Category: Sackville’s Memorial park

Six days after the explosion:

A month later:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/09/lebanon-only-an-international-investigation-can-set-the-course-for-justice-for-beirut-blast-victims/

For whom did little Sama lose her eye? For what? Her family escaped war in Syria, thinking they were safer in Lebanon, as you can see in the CBC documentary below.

What about the 192 victims who lost their lives and the 6500 injured citizens?

What about the 300, 000 homeless citizens? They are now relying on international and national food donation. What about those who are living in their heavily damaged houses, still unable to fix them? They are all, slowly but surely, smiling to a new dawn… but deep inside, their hearts are still shattered.

Many Lebanese citizens are leaving their country. Some are unable to do so. Remember, they still do not have access to their savings. They are like prisoners in their own country. Some are fortunate to be able to travel whilst some are trying illegal and risky ways. Yet others are dreaming to see their kids living in more stable countries abroad (despite the pandemic in the world).

Anyhow, here is the CBC piece for the National mentioned above:

A couple of days ago, Beirut lost a lady, Ms. Lady Yvonne Sursock Cochrane. She died in her beautiful yet damaged palace at age 98 of Beirut port explosion injuries. May her memory be eternal and thanks to her for all what she did to defend heritage!

Mind you, her place is near Bambi’s cousin, Dearest Joumana. Thank God the latter just left her apartment before the blast. This neighbourhood is not far from Bambi’s own parents. Her palace (a museum) means so much to Beirut citizens, to Lebanese people, and to tourists… Perhaps more so to Bambi’s mom who grew up nearby. Let’s hope this museum will be rebuilt soon. Thanks to the Louvre Museum in Paris who expressed solidarity with Beirut Sursock Museum. The latter has been renovated after civil war. Indeed, it took 20 years to fix it, as you can see in the pictures below:

https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ts/news/world/middleeast/2020/09/01/lebanese-philanthropist-lady-cochrane-dies-of-blast-injuries.html

https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1231003/lady-cochrane-disparition-dune-icone.html

Yesterday, another sad story came out of Beirut: an injured man in the blast, called Mr. Tanios Antoun, lost his life. He was an inpatient at the Saint George Hospital. He had to be rushed to the American University of Beirut Healthcare Centre. Despite the best medical efforts, he lost his battle against his injuries. Mr. Antoun comes from a beautiful village called Sghar. Bambi could not find an online picture of this man to honour him. To do so, she will show you two pictures of his village.

This will be followed by a song she would like to dedicate to his memory as well as to Ms. Sursock-Cochrane’s memory, if she may. It is the famous Li Beirut song of Feiruz, acapella performance by a talented artist that Bambi just discovered. Her name is Ms. Abir Nehme.

To conclude this post on a lighter note, Bambi will share pictures of two beautiful guests in Beirut. One gave citizens hope of finding life under the rubble, even after a month. Flash, a clever and cute dog, came with her rescue team from Chile. Sadly, the heart beating she discovered and they sensed stopped. Thanks to them and to their Lebanese peers for searching the destroyed site for three days. At least, they can tell themselves that they did their utmost. Well, Flash became a star in Beirut in both real life and social media. Thank you Ms. Roula Douglas for sharing her picture!

Following Flash’s picture, you will see a few pictures, taken as screenshots from Roula’s’ Twitter account. Bambi tried to find ways to share the original video but was unsuccessful. Anyhow, you can still see an adorable pelican who made friends in Beirut with a café owner and fishermen. The video comes from a Bloomberg Beirut-based journalist, Ms. Lin Noueihed who wrote the following: “So I was having a bite with a couple of friends by the corniche when this fella wonders in. Apparently, he’s been visiting for the past month, looked after by the cafe owner and fishermen. And for a few minutes, the world was beautiful again. #Beirut“.

As a conclusion to this post, Bambi is happy to virtually meet you, beautiful pelican. She hopes you are having a good time in Beirut. Who knows? Perhaps you brought to citizens a message of hope about any international investigation as well as more prosperous and healthy days to the Lebanese people. Until then, long live your friendship with the Beirut café owner and the fishermen!

Who said that Canadian entrepreneurs who happen to be “black” are treated unfairly by our banks?

If that was the horrible case, where are the data backing such a statement?

If the data exist, where is the correction with which our government could have addressed such systemic problem?

Why is our government creating race-based programs instead (https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/trudeau-announces-cash-for-loans-support-to-black-canadian-entrepreneurs-1.5097852)? And is this a wise strategy?

Plus, why are our authorities dividing us based on our skin colours?

Well, what if we get tanned over the summer (like many deer of Lebanese origins or Canadians, darker than the average)? Would we qualify ??

Seriously, Bambi does not know if she should smile or cry. Indeed, the “duo” Trudeau/Freeland et al. may think they are being highly noble and fair. However, in Bambi’s mind, they are being unwise rather. She is saying this from her non-expert citizen perspective and with all due respect.

Bambi does not know how you would personally feel about all this or if you care to think about it. As far as she is concerned and had she been black, she would have found it insulting to have a funding program meant only for entrepreneurs (i.e., just because they are black business owners). In the same way, she would find it insulting to have a research funding program meant only for Arabs or so-called “White” people or just deer, etc. They will get that loan or this grant, not because of anything else, usually based on merit. No, it is just based on their so-called race.  

What if you are a Canadian of Palestinian origins who happened to be black? What if you are like this school mate of hers who was black like an African and yet Lebanese. What if a business is made of several people of different shapes and shades?

Despite the good intentions, such a program gives the following message: In Canada, so-called black entrepreneurs should be treated differently because they would have not been able to make it otherwise. So, we take them by the hand, like little infants.

What happened to the concept of merit? Is this what entrepreneurs truly want? Isn’t this contrary to the spirit of entrepreneurship even, that is to attempt to make profits, by initiative and risk and by competition with all others?

When people immigrate, they dream of finding a different place, on average better than their birth countries.

Of course, a host country must be prepared to welcome them. However, they do have the responsibility to adjust to their new environment, instead of changing the environment to suit them.

Adjustment to a new country is a learning process. It takes time and effort.

Life is a give and take. You give up some ways of doing things. You learn new ways. You learn possibly a new language, etc.   

All the latest fashionable publications, mainly in the mainstream media and even academia, exclude this responsibility. Instead, they are all about showing us how oppressive we are as a society to the “victimized” so-called people of colour or darker people (i.e., black), etc.

Bambi feels like saying: Enough is enough. Can we please have more refined thought again?

To illustrate her point, Bambi would like to share with you the following articles, just an example.

Some articles tell us that we must de-colonize our bookshelf, to be anti-racist:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2020/08/28/black-book-programs-share-anti-racism-libraries

Others tells us that we must de-colonize our practices as therapists. Look at this funny article entitled “The Budding Field of Climate-Aware Therapy Must Be Decolonized To Serve BIPOC Communities” (by the way, can someone tell Bambi what the latter means. She only knows that BIPOC is supposed to include a deer like her, since it stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour. Well, Bambi loves freedom. How can she see herself reduced to this fancy acronym then? She refuses it ?):

The Budding Field of Climate-Aware Therapy Must Be Decolonized To Serve BIPOC Communities

Other articles tell us that we should de-colonize our self-care journey:

https://greatist.com/discover/diversifying-self-care-and-wellness

Yet others, published in the Globe & Mail, hints that lawn is racist ?. So, it is time to de-colonize it, it asks?

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-is-it-time-to-decolonize-your-lawn/

Bambi is sparing you all the other articles she regularly comes across. She will just share the ones below on de-colonizing our school curriculum or businesses. Imagine, we learned today that even a mosque is calling for support for BLM:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/black-parents-call-on-province-to-decolonize-curriculum-in-effort-to-fight-racism-in-schools-1.5712143

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/anti-racism-bay-st-1.5647583

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/american-airlines-crew-black-lives-matter-pins/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener-waterloo/kitchener-waterloo-unity-mosque-in-solidarity-with-black-lives-matter-1.5709226

To conclude this post, what a terribly racist country we are… So terrible that MANY people throughout the world still dream of immigrating to Canada!

Our current federal government is into this fashionable ideology, at least in the discourse or symbolism (our PM even took the knee, as they say). Yet, the Government of Canada seems attached to its policy of massive immigration (perhaps our open borders are now more limited by the pandemic?), even if most Canadians prefer lower numbers:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadians-favour-limiting-immigration-1.5177814

Thus, the question that comes to Bambi’s mind at the end of this post is the following: If we are that bad as a country, why are we still welcoming that many newcomers? Shouldn’t we do some internal clean-up first? Just asking ?.

All seasons are beautiful.

Even if Bambi loves the summer (in which she was born), she adores the fall season, especially in our part of North America with its magical colours.

Even if she can “tease” the fall by telling it that its only problem is that it announces winter, she remains under the charm of our Canadian winter even after 30 years!

Of course, when something ends we may feel homesick or sad. The beauty of life is that the cycle repeats itself. There is comfort in this repetitive reality of life.

There will be another summer, hopefully minus the coronavirus. Without being too philosophical, Bambi does not want to end this Labour day without highlighting the new beginning ahead, that is the incredibly beautiful autumn season.

She hopes that the season ahead will bring a new hope to everyone here and abroad, especially to her loved ones in Beirut.

For many, the forthcoming season will be a continuation of projects, along with a new chapter of life lessons. Some lessons will be fun or challenging in a good way. Others may feel brutal or cruel (i.e., losses, destruction, or grief). However, even tough life lessons will end. Yes, they will become history, even in doomed countries like Lebanon. There is a sunshine hidden between the pages of the book of life.

To conclude this post, Bambi would like to offer you a French song celebrating the beautiful fall season, with its forthcoming “Indian summer” (like a mini second summer). Thank you Mr. Joe Dassin/Merci Monsieur Dassin for “having existed”, even if you did not live long enough to sing for more fall seasons at our end. At least, you left us your immortal song about our country (with its French and English versions)!

Bambi and her spouse usually celebrate many dates, from the first encounter through several other relationship milestones (skipping you the details ?).

Well, today is their “first date” anniversary # 18. This took place in Montreal after their unexpected encounter in Toronto a few months earlier (thanks to a lost hair clip… but that’s another story, her favourite one in life).

Funny memories of My Big Fat Greek Wedding and of being literally thrown out of a restaurant at 4 AM because this business needed to close (they told them no need to pay, the cashier closed. Can you imagine? If you want free food whilst in Montreal, try Le Marché around that time… ?). Well this did not prevent them from continuing their conversation on the side walk of McGill Street downtown.

To conclude this post, here is a little surprise from Bambi to her spouse. She will share it with all of you too (“Opa” to everyone, Katia you are on Bambi’s mind and you know why ?!).

By the way, she can assure you that this is not them dancing the Zorba, even if she adores Greece and its culture!

The Facebook page of Saint George University Medical Centre in Beirut, Lebanon (https://www.facebook.com/pg/saintgeorgehospital/posts/?ref=page_internal) currently reads as follow:

“4 August 2020 –> 4 September 2020. One month has passed and it still hurts, the loss of our nurses, patients and visitors, the total damage of the hospital. A documentary from our heart capturing what words cannot express. Our heartfelt gratitude to the director Zeina Farah ❤️

#TOGETHER_WE_CAN rebuild our #hospital and resume serving all our #patients through our power of survival and your #support:

#TOGETHER_WE_CAN rebuild our #hospital and resume serving all our #patients through our power of survival and your #support:

https://www.stgeorgehospital.org/stgeorge-donation

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-rebuild-saint-george-hospital-beirut “.

Bambi will spare you her blahablablah and just share the video at the end of this post. Anyhow, even if she wanted to express any word, she cannot as she is still speechless since August 4th, 2020, when the tragedy hit close to home.

Thankfully, Ms. Zeina Farah, our talented Director, put her heart and soul into this video to tell us, through people’s own words and tears, the story of what happened at that hospital on August 4, 2020.

Bambi is grateful because Zeina kindly shared her documentary, which is sub-titled in English. In it, you will see pictures and hear sounds that will move your heart.

You will listen to nurses, physicians, and health administrators sharing stories of life and death, of heroism and humanity, of devotion to medical care in the middle of a catastrophe that is beyond description, of efficacy and competence (evacuating the hospital in just a few minutes, even without mixing covid-19 patients with all the others injured patients and guests). Among all the moving stories, you may recognize that Canadian young father (who later will lose his 3-year-old daughter, Alexandra (or Lixou) :(. Bambi was moved to learn how he helped the nurse in calling her own parents to reassure them whilst they were in an ambulance rushing to take his own child to another hospital. Finally, you will hear colleagues honouring their 21 peers who lost their lives.

Following the video below, Bambi will remind you of an earlier post about this hospital immediately following the tragedy. To conclude this post, she will allow herself to borrow the words of Father Elias Farah (from the video), singing a Byzantine prayer in Arabic at the memorial for the victims who lost their lives at that hospital: “Fal Yakoun Zikrihoum Mou Abadan“. This means” “May their Memory be eternal…”.

May we all remember to love and take care of one another, at all times and perhaps especially in such absurd times of criminal negligence in a country that is fed up of corruption, violence, and of organized stupidity at the highest governance levels. Where is that investigation of five day only, that the Lebanese authorities promised? It has been “5 days” six times now…

This is how life encountered death at the Saint George Hospital in Beirut

Bambi decided to take on an online tour, reading the platforms of our political parties (ahead of our provincial elections on September 14, 2020).

With all due respect, and sometimes much admiration (for Mr. David Coon, especially… and at times his whole team), she began reading the platform of the party that she will be the least likely to vote for (unless she falls on her head before election day): Our Green party of NB.

Well, she now definitely has a concrete reason not to vote for this naively dangerous party. Here is why.

All the platform of this party looks well articulated, nice, moderate, and clever… all except for that one picture meant to illustrate an NB school student (http://greennbvert.ca/platform/). It shows us a young girl (likely not having reached puberty) with a hijab on her head. Is this the average NB kid?

This picture is a symptom of a society in Canada, with its obsession to be the most progressist possible, at all costs, even if sometimes we do not even question so-called progressist trends in the world (some political parties even include the term “progressive” in their official names, next to a word, that may sound contrary. Why? Likely because it sells well ?).

Does this beautiful yet veiled young girl look like Ms. Megan Mitton’s daughter or Mr. Kevin Arsenault’s niece or neighbour? No and mind you, Ms. Megan calls herself feminist. Is a girl as young as the one in the picture able to provide an informed consent about her will to wear the hijab, Ms. Mitton?

How could she? She is not even dressed like Bambi’s relatives and friends, those who are secular and those who are more religious. Not even like the own daughters of Bambi’s veiled friends in both NB and NS ?.

Perhaps the Green party is so taken by its noble and well-meaning diversity concern, like the rest of North America, that it forgot the following: Such an image, with a title of “Educating for the future” seems to represent the dream come true of Islamists (radicals within the beautiful/moderate religion of Islam. The one Bambi knows well and respects much).

They likely forgot or naively do not know that many young and older women like this cute veiled girl in the picture are prevented from getting an education or simply killed, if they do not wear a hijab. Yes, this happens daily in some countries of the Middle or Far East. Many boys and girls are literally thrown to their death (from a height) because they are gay in some countries. Islamism is not fun and flirting with it can backfire on everyone one day.   

So, in sum, the choice of such a picture is not just unwise. Despite the good intentions, it is somehow insulting to both girls from the so-called ethnic or Muslim minorities in NB and girls from of the vast majority of the 745,000 citizens, who do not recognize themselves in it.

If the Green party, along with other parties, want to be truly inclusive, perhaps it would be a good idea not to exclude the silent majority when wanting to embrace diversity.

To conclude this post, here are earlier posts by Bambi on related topics, one with one of our federal banks (the CIBC) and the other with politicians from the provincial NDP in Alberta and the federal Liberal parties.

In the name of diversity, a CIBC branch in Moncton is promoting the sexualization of young girls

Another Canadian politician, this time our federal Minister of Middle Class Prosperity & Associate Minister of Finance, dresses up as a veiled woman

Can’t Canadian politicians be “inclusive” without being sycophantic?

Here is the article and see the picture too:

https://www.france24.com/en/20200903-canada-s-top-doctor-urges-mask-wearing-during-sex-no-kissing

With all due respect to Dr. Tam (likely the most competent in her Ministry), why is she infiltrating our bedrooms ??

The irony is the contrast between her statement now and her/our federal government’s attitude at the start of the pandemic when they should have exerted more control on our borders to prevent the entry of the coronavirus. Instead, she/they chose to lecture us on stigma and racism then.

Today, the political strategy is to sound more controlling. Sex is just a mean to do so.

Even if Dr. Tam is stating the obvious about masks, why is she getting into that much details? And as France 24 wrote, how many will be listening?

Now, Dr. Tam is right, the safest sex partner in pandemics remains oneself.

A rescue team from Chile, along with their dog, may have sensed a living pulse under the rubble, a month after the Beirut explosion. At first, rumours talked about possibly two persons alive. One of them may be alive… He/she may be a child.

“Eddy Bitar of Live Love Beirut said there was a small person curled in the foetal position in the debris of a collapsed building. Rescuers are working to access the person’s location on the second floor of the building near fallen water tanks.”

Potential rescue efforts would most likely take several hours to bring this survivor out of the rubble. Fingers crossed!!

Thank you/GRACIAS to the rescue team, to the equipment used, and of course to their cleverly trained dog!

Her name is Kinda El Khatib. She is young. She is passionate. She is vocal.

She is in jail now. Her crime? Well, what a surprise! She has been accused of «collaboration with *the Israeli enemy* and violation of the bill on boycotting Israel».

As published in the L’Orient Le Jour (https://www.lorientlejour.com/article/1231348/la-militante-kinda-el-khatib-inculpee-pour-collaboration-avec-israel.html), examining military magistrate Najat Abou Chacra indicted activist Kinda el-Khatib on Wednesday for collaborating with “the Israeli enemy” and violating the billon boycotting Israel, reports the National News Agency (Ani, official).

Bambi has always joked by telling herself the following: There is an old Lebanese saying that tells us that we learn about adults’ secrets from their kids’ mouths (because children are spontaneous and tell the truth when adults try to hide it). Well, Bambi has changed this saying in her mind, thinking that we learn the full truth from the readers’ comments and from the media of opponents or “enemies”. This is what she has always done since her childhood and teenage years, reading all sort of media of all the Lebanese fractions that fought each other for over 15 years (no boycott of knowledge). She particularly enjoys reading the readers’ comments and tweets of politicians or public figures, those she does not agree with as much as those she agrees with. Of course, she may sometimes agree with those she does not usually share the same vision or have the same approach, despite the shared vision. She may even find those she usually agrees with off about this or that topic, etc. There is nothing set in stone in life, not even opinions. However, some values do not change (regardless of countries or times) like the freedom of thoughts and of expression (of others and of oneself), like respect (self- and for others), and humanity, etc.

This being said, well, here is what one reader commented to the article in question:

He wrote “she is known for being hostile to the Hezbollah and to the President of Lebanon” [verbatim, taken from the article in question]. This is her real crime. All the rest is literature”.

Well said, even if we do not need a PhD in political science or in law to understand that Kinda has been sadly and unfairly thrown in jail!

Bambi was even more curious about this Kinda. She went to search for her twitter, if any. She has re-tweeted the following on June 17, 2020:

After reading the above, Bambi went and googled two Israeli media. Both of them did not mention this story. However, in June, they reported that this young woman was accused of the same accusation (like now), along with her brother. The Lebanese authorities claim that they visited Israel through Jordan.

To come back to Kinda’s re-tweet above, the MTV original tweet is in Arabic. It is about Mr. Nasrallah’s statement that “his weapons protect his country and no one will put him between the two choices of the weapons versus famine“. He is likely referring to the Cesar Act, which is an American bill meant to put financial pressure on Syria’s Mr. Assad et al. and on his organization. Of note, the MTV is the Lebanese channel that was recently prevented from covering the parliamentary consultations to nominate the recent Lebanese MP at the Presidential palace.

Kinda’s story is far from being unique. Indeed, MANY other young and older people have been wrongly accused of the same, that is collaborating with the enemy ☹. This trend has been increasing at a scary speed lately.

Indeed, about two years ago, an indecent military bureaucrat (a police officer?) invented a story about a famous theatrical producer/comedian (Mr. Ziad Itani, his name). Bambi recalls that story very well— she heard about it before and during a trip to Beirut. She immediately told herself, this seems to be fabricated. Many months later, the truth went out. Indeed, the whole saga was found to be invented. The lady in question went to jail whilst the innocent man found his freedom again. For a long time, his reputation was destroyed… Perhaps he is still suffering now? This false accusation is worse than an accusation of racism or sexual harassment here in Canada. It can literally bring your death, not just in the form of cancellation or end of a career. Some may be tortured over such accusation, who knows? Thank Goodness, there are decent and courageous Lebanese lawyers who fight for freedom and justice. They help citizens who cannot afford to pay legal fees. The policewoman in question (along with the IT guy who helped her) fabricated emails even, pretending that Mr. Itani is leaking information to an Israeli spy (a beautiful woman—double agent or something). She ended up going to jail (perhaps the IT guy too but Bambi did not follow the story in detail). After some time in prison, she was treated like a hero upon her discharge.

Can you imagine? this lady was honoured for trying to destroy an innocent’s man. How could people like her or like judges who follow orders (or who may be threatened? Who knows?) go to sleep at night knowing that they falsely condemned innocent people?

To conclude this post, Bambi’s heart goes to Kinda. She does not know her in person. This is the first time she reads her story and sees her beautiful face. She sends her a prayer and a rainbow of hope for a better future to her and to her fellow young citizens. Enough of wars, of scary weapons, of lies, and of hate. It is about time to live in dignity, security, prosperity, and hopefully one day peace not just in the Middle East but also across the world.