Happy PENTECOST: Divine Ethiopia

 

Its landscapes are biblical and its rituals haven’t changed for centuries.

There are moments when Ethiopia seems to belong to an atlas of the imagination – part legend, part fairy-tale, part Old Testament book, part pulling your leg.

In the northern highlands priests with white robes and shepherds’ crooks appear to have stepped out of a Biblical painting. In the southern river valleys bare-breasted tribeswomen, who scar their torsos for erotic effect and insert plates the size of table mats in their lower lips, seemed to have emerged from a National Geographic magazine circa 1930. Ethiopia.

“resembles no other country in Africa”, wrote the great explorer Wilfred Thesiger, “or anywhere else.”

Its isolation is legendary. Not only was Ethiopia never colonised, but it also inflicted the greatest defeat on a European army in the history of the continent – at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. It was only the Italians, of course, but it still counts. Ethiopians were “forgetful of the world”, Edward Gibbon wrote, “by whom they were forgotten”. For long medieval centuries Europeans believed that Ethiopia was home to Prester John, legendary Christian ruler, descendant of one of the three Magi, keeper of the Fountain of Youth, protector of the Holy Grail, and all-round good guy who would one day rescue the Holy Land from the Muslims.

There are always two histories in Ethiopia: the history of historians, sometimes a trifle vague, often tentative; and the history of Ethiopians, a people’s history, confident, detailed, splendid, often fantastical. The two rarely coincide. Historians are still wringing their hands about the mysteries of Aksum in Tigray in the north, with its colossal stelae, its underground tombs, its ruined palaces and its possible connections to the Queen of Sheba. For a thousand years, until about AD 700, it was a dominant power in the region, “the last of the great civilisations of antiquity”, according to Neville Chittick , the archaeologist, “to be revealed to modern knowledge”.

Fortunately, the Ethiopians are on hand to fill in most of the historical blanks. The city was founded, they say, by the great-grandson of Noah. For 400 years it was ruled by a serpent who enjoyed a diet of milk and virgins. Historians may be divided about the Queen of Sheba but Ethiopians know she set off from here to Jerusalem with 797 camels and lot of rather racy lingerie to seduce King Solomon. Historians carelessly lost track of the Ten Commandments not long after Moses came down from Mount Sinai. Ethiopians have the originals under lock and key in a chapel in Aksum, guarded by those mute monks, assigned to kill all intruders.

Ethiopia may not be big on stylish boutiques hotels, littered with objets d’art and architectural magazines, but it is a delightfully old-fashioned place, with ravishing landscapes, sleepy villages and friendly, unhurried people.

Continue reading…

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Ethiopia: Muslims Forcibly Building Mosque on Christian Land Despite Court Ruling

A Muslim mob in Deder, Ethiopia, attacked a Christian man and forced him out of his home on pain of death in an effort to appropriate his land and build a mosque on it—despite recent court rulings confirming the Christian man’s property rights.

“Their first plan was to kill my husband,” said Fikere Mengistu’s wife. “Now, he has escaped from the area. We are fasting and praying for God to rescue us from this forceful action.”

She remains with her five children, aged mother-in-law, and 30 other Christians praying on the property.

According to International Christian Concern,

Fikere Mengistu’s family has owned their land for more than 90 years, but a mob of more than 20 Muslims in Kufanzik village remain intent on forcibly building a mosque on the Mengistu farm in defiance of the law. Muslims make up the religious majority in the area. They have destroyed his fence and have looted his possessions. In addition, the local police are complicit in these attempts to steal his land…. The authorities are letting it happen. In the past, he has faced threats from local police officers, has been forced to pay bribes, and has been imprisoned simply because he is a Christian.

“We did our best try to defend our faith based on the law of the country… Muslims are out of the control of the government and the law. What can we do?” said Mengistu.

Source

– SHOCK POLL: 81% Of Al Jazeera Arabic Poll Respondents Support Islamic State

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End of The World ‘prophet’ Predicts HORROR Earthquake to Hit America in TWO DAYS

A DOOM-prophesying video has claimed the position of the planets and a Nostradamus prediction mean a horrifically strong earthquake will hit America TOMORROW.

The clip which first appeared on YouTube and has been shared across social media sites claims there will be a monstrous earthquake in Los Angeles and San Francisco on Thursday at about 4pm local time.

The disastrous prophecy claims the quake will measure 9.8 on the Richter Scale – two points higher than the devastating Nepal earthquake last month.

The video made by Ditrianum Media, is narrated by a man from the Netherlands called Frank who claims to have warned of the Nepal earthquake five days before it struck.

It includes a 3D moving map of the solar system showing the alignment of the planets on May 28, claiming it will disrupt geological processes on Earth.

But astronomer Phil Plait, who writes for New Scientist, said: “I’m seeing some buzz on social media that a planetary alignment on May 28 will cause a huge magnitude 9.8 earthquake.

“Let me be clear: No, it won’t. It can’t. Worse, there’s not even an alignment on that date, at least not with the Earth. It’s all baloney.

“This all stems from a video by someone who I believe is sincere but also profoundly wrong on essentially every level. It’s been picked up by various credulous places online, then spread around by people who haven’t been properly sceptical about it.”

Frank, who claims he was first warned about the event by spirits in August 2013, said next Thursday May 28 would be a “key earth date”.

In the video, he said: “This is a very, very important update.

“If the prophecy is correct Los Angeles will go into the sea and Japan will be affected by terrible tsunamis.

“On August 12 2013 I received a message directly from spirits that a very, very large earthquake would happen on the west coast of America.

“Now I believe I know when it is exactly going to be. I hope I am wrong.”

Continue reading…

– Are we all going to die next Wednesday?

– The “Goat” and the Cathedral: Cologne mascot Hennes projected onto Hoover Dam

– George Bush and the Pet Goat

…ነጠብጣቦችን ለማገናኘት…

ይህችን ፍዬል አርማዋ ያደረገችው የኮሎኝ ከተማ የእግርኳስ ቡድን ናት። በዚህችው ከተማ መንትያ ግንቦች ያሏት ታሪካዊ፣ ድንቅና ጎበኝዎችን በመሳብ በጀርመን የመጀመሪያውን ቦታ የዛች ካቴድራል ትገኛለች። ሳንፍራንሲስኮ የአሜሪካ ሰዶማውያን ዋና ከተማ እንደሆነች፡ ኮሎኝም የጀርመን ሰዶማውያን ዋና ከተማ እየሆነች ነው። በነገራችን ላይ አጥባቂ ካቶሊክ ናት የምትባለዋ አየርላንድ የሰዶማውያንን “ጋብቻ” አሁን በሕግ ማጽደቋ ያለምክኒያት አይደለም። መቅሰፍቱን በቅርቡ እንደምናይ አያጠራጥርም።

ባለፈው ሚያዚያ “የጀርመን ዊንግስ” አየር መንገድ በደቡብ ፈረንሳይ ተከስክሶ ህይወታቸውን ላጡት መንገደኞች የጸሎት ስነሥርዓትን ያስተናገደቸው ይህችው የኮሎኟ ካቴድራል ነበረች። ብዙ ያልተወራለት ነገር፡ አውሮፕላኗንን ከስክሷል፡ የመንገደኞቹን አጥፍቷል ተብሎ የተወነጀለው ረዳት አብራሪ ሰዶማዊ መሆኑን ነው። ይህንም ምስጢር ለመደበቅ ብዙ ተሞክሯል። ሰዶማውያን፡ በእንግሊዝኛው ‘Fag’gots‘ የሚል መጠሪያ አላቸው። የእነዚህ ሰዶማውያን አፈቀላጤ የሆኑት ድርጅቶች፡ ባለፍፈው ሳምንት ባወጡት ሠንጠረዥ፡ ኢትዮጵያና ኡጋንዳን — ከእነ ሳዑዲ አረቢይ በፊት — በዓለም ቀዳሚዎቹ / ቀንደኛ ጸረ-ሰዶማውያን አገሮች ናቸው ብለዋል። ተመስገን! በተደጋጋሚ የምናገረው ነገር ነው፤ ምንም እንኳን ልጓሙን ከበስተጀርባ የያዙት ሌሎች ቢሆኑም፡ ዓለማችንን በአሁኑ ሰዓት በይበልጥ ለማበጣበጥና ለማወክ በድፍረት የተነሳሱት ሁለት ቡድኖች፡ ሰዶማውያንና እስላሞች ናቸው። ይህን ቀስበቀስ ሁሉም የሚያየው ነው። እነዚህ ሁለት ቡድኖች አንዳንዴ ተጻራሪ መስለው ለመታየት ቢሞክሩም፡ መንፈሳቸው ግን አንድ ነው፤ ጸረ–ክርስቶሳዊ፡ ጸረ–ክርሲያናዊ ነው። አካሄዳቸውም በጣም ተመሳሳይነት አለው፤ ተበቃዮች ናቸው፥ ይገድላሉ፡ እራሳቸውንም አጥፍተው ያጠፋሉ፣ ጆሮአቸው ተደፍኗል፣ አያዳምጡም፣ በጣም ይጮሃሉ፣ ከእነርሱ በቀር ሌላው ተናጋሪ፣ ወቃሽ ወይም ተበዳይ እንዲሆን አይሹም፡ ባጠቃላይ፡ ቀንዳሟ ፍየል (ባፎሜት) ትመቻቸዋለች።

በአዲስ ዓመት፡ በ መስከረም አንድ ዕለት በኒውዮርክ ከተማ መንትያዎቹ ግንቦች በአውሮፕላን ሲመቱ፡ የወቅቱ ፕሬዚደንት፡ የ “ቅል እና አጽሞቹ” ጆርጅ ቡሽ በአንድ የፍሎሪዳ ትምህርት ቤት ክፍል ውስጥ ከጥቁር አሜሪካውያን ህፃናት ጋር “ግልገሏ ፍየል” ( “The Pet Goat”) የተባለውን መጽሐፍ ያነቡ ነበር። ቪዲዮው ላይ የሚታየው ነገር በጣም የሚደንቅ ነው። በክፍሉ ውስጥ አምልኮታዊ የመሰለ ስነሥርዓት ይታያል፥ በጆሯቸው ሹክ የሚለው ግለሰብ ከመምጣቱ በፊትም ጆርጅ ቡሽ ምናልባት ሰለ ሽብር ጥቃቱ የሚያውቁት ነገር ያለ ይመስላል። እኛ የኢትዮጵያ ልጆችም ለአምላካችን እነስግዳልን፡ ነገር ግን ህጻናቱ “Kite Hit Steel Plane Must” በጩኸት ካሉ በኋላ መጻህፍቱን ከእግራቸው ሥር ለማንሳት አብረው ዝቅ ሲሉ ልክ እንደ እስላሞች በአንድ ላይ ድፍት የሚሉ ነው የሚመስሉት። ድንቅ ነው፡ የሚገርም ነው: ወቸውጉድ! የሚያሰኝ ነው!!

1. —  የነፈስ አዳኞቹ ዘመቻ

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ቃሊቲ ቅዱስ ገብርኤል

The West – Nations Commit Suicide

Russian Orthodox Patriarch: Eurovision Is ‘Repulsive’

The “hotbed of sodomy” Eurovision Song Contest final has again been blasted by the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), after the Primate called the international music event “repulsive”

So strong was Russian revulsion at the outcome of last year’s Eurovision, it was suggested a new competition should be launched to replace the decadence of the present incarnation, named the ‘Voice of Eurasia’. At the time, a spokesman for the Church said: “The last Eurovision contest’s results exhausted our patience.”

“We must leave this competition. We cannot tolerate this endless madness.

“The process of the legalization of that to which the Bible refers to as nothing less than an abomination is already long not news in the contemporary world.

“Unfortunately, the legal and cultural spheres are moving in a parallel direction, to which the results of this competition bear witness”.

A Russian conservative politician said of the competiton last year: “Conchita Wurst’s Eurovision victory symbolizes the complete collapse of the European Union’s moral values… There’s no limit to our outrage. It’s the end of Europe. It has turned wild. They don’t have men and women any more. They have ‘it’”, reports the Christian Post.

The Patriarch may have been cheered by news from the United Kingdom after last year’s Eurovision, that despite the country giving full points to Austria’s gender-bending entry, all was not as it seemed. As Breitbart London reported, in the public vote, Poland’s sexually charged Slavic Girls entry won, but a small panel of BBC judges overruled the text-in vote and gave the points to Austria instead.

Source

– New ‘Men’s Lingerie’ Raises Question: Is Western Civilisation Over?‘

– Yes’ vote in Ireland’s same-sex ‘marriage’ referendum could destroy family and society

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‘Satan’s Mother’ Places ad in Swedish Paper

A baptism notice heralding the arrival of Lucy, a little girl with 666 curls, slipped unnoticed by editors onto the family pages of one of Sweden’s main daily newspapers on Tuesday.

With the number of the beast resting cutely on her forehead, suspicions abounded on social media that little Lucy might in fact be named after Lucifer, the Devil before the fall.

The email address appended to the notice in the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper poured further fuel on the Hellish flames. Read backwards, in the best Satanic tradition, the child’s guardian seemed to be none other than Satan’s mother.

Source

 

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A Jew is Always Welcome in Addis Abeba – But Not in Cairo

When an Israeli journalist secretly filmed himself walking through Paris dressed as a religious Jew – and recorded the abuse he received at the hands of mostly Muslim residents – the video went viral as a shocking illustration of the levels of anti-Semitism faced by European Jews.

That expose inspired a similar project by a British Jewish journalist, who filmed himself and other subjects walking around several major European cities, in some cases also resulting in hostile responses including verbal abuse, threats and spitting.

But how would they fare in the capital of the Arab world’s most populous country?

A group of Egyptian activists found that out while carrying out a social experiment of their own in Cairo, which involved donning a fake beard and peyot (sidelocks) and stereotypical Jewish garb, while wandering through the streets of the Egyptian capital.

The results, unsurprisingly, were fairly unpleasant to say the least.

Almost immediately upon walking outside, the “Jew” attracted wide-eyed stares from visibly shocked passersby.

But worse was to come. Upon stopping people to ask for directions, the activist was treated to nearly universally aggressive – in some cases violent – responses.

The video was first posted to an Egyptian social media site, and received mixed responses, with some commentators expressing sympathy for the anti-Semitism displayed but many decrying the “barbarism” and blaming “the mullahs” for “brainwashing” young Arabs.

Once home to a thriving Jewish community, Egypt today is home to just a handful of mainly elderly Jews – less than two dozen according to some estimates.

The country was home to around 80,000 Jews in 1948, but expelled most of them and seized their property as part of a wider campaign of ethnic-cleansing carried out by Arab states in “revenge” for the defeat of Arab armies by the nascent State of Israel in 1948.

Many Egyptian Jews were also murdered or executed by the government during anti-Semitic pogroms and purges.

Roughly one million Jews were expelled or driven from their homes due to violence and extreme persecution in Arab states in the decades following Israel’s War of Independence.

Source

And in Addis: at 4:38

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The “New Jerusalem” of Ethiopia

No one knows for certain why the Lalibela churches share many similarities with Judaism, but scholars propose a handful of holy theories

Watch it Here

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A Forest of Crosses And Names of Martyrs in The Desert of Saudi Arabia

“And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, Nor will shepherds make their flocks lie down there“ [Isaiah 13:19-20]

A Franco-Saudi archaeological team is responsible for the discovery. Prof Frédéric Imbert dated the graffiti to 470-475, a time when anti-Christian persecution began, culminating under the usurper Yusuf. Even the Qur’an refers to it indirectly. The findings show how far Christianity had spread at the time, until the arrival of Islam.

A forest of crosses engraved in the rocks of the desert of Saudi Arabia is a sign of the presence of a vibrant Christian community around the fifth century AD.

Unearthed by a Saudi-French archaeological team, the graffiti include inscriptions with a number of biblical and Christian names, perhaps those of martyrs killed during a wave of persecution in the fifth century.

L’Orient-Le Jour reported that Prof Frédéric Imbert, a professor at the University of Aix-Marseille and a member of the team, presented his findings at a conference at the American University of Beirut on the rock engravings of Jabal Kawkab (“Star Mountain”), in Najran, southern Saudi Arabia.

The area is called Bi’r Hima or Abar Hima, names “that refer to places with wells known since ancient times.” According to Imbert, an epigrapher, the area is located on the route “that connected Yemen to Najran” where caravans could be resupplied in water.

Inscriptions were found with crosses, scattered over a one-square kilometre. Some inscriptions appear to be in a local version of Aramaic, a pre-Islamic form of Arabic, Nabataean-Arabic to be more precise.

The inscriptions have been dated to the reign of Shurihbil Yakkuf, who controlled southern Arabia in 470-475. The persecution of Christians appears to have started under his rule.

It is interesting to note that the names Marthad and Rabi were found inscribed on the crosses. Both are on the list of martyrs of Najran, in the so-called Book of Himyarites.

In order to understand crosses and rock inscriptions, it is necessary to know that back in the 3rd century AD, southern Arabia was ruled by the Ḥimyarite dynasty, which lasted for about 150 years.

In order to maintain its neutrality between the two great powers of the time, the Byzantine and Persian empires, its kings chose Judaism as their religion.

However, Christianity began to spread in Arabia in the fourth century. By “the sixth century, it reached the Gulf region, Najran and the Yemen coast”.

The missionary activities of Christians from Iran’s Sassanid Empire and Monophysite Christians from Syria hostile to the Council of Chalcedon (on Christ’s dual nature) favoured the spread of Christianity. Two Syriac bishops, probably from what is now Iraq, were consecrated in 485 and 519.

Later, Yusuf (Dhu Nuwas) seized power in the Kingdom of Ḥimyar, ordering the massacre of Christians in Najran, an event reported in several Christian chronicles, with a reference even in the Qur’an, in Shura Al-Burūj (The Celestial Stations).

When Christian survivors sent an appeal to Khaleb, King of Ethiopia, he organised a military expedition to rescue the persecuted. Yusuf’s army was defeated and the usurper himself was killed. A Christian kingdom was established in Arabia, as an Ethiopian protectorate, until it was conquered by Islam.

For Frédéric Imbert, the crosses and the inscriptions are “the oldest book of the Arabs,” written “on desert stones,” a “page of Arab and Christian history”.

Source

My Note: So, Monotheism, or faith in One God was not first introduced to the Arab tribes  — as Muslims claim – by Mohammed, rather – 600 / 2000 years prior to Islam – by Jews and Christians. They just betrayed The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to claim another god to smear their desert sand with the blood of Jews and Christians.

A thoughtful commentator wrote the following:

“I keep wondering just how much more we’d know about both Jewish/ Hebrew/ Israelite history, and the history of Christianity, including the canonical texts of both groups, if Islam had never been invented. Just how many records – priceless torah scrolls and all sorts of other things – and early manuscripts or even (who knows?) original manuscripts of things like the Christian gospels – were destroyed in the initial jihad assaults or in all the pogroms, synagogue and church burnings, pillagings, sackings of villages, towns and cities (with concomitant destruction of reliigious communities and their libraries and of private or school libraries) that went on , and on, and on, subsequent to that initial conquest? The real miracle is that *anything* of the pre-islamic artefacts and written documents has survived at all. And the same goes for India, in spades; how much more would we know about their deep history and their ideas and literature, if Muslims had never invaded and destroyed all those temples and cities and places like the University of Nalanda?“

– Little Known Key Event In World History

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Testimony: Chester Higgins’s Homage to Ethiopia

“I feel like our society is not as well grounded. We get our reference points from artificiality. Most of us are far removed from a sense of being connected to nature”

Chester Higgins Jr. has traveled to Africa every year since 1971 as a way to meditate, disconnect and examine his life. Through the experience of photographing new people and places, his art both shapes and reflects his narrative. And nowhere is that truer for him than in Ethiopia, a place that has long enchanted him.

“It’s a great relief to step out of my comfort zone and live in a place for six weeks without having to worry about how people react to me,” said Mr. Higgins, whose work from Ethiopia is on display beginning this month at the Skoto Gallery in New York. “I think the problem we have as artists in America is pretty soon you can get locked into a paradigm that inhibits your creative expansion. One gains a cognitive freedom when you embrace the understanding that the world is much larger than your immediate reality. When I travel to Ethiopia or Africa I’m not in search of something exotic, I’m in search of reflections of myself. In Ethiopia, I’m no longer in a society where I am a minority. I am the majority.”

Mr. Higgins, a former staff photographer for The New York Times, has published several collections, including “Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa.”

“You would never travel to Africa if you listened to the news,” Mr. Higgins said. “I wanted people who couldn’t travel to get a feel from the book of what people are like elsewhere to expand horizons and perspectives.”

He first went to Ethiopia in 1973, prompted by news that African heads of state were gathering for an Organization of African Unity meeting in Addis Ababa. On that trip, he met and photographed the emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, and other heads of state. Taken by the calm sense of self he found among the Ethiopian people, he returned the following year to see other parts of the country.

“What I felt amazed me,” said Mr. Higgins, 68. “Ethiopians are a very proud people. Due to their isolation and history, other people are less important to them than they are to themselves. This sense of certainty is how they manage their lives.”

Ethiopia is the only African nation that defeated an invading European army and maintained its independence. Ethiopians refer to their country as “The Land of Our Fathers,” and the fight to maintain it pumps the blood in their hearts.

“Their sense of pride is reinforced by their history, culture and environment,” Mr. Higgins said. “That’s not to say there aren’t problems, but there’s still a sense of awareness the people have among themselves and their culture. They live without being insecure about what they don’t know or what other people have that could rob them of who they are.”

Those who live in the northern part of the country are highlanders, residing on mountains that rise 6,000 to 12,000 feet above sea level. Many Christians, Hebrews and Muslims have a monastic way of life and believe the only way to get close to God is to eliminate worldly distractions. Some Christian monasteries are atop mountains or on island lakes. There is a sense that the subterranean world is a type of spiritual cocoon.

In Ethiopia, church starts around 4 a.m. and ends at sunrise. This country is where Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christians believe the Ark of Covenant resides, and ruins from the time of Sheba, who is mentioned in the Bible, are found there.

The spirit and culture of the people in Ethiopia run deep, Mr. Higgins says. When visiting, he does not stay in the capital, preferring the remoteness of the country, which has layers of ancient beliefs, traditions and culture, all with a unique ancient personality.

“It has taken me decades to get closer to the people and the culture,” he said. “I know I’m an outsider. As I learn more, I dive deeper in this water. I feel like our society is not as well grounded. We get our reference points from artificiality. Most of us are far removed from a sense of being connected to nature.”

That sensation can be intense, especially at night.

“The stars are right on top of you at night,” he said. “Only in Ethiopia do you feel you can reach up and touch the floor of heaven. Parts of it look like the Grand Canyon. Other parts are up in the clouds.”

Mr. Higgins’s exhibition at the Skoto Gallery, which runs from May 21 through June 20, is titled “Zéma,” which means melody. The exhibit includes landscapes, portraits and abstract imagery honoring ancestral spirits along the Blue Nile River.

“It’s my melody, my love song to Ethiopia. Obviously for me to go back for so many years, using my own money, I must be in love,” Mr. Higgins said, laughing. “I’ve never had an Ethiopian girlfriend, but I’m in love with the place. I share their love for their people, their culture and their history and for their present and future.”

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A righteous Path: Mass Exorcisms Performed in Ethiopia – in Pictures

British photographer Robert Waddingham journeyed to Ethiopia’s Great Rift Valley to a church near Arba Minch where Orthodox priests regularly carry out mass exorcisms using holy water. Many of those attending the ceremony come to be blessed, but there are also those seeking cures for physical ailments. Please note some images contain nudity

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