A Hug in Miami / Pablo Pacheco

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Pablo Pacheco, prisoner of the 2003 Black Spring now in exile, meets Yoani Sanchez for the first time. Yoani and friends in Cuba and abroad managed to publish a blog for Pablo and other Black Spring prisoners, “From Behind the Bars,” while they were still in prison in Cuba.

I remember one of my last telephone calls from the National Hospital for prisoners in the Cuban capital when I was about to head to Spain. I spoke on the phone with Yoani Sanchez two hours before my exile to Spain. She was at Jose Marti airport to meet me in person and say goodbye, but she wasn’t allowed to do it: in the capital of hatred and intolerance this hug was postponed.

Yesterday the Radio Marti reporter Jose Luis Ramos asked me to call him early in the morning: he knew of the missed meeting. “If you come right now to the station you will see Yoani,” he told me. I left immediately. While the blogger gave an interview, I greeted several friends at the station.

Half an hour after my arrival at Radio Marti, Yoani appeared, accompanied by reporters and Jose Luis himself, who introduced me. The hug was like a tattoo in the mind, repeated over and over. We recalled our work together; she and her husband were always ready to record every one of my articles, which I read over the phone from prison. They made it a priority and other colleagues also helped me.

riendoYoani at first glance isn’t impressive, but two minutes of conversation are enough to see the intelligence and bravery of this girl. She offers arguments, not attacks on others, and does not vary her discourse in an attempt to please. We planned a later meeting, more private and working.

I think Yoani Sanchez still doesn’t understand the weight that destiny has put in her path and it’s better this way, it helps her not to waver. I was happy and excited, we shared that embrace that was delayed for so many years by bars and distance; a distance that hurts more if you are an exile.

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3 April 2013

Yoani Sanchez: An effective voice against the Castro dictatorship / Carlos Alberto Montaner

Yoani_Sanchez-e1364689133542From El Blog de Montaner

Yoani Sánchez visits Miami. It is the most difficult stop in her long tour. Everywhere, like a bullfighter hailed after a good afternoon, she has been carried on the shoulders of the crowd. She will also triumph in Miami, but her task will be a bit harder.

I get the impression that a huge majority of Cubans like her and respect her — I count myself among them — but there’s no shortage of those who oppose her for various reasons, often totally irrational.

Yoani has made dozens of appearances, granted hundreds of interviews and has successfully confronted the mobs of supporters sent by the Cuban dictatorship in every city where she has been invited to speak.

In more than half a century of tyranny, nobody has been more effective in the task of dismantling the regime’s myths and exposing Cubans’ miserable living conditions.

It is a paradox of life that, somehow, the rude and vociferous attitude toward Yoani shown by these aggressive bullies — though unpleasant during the incidents themselves— has served to feed the interest of the communications media and foster the support of notable political and social sectors.

These maniacs, accustomed to the Cuban environment, where no vestiges of freedom exist, don’t understand that trying to silence Yoani, insulting and slandering an independent journalist, a fragile young woman shielded only by her words and her valor, is counterproductive.

Yoani’s weapons have been sincerity, a crushing logic, an innate ability to communicate, and her own attractive personality. That is, the same features that gradually attracted, first, the curiosity of the major media and institutions — Time, El País, The Miami Herald, Foreign Policy, Columbia University — and later the admiration of millions of readers throughout the world who found in her chronicles a balanced description of the impoverished madhouse called Cuba.

The regime of the Castro brothers, convinced (or at least intent on convincing others) that behind every criticism lurks the hand of the United States, capitalism or dark economic interests, tried unsuccessfully to demonstrate that Yoani was a puppet of the CIA., the Prisa Group or some artificial manufacturer of prestige.

None of that. As usually happens, Yoani’s talent, unpredictable luck and the attacks from the dictatorship made her the focus of the major information distribution centers. One result was that, by the time the journalist was extremely famous, President Obama himself answered a list of questions for him that appeared on her blog.

That could have happened to other notable bloggers inside Cuba — Claudia Cadelo, Iván García, Luis Cine, among other good writers — but it was Yoani on whom international public opinion concentrated, aware of the harassment and mistreatment by the regime.

Throughout that never-ending tyranny, Huber Matos, Armando Valladares, Eloy Gutiérrez Menoyo, Gustavo Arcos, Ricardo Bofill, María Elena Cruz Varela, Reinaldo Arenas, Marta Beatriz Roque, Laura Pollán, Raúl Rivero, Oswaldo Payá, now his daughter Rosa María, and other brave Cubans have found a platform and sounding board for their denunciations as a result of the abuse to which they were subjected.

If the first time that Yoani Sánchez received an invitation and a visa to travel abroad, the dictatorship had allowed her to exercise her right to leave and reenter the country freely, she would not have gained the huge celebrity and weight she now enjoys.

Why didn’t the government do it? Because of a mixture of arrogance and stupidity. Because it believed that it could crush people without any consequences.

Fortunately, that’s not true. The people’s voice is the strong voice of the weak. “A just principle from the bottom of a cave is more powerful than an army,” José Martí wrote.

Welcome to freedom, Yoani!

Carlos Alberto Montaner

1 April 2013

Radio Netherlands: Controversial Cuban Blogger Answers Tough Questions / Yoani Sanchez

Screen shot 2013-03-29 at 2.47.38 PM

For over a decade, the Cuban government refused to allow one of the world’s best known bloggers, Yoani Sánchez, to travel abroad. When Havana finally loosened travel restrictions for Cuban citizens, Sánchez was one of the first to take advantage of the change, embarking on an 80-day 10-nation tour. One of the countries she visited was the Netherlands, a stopover arranged by Amnesty International and the Dutch film festival “Movies that Matter” .

by Alejandro Pintamalli

Yoani Sánchez also visited RNW’s Latin America department at our new premises in Hilversum. She answered questions t readers had posted on our Spanish-language Facebook page web site. “I don’t feel like a hero”,  she said. “My knees tremble. I’m a coward who is trying to do something. These are times for cowards.”

Sánchez responded to dozens of questions posed by our worldwide audience.

Julio César Díaz in Chile: who finances your trips and luxury products?
I love this type of question because it helps me refute a lot of lies. I live in a country where you can’t ask those in power  a question like this. No one can ask the president where he gets the money to buy luxury products. In my particular case, I’m able to travel because of solidarity. I flew to Brazil thanks to the money I collected from Brazilian bloggers. I was then invited by academic institutions and humanitarian groups, such as Amnesty International and various universities in the United States. Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve been fed, hugged and given a place to sleep. I’m going to Florida soon using a ticket which my sister has been saving up for for the past two years. So, that’s it basically: solidarity, solidarity and more solidarity.

Maruss Khievick in El Salvador: How much does the CIA pay you to promote your biased project, financed by the worst human rights violators in the world?
I haven’t received a penny from the CIA. I think this accusation is ludicrous. The day I find out that the CIA is planning to do something evil in Cuba, I’ll be the first person to condemn them.

Harold Tupaz in Colombia: Is there so much hunger in Cuba that you sell your fatherland for a McDonald’s hamburger?
I don’t like McDonald’s. I like pineapples and Cuban bananas. I think this question just adds to the confusion which I am trying to clear up. The confusion is that Cuba is about a single party, man, government or ideology. Criticising the government is not the same as criticising Cuba. Cuba is much more than that: it’s huge, plural and diverse.

Ana Brus in Holland: I went to Cuba in 2000. Has the country changed since then, and in what way?
I think it has. Cuba is changing, and the thing that gives me a lot of hope is that people are changing on the inside. More and more people dare to speak out and do things. Technology has helped a lot to bring about this change from silence to criticism. People are expressing themselves on Twitter, in blogs and through videos. These small changes in recent years are also creating a space for private initiative. People now think: ‘OK, I’m going to stay here and see if I can make a living through my own sweat’. So, yes, things are changing, not because of the politicians, but because of civic pressure.

Luis Chaura in Florida: Would you like to be the president of Cuba?
No way. I want to devote myself to journalism, to the media. I’d like to set up a newspaper. Besides, in the Cuba of my dreams, presidents won’t be important. Power will be transferred to the people.

Gabril Delpino in Cuba: what would you do if they barred you from returning to Cuba?
If they did, I would get on the first raft to the island. No one is going to prevent me from going back to the country where I was born and where I want my grandchildren to be born. The island doesn’t belong to the government.

Lázaro Díaz in Miami: After such a long journey and having complained so often, aren’t you afraid that the Cuban government might take reprisals?
Of course, I’m afraid of reprisals, but I’ve seen the monster’s face. I’m prepared.

Francisco Javier in Spain: Why is your blog’s server blocked at times and why isn’t it possible to speak about American policies in your blog?
It gets blocked because we’re the victims of a lot of attacks by hackers. This hasn’t been confirmed, but we believe that the attacks come from the University of Computer Sciences on the outskirts of Havana. In November 2012, my site was attacked 15,000 times in a single month. Regarding US policy, it was on the eve of the last elections, people were leaving comments on my blog expressing their support for one candidate or the other. So we said, ‘this is a blog to speak about Cuba’.

Raúl Cerverio in Spain: how much money would you need to make a newspaper in Cuba? Millions would have to be sent to Cuba, thereby partly breaking the economic embargo.
For a virtual newspaper , the only thing you need is talent and stories to tell. We have an abundance of both. I don’t know how that would translate in euros and cents, but it would need millions in terms of talent. We’re a team of people who want to tell our reality using the technologies at hand. It wouldn’t be a print newspaper, so it wouldn’t be very expensive. It wouldn’t be sold, so we wouldn’t get rich doing this. That’s the initial idea. As far as the embargo is concerned, everyone knows that I’m extremely critical of it. I’m not critical to help the Cuban government, but to help my country.

Martín Guevara Duarte: Freedom of expression, to read and associate, have to go hand in hand with the freedom to establish companies and trade. In China, people are free to make money, but the country continues to strictly control freedom of expression and the right to get involved in politics. In Cuba, Raúl Castro appears to be moving in the same direction. What do you think?
Yes, exactly. It seems that the government wants to create a model with a form of economic and political liberalisation. But for a number of reasons I don’t think it’s going to work. It’s taken them too long. They started going down this path very late. Cuban society doesn’t only want prosperity. It wants freedom of expression. The other reason is an unshakeable truth, a truth that’s like a stone, a mountain: the leaders who came to power during the revolution are dying off. I don’t think they have enough time left to introduce the Chinese model in Cuba.

Gabriel Delpino in Cuba: How did you lose your tooth? Is it true that that happened when you were in prison? A friend of mine doubts that version of events. She says you’re a drama queen.
I think we Cubans are quite melodramatic. Our national history is a mixture of that. Don’t forget that soap operas originated in Cuba. Fidel Castro used many dramatic touches to hypnotise the nation. Personally, I try not to talk much about my painful journey. It has been long and full of incidents. I prefer the path of joy.. all the wonderful events I’ve experienced. I lost a tooth when three female police officers were trying to forcibly undress me in a room. I don’t try to show off the fact that I lost that tooth. A smile is never incomplete. It’s a smile.

29 March 2013

Contrasts / Ernesto Hernandez Busto

El cocinero, a private restaurant in Havana
El cocinero, a private restaurant in Havana

There are contrasts that make one think. While Eliecer Avila convokes an opposition movement “We are more,” from the island Wendy Guerra offers us this culinary chronicle about the restaurant “El cocinero” – The Cook. The story begins like this: “A few months ago Camila and Rafa, two young people, with the help of their parents and friends, rented a symbolic space in the Havana neighborhood of El Vedado, a former cooking oil factory”… As Yoani Sanchez does not appear here as part of the action, it doesn’t occur to anyone to ask where the money came from. But it would be a good question: Camila is the daughter of the painter Nelson Dominguez and of a professional urologist who for some time hasn’t practiced her profession. The place Wendy refers to, of course, is not just any house rented for a private restaurant, but in any event, viva capitalism and may good restaurants in Havana flourish… My point: it’s impossible not to see a certain disconnect between the discourse of the dissidents and this other reality of an elite with money and new businesses that thrive, little by little, on the island.


Eliecer Avila introducing a new opposition movement: “Somos más” in a video from Poland

By Ernesto Hernandez Busto

From PenultimosDias.com

28 March 2013

The Future of Freedom in Cuba / Yoani Sanchez and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo


Featuring Yoani Sanchez, Dissident blogger, Generation Y; and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Photographer and Editor, Voces; moderated by Ian Vasquez, Director, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute.

Cuba’s Castro dictatorship has clung to power for more than five decades. As the regime ages and the outside sources of finance that buttress it are put in jeopardy, a new generation of Cubans is using the Internet to dissent against the pervasive lack of freedom and opportunity in their country. Prominent Cuban dissident writers Yoani Sanchez and Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo — recently given permission to travel outside Cuba — describe life in current-day Cuba, the activities of the island’s dissident community in the face of repression, and the prospects for a free country. They also assess the extent of Raul Castro’s so-called reforms and share their vision of a pluralistic, tolerant society.

Site manager’s note: The link to the video of the entire presentation is no longer working; this is just the Q&A session. We are looking for the other video.

19 March 2013

To Root Out the Remnants / Miriam Celaya

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, Yoani Sanchez, MJ Porter in New York City. Photo from Penultimos Dias

Many of my dear readers have written asking for a comment on the long tour of Yoani Sánchez through several countries, and the travel abroad of other figures of internal dissent such as Eliecer Avila, Rosa María Payá, Berta Soler and Orlando Luis Pardo, just to mention some of the best known, and the significance this could have for the opposition on the Island

The topic requires, perhaps, a long essay, but it’s enough to follow the statements of the dissidents mentioned as published in various media, the packed agenda Yoani is covering on her journey, and the links that have been strengthened between Cubans critical of the Castro government on all shores, to understand that there is a before and after with regards to these journeys. The issues raised by all of them range across all the problems of Cuban society today and the crisis of the Castro model.

Rosa María Payá (Another promising young person of the Cuban opposition)

Most significant in this case could be the variety of opinions expressed by them and the fact that, despite differences of nuance, there is a consensus on the need for democratic changes in Cuba and that these must be achieved through peaceful and concerted means. I dare to suggest that, save for some specific remnants of some opponents who feel disenfranchised or who refuse to make way for new ideas and figures which have emerged in the political spectrum of resistance, there are many more who identify with and feel represented in the statements of all these young Cubans who are traveling the world.

Just recently I received a bitter critique from a longstanding opponent who felt diminished in importance because I didn’t mention her in an interview I did with my colleague Pablo Pascuel Mendez which was published in Cubanet in January. She did not understand that the questions put to me by the journalist had nothing to do with her activity, much less did my answers encompass disrespect for any of my fellow travelers from before or now.

The are no pedigrees nor privileges in the Cuban opposition, only fighters for democracy; it doesn’t matter who came before or after, we all matter. At least as I understand it. For that reason I have no problem promoting debates, which I consider essential, because a lack of transparency is nothing more than repeating the patterns of the government we condemn.

I think, in the end, that the words of our compatriots abroad will not only strengthen us by offering a more dignified and truthful picture of what the Cuban opposition is in the light of these times, but will also serve to further understanding and support for us within Cuba, which perhaps would be one of their most important contributions. Yoani, Rosa María, Eliecer and Orlando Luis are offering a magnificent example of the true variety of citizen awareness on the Island. Rooting out the remnants among ourselves would be a chance to feel that in them, somehow, we are all represented.

18 March 2013

The Myth That Prevails / Yoani Sanchez

BGM44FOCMAAszctIt’s cold in the Hague. Through the window I can see a seagull find a piece of a cookie on the sidewalk. In the warmth of a local bar several activists are speaking of their respective realities. From one corner of the table a Mexican journalist explains the risk of exercising the profession of reporter in a reality where words can cost you your life. We all listen in silence, imagining the newsroom shot up, his colleagues kidnapped or killed, the impunity.

Then a colleague from the Sahara speaks up and his words are like sand that gets in your eyes, reddening them until the tears flow. The anecdotes from the North Korean also make me cringe. He was born in a prison camp from which he escaped at age 14. I follow each of these stories, I could live them. From whatever culture and geography, pain is pain anywhere. Within the space of a few minutes we pass from the midst of a shootout between cartels to a tent in the desert and then to the body of a boy behind barbed wire. I manage to put myself in the skin of all of them.

I hold my breath. It’s my turn to speak. I tell about the acts of repudiation, the arbitrary arrests, the assassination of reputations and a nation on rafts crossing the Florida Straits. I tell them of divided families, intolerance, of a country where power is inherited through blood and our children dream of escape. And then come all the phrases I’ve heard hundreds, thousands of times.

I’ve barely said the first words and I already know what is coming: “But you can’t complain, you have the best educational system on the continent”… “Yes, it might be, but you can’t deny that Cuba has confronted the United States for half a century”… “OK, you don’t have freedom, but you have a public health system”… and a long repertoire of stereotypes and false conclusions taken from official propaganda. Communication breaks down, the myth prevails.

A myth fed by five decades of distortion of our national history. A myth that no longer appeals to reason, only to blind belief, a myth that accepts no critics, only fans. A myth that makes it impossible for so many to understand us, to be in tune with our problems. A myth that has managed to make many perceive as good things in our nation that they would never accept in their own. A myth that has broken the channel of ordinary sympathy generated for any human being who is a victim. A myth that traps us more strongly than this totalitarianism under which we live.

The seagull takes a piece of candy in his beak. At the table the talk turns back to North Africa and Mexico. The sense of explaining my Island to them is lost. Why, if the whole world seems to know everything about us, without ever having lived in Cuba. I cringe again on hearing of the harsh lives of these activists, I again put myself in their place. And who puts themselves in ours? Who unravels this myth in which we are trapped?

26 March 2013

Yoani Sanchez’s Press Conference at the United Nations – Videos / Yoani Sanchez

Stefano Vaccara, Italian journalist; Yoani Sanchez; interpreter.
Stefano Vaccara, Italian journalist; Yoani Sanchez; interpreter.
Videos of Yoani’s press conference at the United Nations on 21 March 2013, recorded by Alexis Romay on his cell phone from an imperfect vantage point.  (There are upload problems with Video 3 of 4, it will be added as soon as it is available.)

Video 1 of 4

Video 2 of 4

Video 3 of 4: Will be added as soon as it is available.

Video 4 of 4

21 March 2013

Cuban blogger “citizen Yoani” takes the UN / Maria C. Werlau

Yoani at the United Nations
Yoani at the United Nations

By Maria C. Werlau

She came in through the visitors’ entrance after passing the security check. When she pushed through the revolving door into the grand hall, standing there alone, I greeted her with pretended formality: “Welcome to the United Nations.” The hall was packed with Model UN students. A distance back, an unofficial “welcome committee” stood by: Tuyet Nguyen, correspondent for a German news agency, who had come to escort us in on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), and three guests. Two media crews filmed her entry; no one seemed to notice.

yoa un 2She was delayed from filming a last-minute CNN interview, so I was anxious to rush her through the next steps. Passes were secured at the information desk –she used her Cuban passport as ID and was photographed like any other visitor. We hurried downstairs and through the basement parking lot to the Library building where journalists’ and UNCA offices are located during the main building renovation. As we walked fast and through successive security points, I told her the Cuban government had blocked our plan and we would have to improvise. We agreed it did not matter, she was at the UN and she was going to speak regardless. Just minutes before, I had read on my phone that the tantrum had played out at the highest levels; Cuba’s Ambassador had filed an official protest asking the UN Secretary General to call off the “grave attack.”

Cuba is very influential at the UN, it has one of the largest and most active representations. China, Russia, Iran, and the likes are strong supporters, plus it exerts great influence over many other governments ⎯many host Cuban medical missions opportunely or share “revolutionary” sympathies, others just want to avoid trouble. Cuba’s diplomats are known for expertly working the UN bureaucracy and rules. The room change was the least of my worries. At any moment, I feared, we could be stopped at a security check, escorted out of the building, or attacked by Cuba’s diplomat-thugs. These things have actually happened at the UN in New York and Geneva.

The briefing was planned weeks earlier for the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium, a large and elegant venue with the necessary audio equipment. But, the day before, the UNCA liaison mentioned “certain problems.” The auditorium would not be available and we would not have equipment for the simultaneous interpretation. I imagined great pressure was at play. Fortunately, with a few UN battles under my wing, I had asked that this be kept from Yoani’s official schedule until the invitation had been sent out. It would be harder to dismantle an event announced to UNCA members, 200 correspondents from all over the world.

Cuba had complained that UNCA was being “manipulated by spurious interests,” but the truth is much less sinister. I represent a tiny human rights’ group with the most meager of resources; most of our work is volunteer. Familiar with UNCA (http://www.unca.com/), I knew it hosts press briefings with newsworthy sources and freely decides who to invite. So, when I asked them if they would like to host Yoani Sánchez, they immediately answered yes ⎯I assumed because she is a world-famous blogger and journalist. After details were agreed on, I contacted the person handling Yoani’s schedule (a mutual friend volunteering his efforts). Once a time was agreed, I sent UNCA her biography and suggested media advisory. Then, I hired an interpreter. It had all been simple and transparent.

yoa un 3The briefing would now be at “UNCA square” within the journalists’ temporary area during the remodeling. To my dismay, when we arrived we found it was just an opening within a hallway surrounded by offices. Immediately next to a large copying machine was a tiny table with three small chairs crammed behind it. To the side, another small table had refreshments. In the middle, there were no more than ten chairs. Most people had to stand in the hallway and adjoining offices. We looked at each other puzzled, so I pointed Yoani and the interpreter to the chairs, leaving the third one for the UNCA host. Though the designated moderator, I stepped aside ⎯there was no room and no need for another person. Having seen her over the previous days in New York and Washington, I knew all we needed was to let Yoani speak.

yoa un 4A few film crews and correspondents from news agencies and several countries were there. Italian journalist Stefano Vaccara explained to me that no biographical commentary was needed, as everyone knew who she was, and proceeded with a heartfelt introduction. She delivered her remarks with no notes, as usual, her voice strong despite no microphone (unfortunately not the interpreter’s). Orlando Luis Pardo, the Cuban blogger/photographer traveling with Yoani, Mary Jo Porter, the Seattle engineer who founded a volunteer translating service to support Cuban bloggers, and I, sat on the floor ⎯there was no space elsewhere.

Yoani began by saying she was proud that her first time at the U.N. was “with my journalist colleagues.” Though clarifying that she came as a citizen and joking about being used to working in small spaces, she pulled out all the works. She called on the United Nations to support human rights in Cuba and declared it was time it “came out of its lethargy and recognized that the Cuban government is a dictatorship.” She asserted: “Cuba is not a government or a political party and much less the fiefdom of one man.” Further, she called for UN support of an international investigation of the suspicious death of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá. (See 3:30 min video clip in Spanish here.

During the Q & A, the correspondent for Cuban news agency, Prensa Latina, asked two questions. Unsurprisingly, they were from the “40 questions for Yoani” that Cuban regime supporters have trailed her with wherever she goes. He sounded pretty silly and he must have known it, as his hands were shaking. She dispatched them quickly, ably, and with aplomb. When it was all over, she filmed a quick interview with The New York Times and rushed to the airport for the next leg of her trip. We left the building relieved to find no hecklers or attackers on the street.

It’s remarkable that a 37 year-old petite and unassuming woman blogger took to the United Nations headquarters in defense of fundamental rights bearing no more than her determination and the strength of her word. The poised and eloquent “little person,” as she calls herself, made a mighty military dictatorship of over five decades run scared to stop her from speaking. Forced into a cubicle, she could not be silenced. Word spread quickly throughout the world not only of her message, but of the vicious will to stop it. This story captures the exhaustion of a regime whose tactics become futile before the force of a peaceful rebellion that will not be stopped.

Only five hours after the briefing, a Google search produced four pages of links to news stories from around the world in Spanish alone ⎯all highlighted the Cuban government’s bully tactics. The regime had actually generated the lead to a great story, made themselves look like fools, and allowed Yoani to shine brighter!

Recapping the event with Carmen Rodríguez, UNCA member from Radio Martí, she recalled José Martí’s words: “A just cause coming from the bottom of a cave is more powerful than any army.” At the UN, Yoani had given it a singular twist: “If we were holding this meeting in the bottom of an elevator shaft, we would have more freedom than in Cuba.” From start to finish, her UN foray could not have been more perfect or poetic.

Maria Werlau is Executive Director of Cuba Archive (www.CubaArchive.org), a New Jersey based non-profit organization.

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