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Sun Prairie woman sponsors children in developing countries Print E-mail
Around the Diocese
Written by Mary C. Uhler, Catholic Herald Staff
Thursday, Sep. 03, 2009 -- 12:00 AM
Karen Greiber of Sun Prairie is pictured with her sponsored child, Rafael, and his baby sister on her recent visit to Colombia with the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging. (Contributed photo)

SUN PRAIRIE -- For over three years, Karen Greiber asked St. Raphael the Archangel to ask God on her behalf to bring her “someone to love.”

Greiber had been a sponsor of several children with the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA), a Catholic lay organization that sponsors children and elderly in developing countries throughout the world.

God answers her prayers

“I decided that in gratitude that if I ever had a son, I would name him Raphael,” said Greiber. “Not long after that, my sponsored child (Sharon) dropped out of the program. I had it in my heart that I wanted a boy from Colombia, so I requested that.

“When I got the information in the mail and saw that my sponsored child was named Rafael, I just started to cry. I knew in my heart that God had chosen him for me. That is why Rafael means so much to me.”

Greiber has sponsored Rafael for about a year and a half. She received a significant raise in pay through a promotion at work, so she decided to sponsor an additional child. She learned that Karen (same name as hers) from Colombia would be her second sponsored child.

A member of Sacred Hearts Parish in Sun Prairie, Greiber, 38, graduated from Homestead High School in Mequon. She has a bachelor’s degree in business with an accounting major and a master’s degree in business administration (MBA), both from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Learns about sponsorship

She learned about CFCA from a concert given by Mark Brummel at St. Albert the Great Parish in Sun Prairie when Sacred Hearts and St. Albert were doing a joint mission together.

“I had always seen the ads on TV about sponsorship from other organizations, but that night I chose to sponsor a child,” she said.

She sponsored two children from India and a girl from Colombia before her current sponsorship of Rafael and Karen.

She persuaded her mother, Marilyn Greiber from Henderson, Nev., to sponsor a child with CFCA. Her mom also requested a child from Colombia and received Lucia from Cartegena. She has been sponsoring her for over two and a half years.

Visit to Colombia

This year, both Greiber and her mother visited the children they sponsor with CFCA in Colombia on a trip arranged by the organization.

They started their visit in Medellin, Colombia. After they arrived, Greiber was told that Karen, her sponsored child from Cali, was already there with her own mother.

“They had traveled seven and a half hours to be there to meet me. They told me Karen was so excited to meet me she didn’t sleep at all the night before,” said Greiber.

“I just got Karen as a sponsored child in December. I had only received one letter from her and barely knew her. I knew she was 12 years old and that her father had been killed. I found out on the trip that he was killed when she was five by robbers trying to steal a motor scooter. I also knew she had several younger siblings.”

When the Greibers arrived at the CFCA project, they saw a huge crowd waiting for them. “I have to admit I hung back awhile before going forward. I was overwhelmed even before going in,” said Greiber. “Next thing I know I was being pushed toward Karen and gave her a big hug. We then walked through the crowd together with everyone cheering.

“We sat down to Mass and in between Karen and I tried to communicate through my minimal Spanish. Thank goodness there were many in our group who spoke Spanish and could translate.”

Gratitude from people

Greiber said the Colombia people showed much appreciation for the sponsors on their visit. “People came up from everywhere to thank us for all we do. I was stunned at the gratitude they felt for us.

“In the beginning I couldn’t grasp how much a difference $30 per month could make in someone else’s life,” she said.

She found out Karen’s family lived in one room that they rented. Her mom works as a housekeeper when she can find work, but usually only works two days a week at most. Karen has three younger siblings.

“I was told that they were so grateful Karen found a sponsor, because most people wanted the younger kids,” said Greiber.

Importance of sponsorship

She learned that only 40 percent of children go to school in Colombia and around 30 percent go on to higher education. Since 70 percent of Colombians live in poverty (earning less then $2 per day), most older children quit school and go to work.

“Karen having sponsorship means that she will have the uniforms and school supplies provided so that is less burden on her mom,” noted Greiber. “It means she can stay in school and through sponsorship she can even consider going on to the university.”

Greiber reported that the town of Cali has a new project with CFCA. It is preparing for the first classes to teach sewing to women by training teachers.

When they begin, Karen’s mom can take the sewing classes to learn a new trade so so that she can make more money for the family.

Impressed by CFCA

Greiber said she was impressed by what she learned about CFCA on this trip. “CFCA is a lay Catholic charity dedicated to helping the poor. Even though they are lay Catholic, CFCA doesn’t discriminate based on religion and doesn’t try to evangelize the people,” she noted.

At this time, CFCA is working in 26 nations and has over 300,000 children/aging that are sponsored in about 86 nations around the world. All together sponsors and sponsored represent over 100 nations in the world.

Bob, the founder of CFCA who was on the trip with the Greibers, said that we preach by our example, not by words. “I couldn’t help but smile, because that is what St. Francis of Assisi would have said as well,” said Greiber.

The other thing that impressed Greiber is how CFCA is attacking the issue of poverty. First, they are meeting the immediate needs: healthcare and food. Second, they are ensuring that children stay in school by providing uniforms and school supplies.

Third, they keep the children occupied after school with dancing, crafts, sports, and other activities. Fourth they train mothers in a new trade such as baking, sewing, raising chickens, and other things depending on where the project is. After people learn a trade, they often return and give back to their communities.

Visits, letters mean much

Last year around 1,200 CFCA sponsors came to visit out of 300,000. Greiber said many Colombians talked about their sponsors or godparents.

“They showed us their letters and told us how much they meant to them. Bob said a lot sponsors never write and I got to admit I felt guilty for not writing more often,” she said.

Greiber visited one sub-project in the mountains. The project leader said the houses there weren’t even fit to be called homes. “Amazingly enough this was the only place we went to that the people opened their entire homes for us to see. They were so excited to invite us into their homes.

“I absolutely fell in love with the people in this mountain village. They were so welcoming to us! There was a little boy named Daniel that especially tugged at my heart. I have written to CFCA to see if he has a sponsor.” (Greiber reported that a sponsor has since been found for Daniel.)

Visit to Cartagena

After visiting several CFCA projects in the Medellin area, the Greibers flew to Cartagena.

She found a deep divide between extreme wealth and poverty in Colombia. “I gathered that corruption and bribery were big factors. It was in Cartagena that I saw the malnutrition and people having extended stomachs — that hit me hard, especially seeing kids like that.

“My guess is most of the kids in the (CFCA) program are on nutrients. I know my sponsored child Rafael is and his mom is desperate to get a sponsor for her daughter, Valerie, since she is underweight for a three-year-old. I promised her I would try to find a sponsor.” (Greiber’s mother has since decided to sponsor Valerie.)

Highlight of the trip

Spending time with Rafael and his family was the highlight of the trip for Greiber. “Rafael meant a lot to me before going on the trip, but he is a permanent part of my heart now. I love him more then I can put into words!

“Rafael has the most beautiful smile you could ever see. He is all boy, but very respectful, polite, and all around a good boy. His mom is an excellent mother!”

In Cartagena the Greibers spent three days with their sponsored children and visited several different sub-projects.

They also spent time with Marilyn Greiber’s sponsored child, Lucia. “I can’t tell you how incredible it is to have a child cuddle up to you and allow you to hold them,” said Greiber.

“In each sub-project we went to we got a little ‘angel’ — a child from the village to be with us while we were there. I just loved each and every one of them. They were all so special! Mom ended up deciding to sponsor one of her little angels — he was so shy and scared that he hid his face, but before we left, he came up and gave mom a hug and kiss.”

On the second day in Cartagena they went to Rafael’s village. “He came alive in his village,” recalled Greiber. “It was so awesome to see him just being a kid! I got to meet his entire family and I can’t begin to tell you how I treasure the time we spent there!

“We had the same wonderful experience when we visited Lucia’s home and family,” said Greiber.

Saw the best in Colombia

In summarizing the entire trip, Greiber said, “I can’t begin to tell you how generous and wonderful everyone was. People may say we saw some of the worst of Colombia, because we saw some of the poorest areas.

“I disagree — I think we saw some of the best. We saw and spent time with everyday people who were generous, loving, and genuinely wonderful people. I left Colombia absolutely loving the people and the country. I hope someday to go back again.”

For more information on the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, visit the organization’s Web site:

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Munk & Telonius Present "Gomma Dance 2012"

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Germany’s prized musical collective introduces the first installment of their new compilation series on March 5th, featuring a selection of recent and brand new Gomma releases that truly reflect their forward thinking, eclectic roster of talent. As a ground-breaking label that’s progressive in all aspects of music and artistic representation, the Gomma Dance 2012 compilation provides a snapshot of what the crew is all about and celebrates a bright future ahead of more future classics to come.

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Category Archives: BEST OF 2010

Best Of 2010: Movies

MAGNET editor Eric T. Miller and contributing editor Jud Cost—two veteran moviegoers who firmly believe that if you like eating noisy popcorn that much, please stay home and enjoy all you want—have returned with their pre-Oscar best-of lists for 2010. Miller has been lucky enough to live in Philadelphia for the past 20 years and take advantage of the three excellent Ritz Theaters, which play 12 screens’ worth of indie movies year round. Cost has been doing this for so long, many of the films he adored as a kid (black-and-white gems like Room At The Top, On The Waterfront and Wild Strawberries) could only be seen in the ’60s by driving long distances to one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s repertory film houses. Check out Miller and Cost’s picks from last year.

:: Eric T. Miller’s 10 Best Movies Of 2010
1. A Prophet
Director Jacques Audiard’s epic film about an Arab teenager who enters a French prison as a small-time criminal and leaves it six years later as a mafia kingpin is one of the best mob movies I have ever seen. Tahar Rahim is mesmerizing as protagonist Malik, and longtime French character actor Niels Arestrup is terrifying as his ruthless nemesis.

2. The Social Network
Hands down, the best American movie of 2010—and one I will watch again and again. Director David Fincher’s smart, deft handling of Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant, dialogue-driven screenplay and Jesse Eisenberg’s creepy-yet-compelling take on Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg resulted in the most fun two hours I’ve had in a theater in years. If you didn’t love this, you don’t love movies.

3. Carlos
This three-part, five-and-a-half-hour, multiple-language extravaganza stars an exceptional Édgar Ramírez as Carlos The Jackal, the Venezuelan terrorist who achieved notoriety during the ’70s for various high-profile hijackings, kidnappings and murders. Director/co-writer Olivier Assayas’ Carlos is probably too challenging for most, but it kept me hooked from minute one.

4. The Fighter
Christian Bale gives the performance of the year as Dicky Eklund, a real-life, washed-up boxer with an addiction to crack cocaine and a desire to train and assist his younger half-brother in his quest to become welterweight champion. Director David O. Russell has yet to make a bad movie, and the performances from the rest of the cast (especially Melissa Leo as the siblings’ mom) are nothing short of stellar.

5. Red Riding 1974 / Red Riding 1980 / Red Riding 1983
More multi-part crime action from Europe. Each episode of this British trilogy (adapted from novelist David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet) was directed by a different filmmaker and shot in a different format, which only ups the tension and confusion and makes all the revelations found in the final installment that much more jarring. Be prepared to be engulfed by a world of serial killers, police corruption, illicit affairs and worse.

6. Animal Kingdom
In the early ’70s, the U.S. held the patent on this kind of crime-fiction film. Not anymore. Australian writer/director David Michôd’s debut(!) is a tour-de-force depiction of a working-class Melbourne crime family that’s grittier than anything the Coen brothers did last year. The opening and closing scenes are two of my favorites from 2010, but it’s what’s in between that makes this movie so special.

7. The King’s Speech
I’m not usually a big fan of historical dramas about British monarchs, but director Tom Hooper, writer David Seidler and an outstanding cast led by a terrific Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush have delivered a stirring, humorous, personal movie about friendship that’s impossible to not by inspired by. And how they made it all seem so natural and simple is perhaps the film’s most impressive feat.

8. The Kids Are All Right
The kid actors in this are way more than all right, and the adults (Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo) are even better. Co-writer/director Lisa Cholodenko’s pitch-perfect take on the modern family is funny and sad, hopeful and messy, just like in life, and it has two of my favorite non-Social Network lines of the year: “Shut the front door!” (Ruffalo) and “I need your observations like I need a dick in my ass!” (Bening).

9. The Town
No one captures working-collar Boston like Ben Affleck, who scores a hat trick with co-writing, directing and starring in this adaptation of the Chuck Hogan novel Prince Of Thieves. Jeremy Renner leads a top-notch supporting cast, with small-yet-memorable roles brought to life by Blake Lively, Chris Cooper and the late Pete Postlethwaite. The Town is the kind of movie that Oscar needs to show more love to, if only so they keep getting made.

10. Black Swan
The phrase “psychological thriller” gets tossed around way too much, but it’s the perfect description of director Darren Aronofsky’s claustrophobic character study of a ballerina who may be losing her mind. Natalie Portman does the best work of her career as the lead, and her supporting cast (especially Mila Kunis as the rival dancer) is perfect.

Honorable mention (alphabetically)
The American, Exit Through The Gift ShopFish Tank, The Ghost Writer, InceptionMesrine: Killer Instinct / Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, 127 Hours, Shutter Island, Terribly Happy, Winter’s Bone

:: Jud Cost’s 10 Best Movies Of 2010
1. The Social Network
Having already proven how lovably earnest he can be in The Squid And The Whale and Adventureland, Jesse Eisenberg takes his egghead, machine-gun delivery to the next level as the thoroughly unlikable Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook. Justin Timberlake, who makes an excellent weasel as Napster founder Sean Parker, feeds Eisenberg plenty of Iago-like bad advice. What at first glance sounded like a dreary subject for a film sweeps you up in its frenzy like a South American soccer crowd being stampeded towards the exit gates. One thumping-good scene in a nightclub with the oily Timberlake explaining the unlimited monetary potential of their creation to Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield (as Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin) is positively electric. Aaron Sorkin’s dervish of a script pumps up what might have been dead-boring in lesser hands to the near-Shakespearian. Greed, loyalty, jealousy and success get a thorough scouring in a film that’s as emblematic of its time as The Graduate was 40 years ago. Warning: After seeing this, you might want to think twice about that application to Harvard.

2. The King’s Speech
Anyone who watched PBS’ Masterpiece Theater in its Alistair Cooke-hosted heyday realizes what a vast talent pool of first-rate English actors, many RSC-trained, exists for anyone casting a period-accurate British costume drama. Using just enough of her regal clout as Queen Elizabeth, Helena Bonham Carter excels here as someone with enough common sense to find a way to solve a major Royal Family problem. Once rumored (falsely, by the man himself) to be John Wesley Harding’s girlfriend at Cambridge, Bonham Carter is better known as “the actress who never appears in modern dress,” for her fine work in Room With A View, Howard’s End and many others. As is customary these days, however, it’s the two male leads, Colin Firth as King George VI and Geoffrey Rush as his Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, who get the meatier assignments. Set in pre-WW II London after his brother, Edward VIII, has abdicated, this is the true story of the reluctant young king desperately trying to manage a crippling stammering problem.

3. True Grit
One year after his Oscar-winning turn as Bad Blake, the hard-drinking, middle-aged, overweight country singer reduced to playing bowling alleys, Jeff Bridges returns as hard-drinking, middle-aged, overweight U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn, reduced to taking money from a teenage girl to track down her father’s murderer in Indian country. Bridges might think about trying his hand at something completely different next time out (maybe a schizophrenic ballet dancer). This remake of the film that won John Wayne an Oscar in 1969 substitutes a dark, forbidding landscape for the rugged Western grandeur that illuminated the original. The picture’s dialogue follows archaic 19th-century speech patterns employed in Charles Portis’ novel. Dubbed by some “hillbilly Shakespeare,” it’s a striking blend of the lingo of folks whose only book was the bible and the straight talk used by Mark Twain in Huckleberry Finn. Bridges makes you forget all about Wayne, Matt Damon is excellent as the Texas Ranger sidekick, and Josh Brolin is menacing as the hunted killer. But all three are outshone by the 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld, who absolutely nails Mattie Ross. Steinfeld proves beyond a doubt that she’s the one here with the lion’s share of true grit.

4. Somewhere
In a short-but-fertile directorial career that’s produced fascinating results (The Virgin Suicides, Lost In Translation), Sofia Coppola revisits a recurring theme in Somewhere: loneliness. Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) is an A-list movie star, wasting his days away in the decadent splendor of the Chateau Marmont, boozing, smoking, snorting and hopping into the sack with the nearest Hollywood starlet, where he frequently nods off in the act. Everything changes when Marco’s ex informs him he’ll have to take their 11-year-old daughter, Cleo (a superb Elle Fanning) for a while. After reconnecting with the pre-teen, Marco eventually realizes that things must change. Those with short attention spans might think Somewhere is way too slow. And Coppola does linger over certain scenes essential to the story’s evolution. Marco’s black Ferrari cruises, lap after lap, around the oval of a deserted race track; after dropping his daughter off at the helicopter that ferries her to summer camp, Marco, already developing a little pot belly, boils a tub of spaghetti, then piles a heaping portion onto his plate; and Cleo looks daggers at her dad over breakfast as they’re joined by his latest one-night stand. All serve as telling clues to Marco’s fate.

5. Blue Valentine
Heartbreakingly sad though it may be at times, Blue Valentine is no tragedy. It’s simply a razor-sharp portrait, edited brilliantly with plenty of flashbacks to happier times, of a marriage that’s destined to fail. When they meet, Cindy (Michelle Williams) is a med student and Dean (Ryan Gosling) is a house painter. Whether he’s serenading her by plunking on a guitar and warbling “You Only Hurt The One You Love” in ’20s-crooner falsetto or he’s punching out her boss (a philandering doctor) in his office during business hours or they’re both trying to spice up their floundering relationship with a drunken weekend in a rundown, outer-space-themed motel room, the chemistry between Williams and Gosling is unmistakable. To make things even more stressful, they’re raising a daughter, Frankie, by her previous boyfriend. It took director Derek Cianfrance six years to put financing together and shoot the film in Scranton, Pa., plenty of time for Williams and Gosling to prepare to give the duo performance of the year, where the laughs and the lumps in the throat almost run over one another.

6. The Fighter
Mark Wahlberg has been overlooked in the awards ceremonies this year, but it was his dedication to this project, training hard for years when it looked like the picture might fold, that helped make it happen. And it’s Wahlberg’s rock-solid, meat-and-potatoes portrayal of boxer “Irish” Micky Ward that gives supporting-role shoo-ins Christian Bale as his coke-addicted half-brother Dicky Eklund and Melissa Leo as his controlling mother plenty of space to work their magic. Unlike all those Rocky movies, the boxing scenes here (not the entire focus of the film) feature people actually getting hit. Amy Adams, as always, shines as Charlene the tough/vulnerable bartender/girlfriend. And the jarringly homely Greek chorus of seven big-haired sisters (one of them the sibling of Conan O’Brien), each sporting her own distinctively rosy mare’s nest, helps complete a mugshot-honest portrait of the family’s hardscrabble hometown of Lowell, Mass.

7. Get Him To The Greek
Unlike Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where he’s only mildly annoying as a pampered Brit rock star squiring Jason Segel’s ex-girlfriend around Hawaii, Russell Brand gets to run hog-wild here with the return of Aldous Snow (his stage name an uproarious blend of scholarly British writers Aldous Huxley and C.P. Snow). It’s about time someone got in one last potshot at the record biz before it becomes just a coke-dusted memory disappearing up its own pyloric sphincter. With a sense of timing and a group dynamic somewhat reminiscent of Stan Laurel to Brand’s Oliver Hardy, Jonah Hill (Superbad, Knocked Up) is the clueless record-company employee assigned to chaperone the out-of-control Limey through a dream/nightmare of sex, drugs and booze to get him to L.A.’s Greek Theatre in time for his big comeback gig. In the bountiful landscape of Judd Apatow-influenced comedies that also includes 40 Year Old Virgin, I Love You Man and Pineapple Express, this one is as good as it gets.

8. Animal Kingdom
Like they do with Olympic skating champs, maybe somebody should arrange a post-Oscar tour that features an “only one gets out alive” style cage match between Melissa Leo and Animal Kingdom‘s Jacki Weaver. These are two conniving, back-stabbing, string-pulling moms like you only think you had when you were a kid. It’s good to see the return of Guy Pearce, excellent in L.A. Confidential and Memento, as the only honest cop on the force. The main focal point here, from frame one where he’s just seen his mother die from a heroin overdose, is James Frecheville as J, a now-abandoned teenager who has to learn fast from his cousins and auntie, brutal villains one and all, just to survive. The one thing J eventually figures out for himself is that, no matter how nasty things may get, family is still family.

9. Cyrus
Of the magical teenage trio that starred in 2007’s Superbad—Michael Cera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Jonah Hill—it may be the versatile Hill, the rotund, curly-haired wise-guy of the bunch, who has the longest shelf life. Here he is, appearing twice in this year’s top 10, this time as Cyrus, the slightly creepy son of George Costanza’s fantasy-camp dream girl Marisa Tomei. Even John C. Reilly knows that if someone as ravishing as Tomei has fallen for his less-than-classic good looks, there must be an unknown agent at work somewhere. The x-factor is Cyrus, a stay-at-home borderline nutter who lets his mother’s new boyfriend know, in no uncertain terms, the first time they are alone, how he feels. “Seriously, don’t fuck my mom,” he tells an astonished Reilly. How Reilly deals with a problem that, at times, seems like it could turn violent, fuels the latest entry in the Duplass brothers’ impressive film canon (Baghead, The Puffy Chair). Like In Search Of A Midnight Kiss, it too effectively uses plenty of great location shots of old Los Angeles.

10. The Kids Are All Right
When two teenage kids in a movie family are named Joni (for singer Joni Mitchell) and Laser (possibly as an homage to a favorite cat toy), you can lay odds the story takes place in Los Angeles. Long ago, Paul (a rollicking Mark Ruffalo) made a deposit at a Tinseltown sperm bank, then is shocked to get a phone call 20 years later from the two kids he helped bring into the world, now seeking their birth father. The gregarious (and curious) Ruffalo, who owns a successful restaurant, agrees to meet his surrogate family, the two kids (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson), their mom (Nic, an obstetrician played by Annette Bening) and their other mom (Julianne Moore as Jules, a start-up landscape designer). “I love lesbians,” mutters Paul awkwardly when the kids first describe their unorthodox family arrangement. Unlike Animal Kingdom, the only crimes here are those of passion. But very much like the Aussie thriller, this one attaches an entirely new, non-Republican meaning to the term “family values.”

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What Is The Most Overrated Album Of 2010?

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What Record Didn’t Deserve To Make Our Top 20 Albums Of 2010?

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MAGNET’s Top 20 Albums Of 2010

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Best Of 2010: Hidden Treasures

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Best Of 2010: Reissues/Collections

MAGNET editor Eric T. Miller picks his favorite reissues and collections: Galaxie 500 (pictured), Pavement, the Soft Boys, Syd Barrett, R.E.M., Elliott Smith, Superchunk and more.

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Best Of 2010: Hard Rock

MAGNET’s Matt Ryan files his year-end report, weighing in on the hits from the loud-rock end of the spectrum: Blood Into Wine (pictured), the Sword, Black Tusk, Rosetta and more.

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