Wednesday, February 23, 2011

(STICKY) (MRK) Mugabe And The White African - A Review

This is an interactive review of the piece of propaganda and the fraud called "Mugabe And The White African". This documentary should properly be titled "President Mugabe and the Last Of The Rhodesians". It has been poisoning the minds of otherwise well meaning 'liberals' who have allowed themselves to be bludgeoned by the makers heavy handed mainly emotional propaganda methods.

This is a portrayal of fierce resistance of two Rhodesians against being allocated a 250 hectare farm and give up their 12,000 hectare estate.

A detail 'left out' of the documentary. Where the average Zimbabwean owned 2.5 hectares of land, and the size of the average commercial white farm was 2,500 hectares, Mount Carmel Farm is a whopping 12,000 hectares.

MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN

PART 1

Mike Campbell: "We came here in 1974. And we said ja, this is the farm we must buy."

[There was no nationalist government in 1974. He bought it under the illegal 'rebel' government of the racist Ian Smith.]


7:24 "I think this is the last chance we got to keep white farmers here."

[Maintaining the 'old order' is a recurring theme in this documentary, something they did not manage to keep out.]


7 36 "We want the world to wake up to what is happening here in Zimbabwe."

Slave in supercloseup, to Ben Freeth: "You think everything is going to be right." "Look here, it's going to take time." "Ja" "Mugabe has said that "because you are a white man, you cannot stay here in Zimbabwe. But that would be wrong. We are all children of God".

Freeth: "We love these guys. They'be been here a long time. They're loyal to us. We give them a square deal. I've got one guy, Douglas, who has been since we bought the farm. And he was one of my first taxi drivers. Of course it is very difficult for them to exist. Under the present circumstances. We're trying to help them in such a way that they can carry on. This is a community. We've got 500 people that live on this farm. "

10 19 Laura Freeth: "We're playing for time, basically."

10 42 Mike Campbell: " Everyone is in this kind of situation here. - Oh yeah everybody, there is no difference at all. "

10 52 Mugabe doesn't want harmony between blacks and whites. He wants the whites to hate the blacks and the blacks to hate the whites.

[Clever inversion of racism. 'Mugabe the racist'. You see it is black people who are racist, not rhodesians, who are kind, god fearing folk. With guns. And farm workers, who they give square deals.]


13 30 Mike Campbell, waving gun: "Remember you must help eachother". Frightened Native: "Ok, sir, ok."

14 24 Off hunting natives

PART 2

03 09 Freeth parents

5 44 Freeth: The problems for us began here on Mount Carmel in November 1997, when we were listed for acquisition as part of the landreform program. Mugabe wanted a new constitution to entrench his power, and as a sweetener, he promised the people land.

[Nice bit of editorializing. Frankly I didn't know landreform started as early as 1997, I thought 1999. However, the economy only collapsed in 2002, after the introduction of ZDERA. 1997 was the year Claire Short stated that Britain would not pay up compensation to the white farmers for the value of the land - as was the agreement under Lancaster House.

From the Secretary of State
"5 November 1997

I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new Government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and as you know we were colonised not colonisers.

That was the origin and start of the switch from the Willing Buyer, Willing Seller land reform program to the Fast Track land reform program.]


06 15 "President Mugabe: "Zimbabwe is African. Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans."

[That can so easily be misinterpreted. There are plenty of white farmers who act like Zimbabweans instead of Rhodesians, which is really what they mean with White African, and have accepted a 250 hectare farm in the A2 scheme. But this misrepresentation aids them in their claim of 'racism'. Present Mugabe works with lots of white people. The person with the most companies listed for sanctions on the EU sanctions list is John Arnold Bredenkamp. Billy Rautenbach is on there too. The close associate of President Mugabe who set up Morgan Tsvangirai and put the words 'assassinate President Mugabe' in his dumb mouth was Ari Ben-Menashe, who is not only white but also Jewish and Israeli. The whole construct of 'Mugabe the racist' is another smoke screen to hide the fact that THEY'RE ON A 12,000 HECTARE ESTATE.]


06 29 Ben Freeth, off camera: "It had little to do with equitable distribution of land, but everything to do with POWER. He put fear into everyone's hearts. There were thousands of violent beatings. And many, many people were killed."

[There were people killed on both sides, not just the MDC. The MDC acknowledged that in a collective statement made at the start of the Global Political Agreement that ushered in the National Unity Government that made Morgan Tsvangirai Prime Minister under President Mugabe. They left that out, of course. In total, 11 white farmers were killed. Compare that to neighboring South Africa, where at least 900 white farmers have been killed - without landreform.]


06 57 Angela Campbell: "Right at the beginning of the farm invasions,
we had a mob chanting their ZANU-PF songs. And I can just recall a sort of clutch of fear at the heart, really, not knowing what they had intended for us."

07 16 Someone: The realities of land reform have really hit the general population in a major way. There is desperation. The demise of the economy the lack of basic necessitities the degeneration of the infrastructure it is all as a result of the land invasions, the land reform program.

[Hyperinflation, the fall in cotton output, the first trade deficit did not occur when land redistribution occurred in 2000, but right after ZDERA was signed into law (December 21st 2001), in 2002.]

Trade Deficit in million US$
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
-295.6 -322.5 18.2 108.3 305.2 387.9 231.3

Agricultural exports, (US$ m)
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
857.9 832.9 646.6 516 384.2 335.9 372.7

Tobacco Exports:
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
548.8 594.1 434.6 321.3 226.7 203.8

Source: Table 1: Zimbabwe - Key economic indicators, 2000–2007

These 'White Africans' (Rhodesians) were instrumental in the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy. And they did so only to get their giant estates back. Estates like the 12,000 hectare Mount Carmel 'Farm'.]


07 46 Mike Campbell: "In any normal country, the title deed is a piece of paper that is a very valuable piece of paper, which says that you are the registered owner of a certain of property, whether that be a farm or a house or whatever it is. That's what this paper means. But according to the government of Zimbabwe, they've canceled all title deeds now, and all land in the country belongs to the government. By the stroke of a pen they have taken it over. So your title deed in fact in the eyes of the government means nothing, but internationally, your title deed will still say that you are the registered owner of this property.

[Are you saying that 'your country' is not a normal country? I see both Zimbabwe and 1979 on the 'title deed'. The ZANU-PF government came to power in 1981, after the Februari 1980 elections.]


8 41 Freeth: "You know I think a country without a rule book is rather like a football game or a rugby game, that doesn't have rules, doesn't have a referee. Would just end up in absolute chaos. With lots of people getting hurt. And that's exactly what is happening in Zimbabwe at the moment. People are just playing by their own rules. There is no one blowing any whistles at the moment. There is no one keeping to any of the rules of the game. And that is why we need to bring in referees from the outside. Who make sure the rules are being upheld.

[I guess that is why Thom Hartmann would refer to Zimbabwe as a 'libertarian paradise'. The problem is, Thom Hartmann should know better than to take anyone who wants to keep hold of a giant estate with 500 'workers' word for anything. Can you say: conflict of interests? Or: these people have been involved in a grudge match with the African population for 100 YEARS. You think they would employ lying as a tool to get ahead? I guess they're 'just good Christian folk'. With guns. And servants. In fact within the first 14 minutes, they are off hunting Africans.]


09 47 Jeremy Gauntlett - Head Counsel: "Mike Campbell is a very committed man, who is angry because he is being prosecuted for the unique offense of living in his own house, to which he holds the title deeds. A farm which he acquired after 1980, purchased on the open market, and on a 'certificate of no interest' from the Zimbabwean government. It is distinctly racially discriminatory. "

[I saw the date 1979 on that letter, or whatever it was.]


10 16 Elize Angula - Instructing Attorney: They want the farmers out of Zimbabwe. THey want to tell them that they are not Zimbabwean, that they are not African. But that's racist. You cannot adopt a Constitution saying we will respect your racial orientation, your racial background and then say what farmers shouldn't own land in Zimbabwe. So there is no justification to go after the farms taht these farmers now currently have. "

11 14 Mike Campbell: "If we win the case, then the whole land reform program in Zimbabwe becomes illegal. Then every farmer who has been kicked off his land, can come back to his farm."

[Ja baas, al se goe kom. 'The South Will Rise Again' - as someone once said. And of course, the return to the old order is in the dreams of every ex-colonial in history. There is an entire literature based on their fond remembrences of a time when they had power and wealth.]


11 28 Freeth: Every election is the same. To continue the eradication of the last remaining white owned farms.

'Worker': "You know the vote is on your heart, you know? Mugabe has to lose, you know... Ja... Now Mugabe has no chance now... because people have changed, they want to see something good change."

12 07 Freeth: "Mugabe can't abide any kind of opposition. People who oppose him go to prison, they get beaten, they disappear."

[That is a blatant lie. Not only is the foreign funded and directed (wikileaks) head of the opposition not imprisoned or disappeared, he now functions as the Prime Minister.]


12 13 President Mugabe on Al Jazeera:

Reporter: They say that recent rallies, that the opposition MDC will NEVER get to power as long a syou are alive. Many people are saying that is giving impetus to suggestions that you may be trying to rig these elections.

President Mugabe: "Well if rigging the elections means winning through majority voting, well then let it be. That's precisely... we will win. We will be winning all the time."

[Now, the answer to that leading question of course could easily be misrepresented as a statement that 'we will be winning all the time' because we will rig the elections all the time. Or, it could be taken at face value. That as long as the majority of the people vote, the ZANU-PF will win. Considering that unlike the MDC, the majority of Zimbabweans are not neoliberals, and like social services and the land that belongs to them. So was that really an 'admission'? The film makers seem to think so, or they would not have put it in there.]


PART 3

00 08 Freeth: "Nice to drive on streets with no potholes." Campbell: "I was quite careful to keep out of Mugabe Avenue, because I was worried I might have a heart attack, and that was not the avenue I wanted to die on."

[Namibia is the country with the lowest GINI coefficient in the world. Nearly all the land still belongs to the German settlers, and most Namibians can only look at their own country from the road. But they seem to be enjoying their ride.]


03 44 Peter Chimada - Minister Shamuyarira's son:

Freeth: "We bought it on a Willing Buyer, Willing Seller Basis".

[That's not how Willing Buyer, Willing Seller land reform works. It is not 'Willing Buyer, Willing Seller' when you have bought your land off Ian Smith's government in 1974. And I don't know what happened in 1979, but the ZANU-PF government came in after the Februari 1980 elections. In the Willing Buyer, Willing Seller land reform program, the Willing Buyer is always the government, not another white farmer. Before 1980.]


Freeth: "We've been to the SADC tribunal, mr. Chimada."
Chimada: "Who's SADC? I'm SADC? I am SADC."
Freeth: "SADC has given us full relief until the main case."
Chimada: "I am SADC. They have the same feeling as I have."
Freeth: Until the main case, you cannot interfere.
Chimada: Is that why you are refusing to get out of this farm? Tell me.
Freeth: It is my home.
Chimada: It is YOUR home? Well you're in the wrong home. Who did you pay? The African, or did you pay another white fellow?
Freeth: We paid 'transfer duties' to the Zimbabwe government.

[Transfer payments are payments made by the state to the farmer whose land is being acquired. ("the allocation that covers the actual purchase, planning and servicing of land"). Individual farmers in 1979 did not make 'transfer payments' to other white farmers as part of the land reform programme.]


Chimada: (Chuckles.)
Freeth: We bought it on a Willing Seller, Willing Buyer basis. We didn't steal it.

[It was stolen, in 1890, at the point of a gun. Mike Campbell then bought it from the illegal rebel government of Ian Smith in 1974. Individual farmers at no time could BUY land as part of the Willing Buyer, Willing Seller land reform program.]


Chimada: Now anyway, that's unfortunate, because we have realized, that without land, we have nothing. That's why we're here.
Freeth: But you've got land, mr. Chimada. I've been to your house in Harare.
Chimada: Have you?
Freeth: Yes,
Chimada: Have you been raiding my home also?
Freeth: No, I've driven past it. The guard wouldn't let me through the gate.
Chimada: So what were you looking for?
Freeth: I was coming to see where you lived.
Chimada: And do what?
Freeth: Well if you want to steal my house, maybe you can give me your house.

[Can you say: "I have been stalking you, mr. Chimada."? Is that why he was beaten up? The documentary doesn't say.]


Chimada: The land belongs to the black peasants. It is ours. The government took it from YOU people, to redistribute it to the black poor majority.
Freeth: (in a very selfrighteous tone) And ministers are the black poor majority? Every time you come, you come in a brand new car. (List)
Chimada: How about you?
Freeth: If you got all this money, why can't you buy somewhere?
Chimada: The land belongs to the black peasants. There are a lot of Africans in Harare...
Freeth: Is minister ... a black peasant... I've paid for it.
Chimada: Look at you. You're so greedy? You are sitting on 1,000 [hectares]... We can't buy land in the UK. My father as it is now, everything he has in London, in America, has all been frozen. You've taken it. But my father isn't even allowed to go to your country. But you're still here.
Freeth: "But you can own land. It's just the ministers that have been got targeted sanctions on them, 'for what they've done to this country'.

[That's a lie. Several of the children of 'targeted individuals' have been expelled from schools in Australia, for instance. And he is telling the truth - the MDC are specifically underfunding the army and agriculture to increase Zimbabwe's dependence and vulnerability. And actually, I can now see how even individual 'targeted' sanctions strengthen the case for forcefully taking land from these folks. If the UK and US governments can do it, so can the Zimbabwean government. And 'freeze' their cars, paintings, machinery etc. too.]


Chimada: (enter sinister music, so you'll know what to feel and who to empathize with) My friend, you take all the land from us, you starve us, you bring sanctions. In the end you want to cripple us so that you can take over. It will NEVER be a colony again. I will sleep here until you are out. And I mean it. I want you OUT.
Freeth: "Now these guys that come for the 'farms', they are not farmers, they just come to asset strip. They just get hold of farm machinery and strip it down, and ship off the bits.

[Well that is a lie. Zimbabwe's tobacco output is at record highs. That is Black Zimbabweans doing that. And maybe they're just asset stripping YOUR farm, so you won't come back. HINT!]


Freeth: And then we all suffer. Farms just become wastelands.

[Again - a lie. Read Myth 4 "Agriculture Is In Complete Ruins"
A new start for Zimbabwe? by Ian Scoones Ian Scoones, Challenges the myths about Zimbabwean agriculture and land reform 15 September 2008. There has been an obvious switch from large scale estate farming to small scale diversified farming.]


08 53 Mike Campbell: "I often say to people, I don't want my grandchildren to say to people in the future, you know my grandfather had a farm in Africa, but a few guys came along and said boo to him, and he packed his bags and ran away and left the farm. I'd rather they had the impression that we fought for the farm, whether we keep or lose it. At least we tried our best. "

[In other words, he is hanging on because of pride. That's not much of an emergency if you ask me.]


Chimada: I'm sooo tired of you guys. You come here, and you grab every nice thing away from us.

Freeth: (LIE) Mr. Chimada, we own about 2% of the whole land in Zimbabwe. Can a white person not be a Zimbabwean anymore?

[Well, after destroying the economy through an international credit freeze, which the white members of the MDC helped draft... And whites owned 2% of Zimbabwe? That is a blatant lie. Before land reform, the 1% of the population that is white owned 47% of the country. That is why landreform was and is inevitable. Again, Ben Freeth told a blatant lie, or he is talking until AFTER land reform, and he is being highly misleading. The Zimbabwean government however, is being completely consistent. They are redistributing large estates like 12,000 hectare Mount Carmel, and the fact that they are almost done and continue makes them consistent, not 'racist'.]


Chimada: Not anymore, like our president indicated to you chrystal clear. They indicated to you, that we don't want to have anything more to do with YOU people. We have shifted from you guys, to the Asians.

[He is talking about foreign and investment policy.]


We have nothing to do with you. We are not happy with the white fellows, because we have realized your attitude. It is cantankerous. We want to deal with friendlier people. The Chinaman. Many of them. The Indians. Not you. We don't want you anymore. Get it right? We don't.

Freeth: But we are Zimbabweans...

Chimada: We don't care whether you're Indian, Malawian, Karanga, what not, we just don't want you in particular. Shove off.

Freeth: Just because we're white, aye?

[More likely because you're self righteous, racist, violent, superior a*holes.]


Chimada: Anyway, I'm not talking to you anymore. I'm happy. And I'm telling you, the land belongs to us. End of story.

[BRAVO, Peter Chimada.]


Freeth: The interesting thing that this map shows, the areas that I haven't shaded in at all, were what remained in white commercial hands, as of 2000.

[But of course not BEFORE 2000. That map would look more like this. This map of course is of Rhodesia at UDI in 1965, but Africans were being thrown off their land until 1973. Land reform did not start in earnest during the 1980s because a clause in the Lancaster House Agreement, insisted on by Ian Smith.]




Freeth: Every single one of these white commercial farms has now been acquired by government. Interestingly, these areas here shaded in blue, are black commercial farms. They haven't been touched.

[Well that's not even true either. There are a few (because there only were a few) black landholders who have had their lands redistributed. ]


Lawyer: (LIE) It's proof of two things. It's proof that it's not a 'genuine' land redistribution. Taking of a section of white farmers and giving it to, if you like, a category of African peasant deprived of the opportunity to own good land and who will then farm it. These are 'political shifts' as they are called in Zimbabwe. An elite, and the papers list them, flunkies, friends of the family, air vice marshalls, judges, political operatives, *not one of them* could be typified as a TRAINED farmer, or a potentially good farmer, but if you'd run down the list... And so you go on here...

[Now you know why white south africans loved to impose BANTU EDUCATION on the general population - so they would never have the skills to take over. The lawyer is lying, of course, lying for his client if we need to remember that. This is essentially the 'elite capture' slur that is levied against land reform. According to Ian Scoones:

Myth 2: The beneficiaries of Zimbabwean land reform have been largely political ‘cronies’

" Finally, there was a group, mostly given land on the A2 schemes, who were members of the security services – police, army, intelligence officers with strong political connections. This group made up three per cent of the total beneficiaries, and was the one which was probably most associated with political patronage and ruling party connections. "

So at least in Masvingo Province, the best evidence is that 'friends and cronies of Mugabe' make up only 3% of land recipients. Which would make sense, as over 320,000 families have received land. That would be a lot of 'friends and cronies'.]


LAWYER: "This is a cynical seizure of land, which unfortunately has discriminatory overtones. There is a form, and one doesn't like to use the emotive term 'ethnic cleansing', but it's distinctly... racially discriminatory. It's really a Balkans, ethnic retaliatory measure too that one finds in this."

[Could it be, counsel, that the reason farms are taken away from white farmers and given to blacks, is because... they were taken from blacks and given to whites? Would it then not follow that redistribution would take land from whites and give it to blacks? Perhaps he doesn't see colonialism and UDI has having caused this 'distinctly discriminatory' state of affairs when it comes to land distribution! Let's see that map again, and remember that whites only consisted 1% of the population.]


Freeth: I was thinking the other day, is it possible to be a white man, and an American? Is it possible to be a white man and an Australian? Of course it is. But is it possible, to be a white man and an African? If you talk to Mugabe. If you talk to Mbeki. If you talk to any of the nationalist leaders, the answer is, very strongly, NO. You cannot be a white man, and an African. And there's something very wrong in that.

[But you didn't talk to President Mugabe, you talked to Peter Chimada. Maybe all Africans look alike to him? Also, in America and Australia, the native population have all but been wiped out - by the white man. Perhaps he is wishing that all the Africans had been wiped out too? Also, does mr. Freeth ever contemplate why he is disliked?]


PART 4

06 45 Mike Campbell (Zimbabwe House, London) We've always said, that the only way to beat Mugabe, is to be on the right side of the law.

[But... I thought 'Mugabe' was lawless, and a dictator and a tyrant? Certainly, he wouldn't stoop at obeying the law? Would he? I thought all the rules had been thrown out of the rubgy or soccer game? A not so small point of contradiction, I would think.]


07 07 Jeffrey Jowell, QC: I think it has huge implications, for Africa and elsewhere. Because, what the Mugabe government are saying, is that we've altered the Constitution, by popular vote, 2/3 majority, and now we can do anything. But democracy is not only about popular will. We know that through European experience. You know. The German government in the 1930s was elected popularly, and they went on to do terrible things. Democracy is not only about what the majority of the people think. It's also about protecting fundamental human rights. Making sure that you can't do certain things to individuals. Cases such as this have a resonanse not only in the region but across the world. They are important in establishing what the principles of constitutional democracy are and should be all about.

[:)))) I invoke Godwin's Law. Changing the Constitution through a popular vote with a 2/3s majority is EXACTLY what democracies do. So much for 'tyranny' or 'dictatorship'.]


[How narcissistic do you have to be, to see an eviction order as God testing your faith?]


[Ominous Music]

PART 5

05 16 Mike Campbell: "Complete nonsense. I can't believe it. It's shocking. It's exactly what Mugabe wanted. Ja, I really didn't expect this. The case has been postponed to the 18th or 19th of July.

Lucy Bailey: Do you think Mike it won't be heard now?

Mike Campbell: Well I guess it will get heard, it is a question of when.

Lucy Bailey: Do you think it can go on and on?

Mike Campbell: That's right. The same as our election can go on and on and on and on. A court case can go... We know how the winner is, every time.

[Just what Mugabe wanted? So? Is he saying President Mugabe had the SADC tribunal in his pocket?]


14 00 Zimbabwe government defense lawyer recuses himself from the case on government instruction. It is not sure why, though the defense attorneys have their opinions at the ready - it's the strength of their case, of course.

PART 7

Etc.

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5 Comments:

At 9:18 AM , Blogger MrK said...

The Rothschild Banking Dynasty has:

1) Anglo-American De Beers - they're the De Beers founder and largest single shareholder, especially now the other founding family, the Oppenheimers have been squeezed out of the business. (Read: Carats to Carrots)

2) The Economist - Sir Evelyn Baron de Rothchild and his wife, Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild (No Labels, Americans Elect - Michael Bloomberg, John Huntsman, John Avlon) are on the board of The Economist Magazine, and own 'special shares'.

AADB is the world's biggest diamond mining and trading corporation, and at one time mined and traded 95% of the world's diamonds - a global diamond mining monopolist.

The Economist then sponsors a hitjob on Zimbabwe, which owns 20% of the world's known diamond reserves.

This is why MATWA breaks all the rules on objectivity and professional documentary film making. They didn't give only one point of view and heavy handed emotional cues because they were 'outraged' at what is going on in Zimbabwe, but because they were paid to make propaganda, and in fact, commit a fraud on the viewing public.

This is why they don't have alternative points of view, why the Zimbabwean government's view is meticulously excluded, why they want you to FEEL and not THINK. Why you are not provided with the basic context and information with which to form intelligent thoughts.

MATWA is propaganda, sponsored directly by The Economist so Anglo-American De Beers will have access to 20% of the world's known diamond reserves, which belong to THE PEOPLE of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe will not sell out, Tsvangirai already sold out a decade ago.

Here is Judy Woodruff, formerly of CNN and now with PBS, stating on camera that Mugabe And The White African were sponsored by The Economist and PBS. (Youtube - PBS Newshour)

 
At 11:16 PM , Blogger MrK said...

Apparently the Freeth and Campbell lawyer, Jeremy Gauntlett, is also a laywer for the South African treasury.

Who suggested these lawyers to them, and how do they tie in with Anglo-American De Beers, which is the world's biggest mining company and of course dominates the South African economy?

Read more here: (Mail & Guardian) Cosatu and ANC to plead for e-toll postponement

 
At 1:23 PM , Blogger MrK said...

The link at the top of the article "Zimbabwe - White farms being torched" from Meat Trade News Daily in the UK was preserved here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20131012060603/http://www.meattradenewsdaily.co.uk/news/130110/zimbabwe___white_farms_being_torched_.aspx

 
At 1:26 PM , Blogger MrK said...

They built a house at Mount Carmel, the 12,000-hectare estate bought by her father, Mike, for a commercial farming and safari enterprise.

-----

And that is how 5%, now 1%, of the population ended up owning 43% of the country.

 
At 7:38 AM , Blogger MrK said...

Prof. Ian Scoones of Sussex University lays out the 5 anti-landreform myths created about Zimbabwe.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100708052422/http://www.lalr.org.za/news/a-new-start-for-zimbabwe-by-ian-scoones

 

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