fight with the flesh or blood of others in a far country. This is what Iran is doing, with the Lebanese people, in its fight against Israel. This is what it has been doing in Gaza through Hamas.
Similarly, it is less costly, and potentially more rewarding, for Israel to fight Iran on the Lebanese soil; neither in Iran, nor on its own land (despite the bloody tit for tat with the Hezbollah).
Same for the United States (et al.?). Who cares about Lebanon if the latter’s interests with Iran are being preserved, perhaps at the expense of the Land of the Cedars? Who cares for Israel some would even say, even if they may send weapons, boats, or a few soldiers for support?
When it comes to the military-wing of Hezbollah (or what is left of it, at least for now?), it sadly seems to remain unwise, and even suicidal, because it appears to still insist on linking the fate of Lebanon to the one of Gaza, denying the unfolding Lebanese tragedy and, with it, part of the history of the Lebanese civil war (https://tinyurl.com/mpjc5x2r).
In the meantime, the people of Lebanon are, once again, paying the price of a regional fiasco by being held hostage by all these powerful players.
One may be tempted to only blame Israel for the cruelty of its fight for its existence since October 7, 2023, especially now with the insane destruction, killings, and invasion of Lebanon (and earlier with the tragedy in Gaza). However, one would be unfair, and even delusional, without also acknowledging the evil role of the Iranian regime, which has fuelled and/or perhaps triggered the Hamas attack on Israel and the resulting regional fiasco. Of course, one cannot help, but to also notice the weakness of the official Lebanon when it comes, once again, to deciding to initiate or to stop unwanted wars.
If you live in the Islamic Republic of Iran, hating Israel from far away, along with the United States, is cheap. If you are a fan of the regime, you just throw your hand in the air and shout in Farsi: “Death to Israel, death to America“. As mentioned earlier, guess who is paying the price of Iran’s slogans and its conflict with Israel now? Lebanon. Is their anything more unfair than this sad truth?
May God protect Lebanon, which deserves better. May it remain in harmony domestically and, eventually in the far future, learn to become truly neutral with all its neighbours and nations of the world, including those who have fought on or occupied its beautiful land. You may agree or disagree, you are free. So is Bambi who is sick and tired of senseless wars, lack of vision for solutions of endless conflicts, and of worries about loved ones.
What a beautiful, and sadly timely, French-Canadian song from the 1950s that Bambi often posts on this blog (may Mr. Raymond Lévesque’s memory be eternal).
If you are interested, you can find an English translation of the lyric on this website: https://shorturl.at/aQMih .
May this song, especially on Thanksgiving Day in Canada, bring hope for love.
On May 30, as per an older post shown further below, Bambi denounced a shooting at a Jewish girl school in North York (Ontario). Thankfully, no one was injured back then.
Sadly, yesterday on the symbolic day of Yom Kippur, another shooting targeted the same school overnight. No one was injured, thank Goodness. This unacceptable violent incident is still being investigated by the police (https://shorturl.at/tN9xj).
Of note, similar violent incidents took place in Montreal during the last academic year (https://shorturl.at/0sY3r). However, in all Canada’s provinces and territories, there must be zero tolerance for violence toward any public or private school, including both secular and religious ones (whether Jewish, Islamic, or other). This is the least at all times, to begin with, and especially during a senseless yet cruel war, which is taking place miles away, including in Bambi’s birth country more recently.
Indeed, all Canadians deserve to grow up, learn, work, and live while being as well as feeling safe. Thus, enough of intimidation toward youth and parents of Jewish heritage in our peaceful country. It is no one’s fault if there is an armed conflict in the Middle East.
Instead, why don’t we learn or re-connect with the value of tolerance, as per the beautiful French song of Mr. Enrico Macias shared below? It is performed, with a personal touch, by a talented singer, Mr. Pascal Leyman. Below, you can read the song’s lyrics, which Bambi translated on her blog three years ago (English is followed by the original French).
“Tolerance is proof of love and intelligence
Tolerance is respect for life in all countries
Tolerance is to have a lot of indulgence for your neighbour
Open your heart instead of clenching your fists
For no reason for nothing
All forgiven for the tears
Of a child or of a woman
We are never loved
By fear or by severity
Understanding the ideas of others
Without wanting to impose our own
It is in this world a virtue
That we lost
Tolerance is reasoning about the passions of difference
Tolerance means recognizing to everyone their divine rights
Tolerance is the last chance for today’s humans
If they don’t want to no longer live in freedom
in a few years
Despite the many disagreements that still exist between us
Everything can be discussed if we know how to forgive first
Whatever the naysayers of all stripes can write
Mourning the future, I still refuse
Tolerance will eventually win out over backbiting
And on that day, on earth
There won’t be happier than me”.
Original French lyrics of Mr. Macias’ song:
« La tolérance, c’est une preuve d’amour et d’intelligence La tolérance, c’est le respect de la vie dans tous les pays La tolérance, c’est d’avoir pour son prochain beaucoup d’indulgence Ouvrir son cœur au lieu de fermer les poings Sans raison pour rien
Tout excusé devant les larmes D’un enfant ou bien d’une femme On est jamais aimé Par crainte ou par sévérité Comprendre les idées des autres Sans vouloir imposer les nôtres C’est dans ce monde une vertu
Que nous avons perdue
La tolérance, c’est raisonner les passions de la différence La tolérance, c’est reconnaitre à chacun tous ses droits divins La tolérance, c’est pour les hommes d’aujourd’hui la dernière chance S’ils ne veulent pas ne plus vivre en liberté dans quelques années
Malgré les nombreux désaccords qui entre nous existent encore Tout peut se discuter si l’on sait pardonner d’abord Qu’importe ce que peuvent écrire les défaitistes de tous bords Porter le deuil de l’avenir, je m’y refuse encore
La tolérance finira par l’emporter sur la médisance Et ce jour là, sur terre Il n’y aura pas plus heureux que moi».
