{"id":8135,"date":"2020-12-08T16:37:34","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T20:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/?p=8135"},"modified":"2020-12-08T16:53:22","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T20:53:22","slug":"how-sad-how-stupid-how-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/2020\/12\/08\/how-sad-how-stupid-how-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"How sad, how stupid, how dangerous\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Bambi would like to thank her friend Amale for sharing\nthis information about a white student association at McGill University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/montreal.ctvnews.ca\/a-white-students-union-wants-to-set-up-a-chapter-at-mcgill-university-1.5205469<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As per the CTV<\/em> article above, McGill University\nnow has or could have a so-called \u201cWhite Student Association<\/em>\u201d. Can you\nimagine?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why are we allowing ourselves to be divided into black\nand white? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have seen or heard of association such as the \u201cblack\npublic servants<\/em>\u201d or \u201cblack students<\/em>\u201d or \u201cblack entrepreneurs<\/em>\u201d.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you imagine the narrow-mindedness of tribalism? It\ncan go quite far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the story is about an association of white\nstudents at McGill University. Tomorrow it will be about \u201cwhite this\u201d or \u201cwhite\nthat\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When will all this insanity stop?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An association of white, black, yellow, green red, etc\u2026\nThe colour does not matter. It is the sectarianism that Bambi is worried about.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other associations of the so-called BIPOCs for \u201cblack,\nindigenous, and people of colour<\/em>\u201d (that funny term that Bambi is supposed\nto fit in ?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Bambi\u2019s time, the associations were meant to\ncelebrate cultures, not to fall into the trap of divisions\u2026 and sub-divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is both sad and worrisome to see stupidity and\ndangerosity, going hand in hand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What has changed all of a sudden in 30 years to now to\nrequire associations based on stupid skin colours (whether white or black or\nother)? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skin colour or hue (we may be darker in the summer for\nsome of us) is just one characteristic of a person\u2019s complex identity in life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened to our unity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Canadians? As Qu\u00e9beckers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As human beings? Bothers and sisters in humanity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is this the Canada we want to live in and leave as a\nlegacy for our children and grand-children?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bambi has escaped stupid divisions of civil war and\nshe has never ever thought she would find a a neo-form of sectarian Apartheid\nin Canada one day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are all white people the same? Can we inter-change\nthem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are all black people the same? What does a Palestinian\nfrom Gaza who has a black skin has in common with a financially privileged\nblack American  lawyer chosen as a\nvice-President or with a hard-working Ethiopian worker in some foreign\ncountries? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about a successful graduate student or\nentrepreneur of Nigerian origins? Or a Montreal youth from a poor neighbourhood\nwho happens to have a black skin, who is a gang member, and whose dream in life\nis to succeed as a drug dealer? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where is common sense for God\u2019s sake… Not that\ncommon anymore. Bambi misses it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we do not stop to think about what is happening in\nour society (thanks Dr. Mathieu Bock-C\u00f4t\u00e9 for using your brain on our behalf),\nthe end result can be quite ugly. Bambi knows what she is talking about. The\nLebanese civil war was sadly famous for killing or kidnapping on checkpoints\nwhen people were from the \u201cwrong\u201d group of those in power. The best thing that\nLebanon did post-war was to change the IDs of its citizens, erasing from it\ntheir religious affiliation. The population knows very well now that all those\ndivisions were artificial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Canada nowadays, we seem to be moving into the\nopposite direction. We seem to be increasingly focusing on one single aspect of\nour complex identities and we are making it holy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the name of equity (or whatever it is called,\ndiversity, inclusion, and equity), national funding agencies of science are now\nasking research teams to fit criteria of the above be funded\u2026 Instead of\nfocusing only on MERIT. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What world are we living in? Where, in the name of\nanti-racism or equity (good intentions for sure), we focus on the composition\nof research teams instead of assessing their science only (who cares whom they\nare?). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, would you like to consume a health app\nor a vaccine from a competent lab, produced by a competent pharmaceutical\ncompany? Or a lab that has an equal number of scientists from this colour or\nthis religion, or this gender? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bambi prefers safety and effectiveness to ideology in life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To come back to civil war, how do you think all this\nstarted in Beirut? With much dangerous ideologies first and\u2026 then with weapons\nafter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To conclude this post, please make no mistake, no\ncountry in the world is immune to civil problems and even unrest, even those that\nare more stable and advanced like Canada. In other terms, democracy is a\nconstant work in progress. For the latter to prevail, critical sense of\ncitizens is a must! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bambi would like to thank her friend Amale for sharing this information about a white student association at McGill University. https:\/\/montreal.ctvnews.ca\/a-white-students-union-wants-to-set-up-a-chapter-at-mcgill-university-1.5205469 As per the CTV article above, McGill University now has or could have a […]<\/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\/8135"}],"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=8135"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8139,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8135\/revisions\/8139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bambisafkar.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}