{"id":1905,"date":"2020-01-07T11:04:06","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T15:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=1905"},"modified":"2020-01-07T13:12:27","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T17:12:27","slug":"two-pictures-from-beirut-representing-severe-symptoms-of-the-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/01\/07\/two-pictures-from-beirut-representing-severe-symptoms-of-the-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Two pictures from Beirut, representing severe symptoms of the problems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

FIRST picture (published in the <\/strong>An Nahar<\/strong><\/em> on January 7, 2020):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The ad in the above picture reads as: *Remove your\ndirty hands off the justice system\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This demonstration took place yesterday, January 6,\n2020 in the streets of Beirut. Other actions also occurred in front of Governmental\ninstitutions, including two telecommunication entities, and banks as well as\nthe Lebanese University (asking for its independence).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bambi salutes the courage of these people (against all\nodds\u2026). When the legal system of any jurisdiction is too dependent on any powerful\npolitical force and\/or corrupt entity, we can say good-bye to the realistic hope\nfor a healthy democracy. Luckily, there seems to be a slight yet realistic hope\nfor a change in the legal sector there, it seems. Indeed, Lebanon has many\ntalented professionals. What a shame not to benefit from their reformist and\/or\nvisionary actions.       <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second picture (also published in the <\/strong>An Nahar<\/strong><\/em> on January 7, 2020):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For Bambi, this picture is hard to look at for several\nreasons: (1) It represents an elderly man with a deep sad look in his eyes. Because\nhe is Lebanese, this man could have been Bambi\u2019s own dad or uncle, who knows? Bambi\nfeels for his sad expression of feelings. His picture was taken in the Memorial\nservice, organized by the Lebanese Hezbollah last Sunday, for the Irani General\nSuleimani who was recently killed by the Americans in Irak; (2) The second sad reason\nis when Bambi stops to imagine the personal story of this man? Why is he that\nattached to the killed general? Was he himself a fighter with the Hezbollah in\nhis youth? Or did he lose a child in Syria where the Hezbollah went to war\nbehind the back of the Lebanese Government, so to speak? Or is he simply a man\nof his context and time\u2026 or, is he simply too brainwashed by a fanatic religious\nideology?; (3) Last but not least, perhaps the saddest part is what this man is\nwearing on his head. On the yellow flag of the Hezbollah, it is written: \u201cDeath\nto America<\/em>\u201d, a slogan the Iranian regime has always loved to repeat for years\n(of course now more than ever). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tragedy here is that this man is Lebanese, not Iranian. The picture was taken in Beirut, no Tehran\u2026 Next to this man, there were probably hundreds of other men, women, children, wearing the same bandana with the same slogan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Bambi read in the same newspaper that the\nPresident of Lebanon, Mr. Michel Aoun, wants to ensure that Lebanon will remain\nout of the USA-Iran conflict. Noble intention? Likely but how can this\nrealistically happen when people (including him) know who is in charge, not\njust in the country but in the whole region? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plus, will any Lebanese strategy resemble its older official\npolicy (of neutrality) a few years ago when the Syrian war started? Plus, how\ncould Lebanon be truly protected, if external forces decide otherwise, and\/or when\na (large?) part of its population wears the same bandana as the elderly man in\nthe picture above. They sadly wear it not just on their head, but more\nalarmingly, they hide their own eyes with it, following what their leaders tell\nthem to do. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this regard, when Bambi recently visited Lebanon,\nshe met with a childhood school friend (after 30 years!). The friend reminded\nher of a story that she has forgotten about herself: Bambi was the delegate of\nthe class and it was civil war times back then. When militiamen came to force high\nschool students, of all the nearby institutions, to go applaud to a certain\npolitician, Bambi stood up and firmly said: \u201cWe are not sheep and we are not going\nwith you!\u201d. Sadly, the heavily armed men decided otherwise in the end. All the\nstudents of all the schools walked out of their schools to attend the event in\nquestion\u2026 except Bambi herself. Well, she went to hide in the washroom to avoid\nbeing forced to go applaud to the politician in question ?.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this rather now amusing note, Bambi hopes that\npeople will open their eyes to see matters critically and to take a look at the\nwhole picture, before jumping into conclusions\u2026 and filling their hearts with\nhatred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIRST picture (published in the An Nahar on January 7, 2020): The ad in the above picture reads as: *Remove your dirty hands off the justice system\u201d. This demonstration took place yesterday, January 6, 2020 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1905"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1911,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions\/1911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}