In the interview below, Mr. Mhanna talked about citizen awakening. He also highlighted the crying need for strong anti-corruption signals in order to restore national and international trust. He also acknowledged that the “the new government does not represent the aspirations of the demonstrators”.
These are interesting insights by a journalist who is a natural defender of the freedom of the press and of free speech.
Indeed, without being familiar with Mr. Mhanna’s own work, Bambi has the utmost respect for his foundation, a legacy of Mr. Samir Kassir.
Mr. Kassir was a Lebanese-French
professor of history at Saint-Joseph University and a journalist. He was cowardly
assassinated in 2005.
From a Wikipedia page, we can read the following: “Kassir was assassinated using a car bomb in a Christian part of Beirut on 2 June 2005, just a few days after the general elections. The investigation into his assassination is still underway, but to date no one has been indicted. Since he had been constantly receiving threats from Lebanese and Syrian Intelligence Officers, there is widespread speculation in Lebanon that the perpetrators were the Lebanese-Syrian security apparatus or remnants of this force (as Syria has claimed that all its intelligence officers were out of Lebanon; in addition, the head of the Lebanese security forces had resigned). The Syrian government has denied these charges”.
This being said, best wishes to Lebanon in both the short- and longer-term. May fiscal accountability, democracy, justice, common sense, and… peace prevail.
Although Bambi’s family decided not to exchange Christmas gifts this year (due to the economic crisis in Lebanon), everyone kindly sent with her souvenirs to her spouse, all made in Lebanon. This is how Bambi got to watch “Capernaum” with him this evening, a Lebanese movie subtitled in English and/or French (thank you Roula :)!).
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and nominatedfor an Oscar in 2019 , Director Nadine Labaki’s most recent movie tells the story of Zain (“Zain al Rafeea”), a Lebanese street boy who sues his parents for “the crime of giving him life”.
As shared by Ms. Labaki in the interview above, Zain is a Syrian refugee boy in real life. What a talented boy! An what a beautiful smile in the very last scene (contrasting with his sad eyes throughout the movie).
All the actors and actresses, younger and older one, are remarkably skilled (yet mostly, if not all, non-professionals). The movie is captivating, to say the least, in addition of being brilliantly moving.
Will Lebanon know how to get rid of its cancerous corruption at the top management level?
Will it show serious efforts of transparency, fiscal reforms, and better governance?
Will it provide evidence that it deserves an external helping hand to save it from economically falling apart?
When will the people of Lebanon finally get basic services (i.e., electricity 24 hours per day), like in any normal country?
When will the Lebanese political class accept to change a failed sectarian system they exploit, hide behind, or pretend to dislike but… cannot change?
Will Lebanon’s political leaders, now hiding behind this new government of apparently smart folks (of technocrats/academicians), be politically interfering behind the scenes? Or enough with their shenanigans?
Whether they are/will be interfering or not, will they all finally learn to put their country first, that is before any other loyalty?
Talking about loyalties, will the powerful players in the region remain powerful in the next few years? And if so or not, how will this affect tiny Lebanon?
Last but not least, what if this new government surprises us by succeeding in winning the confidence of the Parliament, the street, and of the entire world? Will Lebanon truly learn to maturely move forward once and for all? Or will it keep surviving from one crisis to the next?
Bambi’s brain is full of questions right now. Like everyone, she is holding her breath, hoping for the best for this beautiful country.
“The Fraser
Institute has just released the level of federal spending per capita for the
past year. Conclusion: by spending $9,066 per citizen in 2019, the Trudeau
government will have peaked since 1870.
The
Institute dates back to 1870 in its measure of government spending per capita,
data adjusted for inflation in order to compare apples with apples.
If the
Trudeau government was the biggest spender in Canadian history in 2019, it is
interesting to look at the next two years in the rankings. The other two spending
peaks occurred during major global crises: First, in the heart of the Second
World War. Second, during the financial and economic crisis of 2009.
That says a lot. The two previous cases are directly associated with key moments when the explosion in state spending can be explained. For the war effort or to put the economy on artificial respiration. But why in 2019?
What explanation?
What would justify federal spending in 2019 exceeding that of the previous 152 years since Confederation? No objective criteria. Only a government with an outrageously spending tendency, which arrives in an election year and which exaggerates even more in its “orgy” of spending, namely by writing checks.
We will have found all the formulas of political language to justify spending so much. Canada “invests in people,” says Justin Trudeau. These pretty linguistic twists do not conceal reality. Canada is skyrocketing dollars, and to get to spend that much, our government is borrowing heavily.
Good economic growth in recent years has helped prevent the debt-to-GDP ratio from deteriorating. This is where they try to reassure us. However, there is a certain hypocrisy behind this supposed security. Because it’s obvious that at the slightest economic slowdown, this house of cards will collapse.
The concern
Let’s imagine a recession. Economic growth stagnates or declines, at the same time government revenues plummet and spending increases automatically. In no time, the deficit will explode and the debt-to-GDP ratio will do the same. To govern is to plan. It seems to me that we cannot ignore the dangers of this scenario.
What shocks me the most is that this torrent of spending does not even coincide with an era of dramatic improvement in one area. Canada is not revolutionizing its transportation systems with investments in state-of-the-art public transportation.
The downturn in the western provinces’ economy should be a wake-up call. The end of the oil economy within a few decades will cost Canada dearly. Other countries have taken advantage of the good years of oil wealth to put money aside. This is not our case.
I hope that in the closed retirement of Mr. Trudeau with his ministers, someone asked these questions. But I’m not sure at all.”
Some people are excited by the number of women in this new Government (6 out of 20). Some may even say, men or women, these are new faces; at least with expertise in their fields.
More specifically, one can think: Wow, kudos to Lebanon for nominating a woman as the Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister. Well, Bambi did not think so. She was rather curious to see whom got this position. She found her bio online, which reads as follows ( https://information-international.com/page/37/founders):
“Mrs. Zeina Adra has more than 20 years of practical, management and research experience. As a Partner and Executive Director for Information International, Ms. Adra leads the Beirut-based research and consultancy firm in survey research, database collection and analysis of projects for the Arab World and the Near East in the areas of health, education, agriculture, infrastructure facilities and demographic and socio-economic studies (including project evaluation and impact assessment).
In addition to working with Information International, Mrs. Adra is Founder and Program Director of the Social and Cultural Development Association (INMA), a non-profit, non-governmental organization that services clusters of villages and specific neighborhoods throughout Lebanon. For INMA, Mrs. Adra directs national, sustainable projects in tourism and agriculture that focus on health, education, environment, cultural and income generating activities.
Mrs. Adra has significant experience working on international development and donor-funded projects, through which she has conducted needs assessment, reviews of literature, qualitative and quantitative studies, structured questionnaires for surveys based on random sampling, field visits, training and supervising of field surveyors, analysis of data and preparation of reports. She has also established and maintained close contacts with international donors, NGOs and UN agencies, local banks, financial institutions, auditors and Government of Lebanon ministries and local municipalities, which provide her with the ability to coordinate and meet with key stakeholders and city officials throughout Lebanon.
Mrs. Adra has participated in trainings
at a number of workshops and symposiums, including (but not limited to)
the Credit-Finance Workshop in Amman, Jordan, the International NGO
Working Group on Refugee Women in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, the
Micro-enterprise Credit Workshop in Beirut, Lebanon, the Food Commodity
Workshop for USAID-Washington in Washington DC/Idaho and the
Management/Strategic Planning Workshop in Cairo, Egypt. Mrs. Adra has
also participated in numerous tourism and agricultural exhibitions in
Lebanon and abroad including New York Fancy Food Show, ANUGA, Horeca,
Garden Show and others.
Mrs. Adra holds a BS degree in Social Sciences in Marketing/Management from the Lebanese American University (formerly known as Beirut University College)”.
End of the biography. Bravo to Ms. Adra for her interesting professional journey.
However, with all due respect to her professional skills and/or potential to learn, her training and expertise has NOTHING to do with “defence” :). So, why was she nominated for such a key and prestigious position, along with the role of deputy Prime Minister?
Could it be for ties to the President of the country, to the Prime Minister maybe, and… thus indirectly (or directly?) to the Hezbollah?
Mind you, with her professional background, she could have perhaps contributed to another ministry, no?
Anyhow, maybe Bambi is wrong in her non-expert analysis. Maybe this lady will excel in her job, if we give her and Lebanon a chance?
Tragically, Lebanon lags behind both Saudi Arabia and Iran when it comes to women’s rights (what a shame ☹). Indeed, up until now, Lebanese women cannot pass their citizenship to their children; only Lebanese men can do so.
The discriminatory bill in question affects women married to “foreigners”, their children, and the spouses. Indeed, the bill affects crucial life aspects, including legal residency, access to health care, to education, and to work (e.g., professional associations, etc.). Most dramatically, it puts children at risk of stateless, as described in this video by “Human Rights Watch”:
To give a concrete example, one among many other tragedies, Bambi would like to share the following story:
When she recently visited Lebanon, she enjoyed watching TV with her parents. They once watched a very moving documentary on the MTV
channel about a man, called Mr. Haig Manjourian (https://www.mtv.com.lb/vod/ar/program/814).
Mr. Manjourian was born to a Lebanese mother and an
Armenian father who held the Syrian citizenship.
Because Lebanese women cannot transmit their citizenship
to their children, Mr. Manjourian became stateless.
Mr. Manjourian has three older siblings, two sisters and a brother.
After the death of his father when he was 12 years old, hid mom sent him to the Mekhitarist Armenian monastery to become a monk.
Following this stage of his life, he travelled to Rome, to study theology in order to become a priest. However, in order to able to travel, he used a fake passport. To do so, he used the name of “Tony Chehade Iskandar”.
Between the years 1984 and 1989, he lived in a monastery in Venice. He used to send letters to his mom on a regular basis.
After visiting his family in 1990, he returned to Rome. He was never heard from to this day, that is for 30 years.
Many of his relatives suspected his death. Only his mom kept praying and hoping to see her son one day.
In their moments of hope of finding him alive after all these years, his family was literally paralyzed by the fear of asking the Italian authorities about him (as he was living under a fake identity).
They only had his last mailing address in a small suburb of Rome. They had the idea of reaching out to the MTV channel.
A small team from the MTV met with the whole family and travelled from Beirut to Italy. They tried to find this lost adult son through a good Italian priest who seemed to have protected him during his early years in the monastery in Venice. We later learned that he ended up leaving the monastery. He then lived not too far away from Rome. The priest kept checking on him from time to time and made sure he was safe and sound. He then lost his contact, if Bambi recalls the story well.
The MTV team then thought of reaching out to the (now former) Lebanon’s Ambassador in Rome. This diplomat seemed like a competent and compassionate lady. She could not provide any information for confidentiality reasons. However, she somehow kindly and indirectly guided them to a third party who successfully assisted them.
The MTV crew ended up finding him. The moving story is that one day upon returning from Beirut in 1990, he had a car accident… and lost his memory.
They met
with him more than once. They even brought him items to facilitate the recovery
of his long-term memory (pictures of his family, a backgammon game he liked to
play with his grand-father, etc.).
They returned to his village in Lebanon with members of the Red cross to make sure his elderly mother (recovering from an open heart surgery), and everyone else, would be safe whilst watching the moving video featuring him.
The MTV even arranged a trip to Italy for his mom and siblings who finally managed to get passports from Armenia (minus his brother who could not travel because he was stateless too, ironically in his own country). They consulted with two physicians who both gave his mom the green light to travel.
The end of the documentary was SO moving beyond words. Indeed, what a beautiful moment to see him hugging his mom and siblings. Even the kind Italian priest also joined the family reunion. Everyone was grateful for all what he did.
Interestingly, the priest described this family saga as the “story of the prodigal son” (one of the parables of Jesus in the Bible).
Currently, it seems that Mr. Manjourian, has applied for the Italian citizenship, along with the Lebanese one. Will he get the Lebanese citizenship, knowing that the regressive discriminatory bill is still in effect?
Needless to say that Bambi cried liked a “human baby” whilst watching this documentary, especially the last happy scene of the mother finally united with her son, after three decades. What a LONG time.
To conclude this post, as the Lebanese Ambassador said in the documentary, no child should suffer like Mr. Manjourian did, along with his family. Indeed, it is Bambi’s hope that Lebanon will know how to respect and honour ALL his children and citizens.
Bambi has trouble imagining Canadians flying South to escape our harsh winter feeling ashamed to do so ?.
Anyhow, “Flygskam” (Swedish for “flight shame”) was surely the last thing on her own mind when she flew over three continents last December to see her family! On the contrary, Bambi felt grateful to have the chance to jump to Lebanon (and come back safe… in the hope of flying there again as soon as possible).
In Bambi’s opinion, what should matter to Canadian consumers more than “Flygskam” must be the sky-high prices of flying in our country.
Indeed, why is it so expensive to fly in Canada, Bambi has always wondered? This does not make any common sense. Why do we accept this as a society?
For example, it is not normal to pay more on flight
connections from Moncton to Toronto than from a Canadian city to Europe OR within
Europe OR even from Europe to the Middle East.
There has been an informative article on a news blogs in August, 2019 (https://www.mtlblog.com/news/canada/this-is-why-its-so-expensive-to-fly-in-canada) about the reasons for this absurd reality, with a powerful reflection by Dr. Gabor Lukacs and Mr. Massimo Bergamini: Is this due to high airport taxes? To too much “connections” between our federal government and the aviation industry? Or to rather the oligopoly of our aviation industry (Air Canada and WestJet)?
In a large country like Canada, citizens fly within the country, or abroad, for reasons related to business, family, or simply for tourism/pleasure. Many more Canadians would have loved to fly. “Flygskam” is not the barrier to their transportation. It is rather those absurdly high prices.
It is hard to imagine how such high prices can facilitate our economy. They may also prevent people from remaining connected to their loved ones.
The articles above inform us that European airlines “turn to carbon offsets, where they invest in projects such as wind farms and tree planting to compensate for plane-produced carbon dioxide”. This is noble, especially tree planting as it can reduce the risk of flooding.
To conclude this post, good for Greta if she feels better in life by not flying… Bambi just wonders how she feels about the 1000 private jets into Davos 2020 (World Economic Forum). Will these private jet flights carry participants suffering from acute “Flygskam” ??
VERY shocking news from Beirut. Bambi has no comment to add about this news documentary from France 24. It sadly speaks for itself…
One thing is sure: What is unfolding in Lebanon is such a contrast with the peaceful snowy Sunday in Sackville today. Bambi hopes that everyone will be safe in the storms, both here and there.
Bambi is far from being an expert in Lebanese politics. This being said, in her mind, this situation is not surprising. As it is well described by Mr. Ben Wedeman, it is due to many factors, including Lebanon’s political: (1) failed sectarian (or religious-based) system; (2) corruption; and (3) incompetence (in addressing the economic crisis). To this list, Bambi will add the following factor (4): arrogance, a clever term used by her mom during one of their recent conversations.
Perhaps after a good night of sleep, Bambi will find her natural optimism again. She will remind herself of the following: Lebanon has always survived… Beirut will rise again in the end, just like the phoenix bird, which is its symbol. Best wishes to the land of the Cedars in those critical times!
Franceinfo (French content): “Lebanon is *practically* gone bankrupt. The population cannot take it anymore” (Interview with Dr. Joseph Bahout, researcher at the Carnegie Foundation in Washington, USA).
France24 (English content): “Over one hundred people detained in Lebanese protests”. “Lebanon has been swept by a wave of protests aimed at the country’s elite that prompted Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to resign on Oct. 29, pushing the country deeper into economic crisis and frustration. Emerald Maxwell has the latest”.
