Entries in the 'Globalization' Category

Helplessness During The Collapse Of The Old World

Laitman_089Opinion (The Guardian): “There has always been a tension at the heart of capitalism. Although it is the best wealth-creating mechanism we’ve made, it can’t be left to its own devices. Its self-regulating properties, contrary to the efforts of generations of economists trying to prove otherwise, are weak.

“It needs embedded countervailing power – effective trade unions, law and public action – to keep it honest and sustain the demand off which it feeds. Above all, it needs an ordered international framework of law, finance and trade in which it can do deals and business. It certainly can’t invent one itself. The mayhem in the financial markets over the last fortnight is the result of confronting this tension. The oil price collapse should be good news. It makes everything cheaper. It puts purchasing power in the hands of business and consumers elsewhere in the world who have a greater propensity to spend than most oil-producing countries. A low oil price historically presages economic good times. Instead, the markets are panicking.

“They are panicking because what is driving the lower oil price is global disorder, which capitalism is powerless to correct. Indeed, it is capitalism running amok that is one of the reasons for the disorder. Profits as a share of national income in Britain and the US touch all-time highs; wages touch an all-time low as the power of organised labour diminishes and the gig economy of short-term contracts takes hold. The excesses of the rich, digging underground basements to house swimming pools, cinemas and lavish gyms, sit alongside the travails of the new middle-class poor. These are no longer able to secure themselves decent pensions and their gig-economy children defer starting families because of the financial pressures.

“It’s clear what needs to happen. There needs to be wholesale change in economic thinking. Forces in world labour markets – new forms of 21st-century trade unionism – need to be strengthened. The power of financial markets needs to be constrained. Credit growth needs to be managed by direct controls on the growth of bank balance sheets and banks need to be weaned off the financial casino they have built. Great companies need to be allowed to purpose themselves around creating value rather than dancing to the interests of disengaged shareholders.”

My Comment: Capitalism cannot restrict itself—we see it in the way it is destroys the middle class, from which it is powered. Human greed has no limit because instinctively inherent in his nature, a person wants to exploit others down to nothing. He can stop himself only when everyone will become his slaves; their number will be reduced to a minimum, and he will annihilate the rest. After all with the technology of today there is no reason for the existence of 6 out of 7 billion people. That’s what he will seek.

Salvation will come only with the education of the population in a manner that doesn’t arouse antagonism and prohibitions, but awakens a higher positive power that will influence the human mind and will transform it into inclusion of two forces, the “old” negative egoistic force and a “new” positive altruistic force, the power of bestowal and love. Otherwise we can expect the first scenario.
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Anti-Islamic Demonstrations In Europe

laitman_220Question: There have been several anti-Islamic demonstrations in Europe lately, but they were not very effective. 2,000 people went out to the streets in Dresden, Germany and 5,000 in Prague. Thousands also demonstrated in Britain, France, Ireland, Poland, and Holland, but hundreds of thousands were expected. It seems that people in Europe do not object to the massive immigration.

Answer: Europe has grown old, is exhausted and inclined to fascism. Today, there are several streams of fascism in the world that deeply penetrate modern ideology.

Question: Why don’t the fascists go out to the streets?

Answer: They do. For them, the current demonstrations in Europe are a kind of push to go out and show themselves. Different streams of fascism are forming all over the world now: ordinary fascism, Islamic fascism that is forming specifically in Europe now, and different streams of homophobic fascism. There are streams of fascism that are changing their form based on the principle of the rule of the minority over the majority and they take on clear fascists forms.

This process also is taking place in America. Europe is responding very mildly to the rise of Islam, and here much depends on the media, but most Europeans are naturally inclined to be under the influence of America. Therefore, it turns out that America cools off the European response through the Internet and the media.

Question: Could it be that the masses in impotent Europe will suddenly go out to the streets?

Answer: Europe isn’t united enough to do that. It is disintegrating because of its attempt to unite on an economic basis. In fact, an economic basis only leads to division and doesn’t unite people. The very idea of the EU connecting on the basis of the economy was a big mistake!

The economy only separates people. There are many more examples of people who drew apart and became hostile to one another, even when the economic signals were positive, than instances of a uniting economy. This is the reason that Islam can penetrate Europe so easily, like a knife cutting through butter.

The EU has grown very weak in the attempt to unite on an economic level and has allowed itself to grow so weak that Islam can now easily rape it, and it can do nothing against it.

According to recent reports, about 15,000 Muslims are gathering on the border of Turkey every day, and Turkey, of course, is allowing them to pass. It has no choice. What is more, it is taking advantage of the situation and demanding to be paid two billion dollars a month in order to stop the flow of refugees. No one is going to stop it, of course, and Turkey will not do it because it would create a jam that would tear the entire country to pieces.

This problem basically has no solution. Europe already has lost this war, and the question now is what kind of fascism will rule it. Ideological fascism will rule America and although all this already exists in Europe, there will be Islamic fascism there.

Question: Do you believe that there will be more massive demonstrations against fascism?

Answer: No, because the demonstrations will be suppressed by the authorities who don’t know how to deal with it. When there is a serious program of action  with the forces and means to implement it, they can bring the people to the streets and encourage it. But when the governments have nothing to cope with this phenomenon, they will not allow it because they will not want to show their powerlessness to oppose the people. Therefore, the governments will quiet down everything the moment that it begins.

Today the world needs a new ideology that will withstand global fascism and will be revealed in different forms and by different forces since fascism is beginning to take on certain forms in Latin America too, and gradually will appear as well in China and India but in different forms. The only solution here is a new ideology, and that is the method of unity that the wisdom of Kabbalah offers. Nothing else.

Question: But fascism is also a form of unity.

Answer: Fascism is a very powerful form of unity based on hatred, while the method of unity that the wisdom of Kabbalah offers is the unity of goodness above all differences, and that doesn’t exist in the world.

Fascism is fueled by a big ego, by hatred, and eventually brings the world to mutual annihilation. Humanity needs to internalize that and acknowledge the fact that only an ideology of unity that is opposite to fascism can save the world, and this is where they will realize that there is such an ideology.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/7/16

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The Course Is A Change Of Consciousness

Opinion (blog.mann-ivanov-ferber.ru ): “Whenever humanity rushes to a new level of consciousness, it invents a fundamentally more productive organizational model. Are we witnessing this decisive stage today? Are we ready for such a leap?

“The main thing – be a productive person, along with others to achieve great goals and to change the world for the better. What will the new society be? Probably, it will be a closed economy with zero growth. … The planet with limited resources can not sustain unlimited growth …

“Without the sight of a particular variety of alternatives, we can safely assume that the Company … will move closer to the ideal of a closed economy with zero waste, zero toxicity and absolute processing of all.

“Zero economic growth does not mean the total absence of growth. The tragedy of our times is that we have taken the growth of prosperity. … a community can have zero or even negative GDP growth, but be much richer emotionally, socially and spiritually. In all these areas we can grow as much as necessary, without fear of reaching the ceiling.

“More and more people are realizing that this is not a crisis, but the end of the cycle.”
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Population Growth Will Reshape The Map Of The World

laitman_628_4In The News (Open Economy): “By the beginning of the new era, there were only about 250 million people in the world. On the eve of the XIX century, the world population reached a billion, and in the XXI century – already 7 billion people. By the end of this century, as the UN predicts, the world have be 10-11 billion inhabitants. …

“The fact is that that the ‘third world’ will bring an ‘unprecedented human tsunami’ scientists said in the middle of the last century.Today, the problem is obvious -. Six of the seven billion people are living in developing countries, and of them – 1.6 billion are men aged 15 to 50 years. ‘Is it any wonder that they are trying at all costs to change the world order?’ – Asks Anatoly Vishnevsky. …

“… according to UN experts, the global population explosion may be completed by the middle of the XXI century, although by that time humanity will increase by three to four billion. And most importantly, per Vishnevsky, ‘the demographic ratio of the masses of large regions of the world will change much.’ People in developing countries constitute a huge ‘overhang’ over-developed – the population ratio in them is approximately one to ten in favor of the former. Actually, today Asia’s population exceeds 60% of the world, and the area occupied by them is only 23.7%. …

“Mass migration from developing countries is already provoking social upheaval in the European Union. In the long term, according to Vishnevsky’s forecast, large-scale migration in general can change the political, ethno-cultural and religious map of the world.”

My Comment: War will not stop this phenomenon; the only option that remains is the equal distribution of wealth, standard of living, etc., which will be achieved only through the re-education of the entire population of the world. Developed nations must think about the future about how to bring the world to a single form, which is the only means capable of preventing chaos.
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How Will Future Organizations Be Managed

laitman_565_01Opinion (from hbr-russia.ru): “Scientists have discovered that throughout history of mankind, humanity has undergone different phases of evolution and in every phase there was a leap in consciousness, morality and psychology.And every time, when humanity rose to a new level, it has devised a new way of co-operation, a new model of organization.”

Opinion (Frederic Laloux’s book and talk Reinventing Organizations): “On the new level of our evolution all the plants are divided into teams of ten people. The teams are managed and organized independently and coordinate and decide what their wages will be and even take decisions regarding the absorption of new workers. If there are misunderstandings they turn to a central office for advice. The manager’s only role is to represent the company in the outside world.

“The teams operate collectively and there is no hierarchy of personal achievements, since there is a rotation of offices and people serve as marketers, employers, and sometimes as their colleagues’ mentors. There is no strategy that the management brings here or slogans that are forced unto them. Each one understands the responsibility he has. The main goal is to make the world a better place.

“Profit ceases to be a goal in itself and is the outcome of good teamwork. Despite the paradox, companies remain competitive and have considerable profits. These are not theoretical calculations or a utopia but a concrete new method of managing organizations and it is the prototype of future organizations.

“We can see such examples in Patagonia, the developers of Valve games and the power company AES.”

My Comment: The search for organizational models will continue, but will lead to even greater disappointments in the end because without changing the nature of man from selfish to altruistic, and the reward from our world to revelation of the Creator, we will not find any solutions.

Therefore there will be no positive outcomes if we don’t disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah and fulfill it.
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The Middle Class Is Dying Out

Laitman_421_01Opinion (from lenta.ru): “The term ‘middle class’ has been in use over the course of two and a half thousand years – the first time it was used was around 420 BC, when the ancient Greek playwright Euripides put into the mouth of Theseus, the hero of the comedy ‘Beseeching,’ the following words: ‘It is only the middle class support who the city; he submits to its laws and authorities.’ In the following century, the idea was developed the great philosopher Aristotle, who pointed out in his treatise ‘Politics,’ that ‘the state, which consists of average people, and will have the best system of government.’ In this sense, the term originated in 1913, when the Statistical Office of Great Britain marked the term middle class as segments of the population who are between the ruling class and the proletariat. … Since then, Western sociology sees the middle class as the main support, and political and economic stability of the state – in full accordance with the precepts of Aristotle.

“But last year, American sociologists have sounded the alarm. Although the world-wide share of the poor is steadily decreasing (from 25 to 15 percent in the first 10 years of the century, according to the World Bank – the percentage of people in low- and middle-income countries during the same period increased by 6 percent and 8 percent, respectively), the USA marked a clear tendency to ‘shrinkage’ of the middle class. Some of its members are moving into the category of the rich, but much more are those who descend to the bottom bracket of income. … If in 1971, 80 million American adults, or nearly 61 per cent of the working population (131.6 million people) belonged to the middle class, in 2015 their number has increased even though in absolute terms to 120.8 million, but now of less than half of the total number of able-bodied citizens of the USA. Also the structure of the distribution of aggregate household income changed. In 1970, the middle class earned 62 per cent of money in the country, by 2014, this figure dropped to 43 percent. Wealthy Americans have increased their share from 20 percent to 49 percent. Apparently, a similar pattern is observed in other developed countries.

“This process affects the consumer goods market. The tendency to ‘wash out’ traditionally middle class products – high quality and moderately expensive – was observed at the beginning of the decade, … ‘In Paris, a lot of stores went bankrupt and closed. … On the Place de Victoire all the fashion shops closed. … Nobody is interested in fashion, no customers,’ …

Commentary: The richest people in the world who are merely 1% of the world population own more assets and property than 99% of the population.

62 people own the same amount of wealth as 3.6 billion people who are the poorest half of the population. Since 2010 the wealth of these rich people grew by 44% and that of the poor population decreased by 41%.

My Comment: The ego is pressuring every individual to a point that he must fulfill his needs. It makes no difference how rich a person may be, he will feel increasingly more “unfilled” and will continue to aspire for more until all the wealth in the world belongs to him and then the whole universe too.

So I hope that the upper class will come to their senses and stop and leave something to the lower classes. Inequality in the world is moving towards 1% wealthy people and 99% poor people with no middle class. This is the law of our egoistic nature.
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Expelling Greece From Schengen

Laitman_728_01Question: Austria is proposing to expel Greece from the Schengen area (the community southeast of Luxembourg located next to the triangular borders of Luxembourg, France and Germany).

The Austrian Interior Minister demanded that Greece, already burdened with debt and problems, close its sea and land borders with Turkey and prevent the flow of refugees who are penetrating Greece from Turkey and going on to Europe.

How realistic is the Austrian demand, and what can Greece, Turkey, and Europe do about this situation?

Answer: Turkey is not interested in stopping the flow of refugees or limiting it in any way. On the contrary, it is interested in allowing the maximal flow of Muslims into Europe because it is a Muslim nation.

Greece is not able to close its borders, not merely because it has a weak army, but because it is has hundreds of islands.If a boat with immigrants come to the shore to some of the island, would each island be equipped with a military force? Each of the islands has a pair of police officers, but they can not and will not. What will they do against the usual 30-40 healthy youths who get off a boat?

Question: So the European Union wants to sever Greece from Europe so that the refugees will remain in Greece?

Answer: Certainly, I understand that Europe very simply solves its problems at the expense of the weak. It has a very direct, practical, and strict approach. It immediately does what is beneficial to it, without delay.

However, the issue is not about Greece. The EU well aware that if the migrants don’t pass through Greece, they will look for other nations to cross through. We see how these people are going by a circuitous route to Murmansk and continuing on from there. Arabs are coming from warm Middle Eastern countries by way of cold Russia. It is difficult for me to imagine how they won’t freeze on the way and die.

It is not possible to stop this flow. It will not make any difference how many parliamentary meetings will be held. This will not bring any results because millions of people are already on the way, and they will clear their way by all means and methods. Along with millions of migrants, the fighters of Daesh also will pass through.

In fact, Europe has brought itself to a situation in which it is already occupied. In comparison to its power and solidarity (more precisely, its lack of solidarity), the mass that has already filled Europe is sufficient to do what it wants there.

The migrants will pass through the process of absorption and adaptation. They will settle and rapidly put down roots because they are not pretentious. Then, they will begin to bow Europe under them.

Europe itself will let them do this. In the wisdom of Kabbalah and in the books of the prophets, it is said that Ishmael, which represents Islam, will conquer Europe and dominate it.

Question: Not long ago, I returned from Bulgaria, and I was convinced that the social opinion is very clear there. The Bulgarians are not prepared to allow the migrants into their country, and indeed they are not found there.

The same thing is happening in Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia; while in Norway, Sweden, and Germany, they are opening up their countries to the migrants, without taking any effective means against it. How is it possible to explain that the various peoples of Europe are not behaving in a similar and unequivocal manner?

Answer: It is difficult for us to understand this because we have not gone through the entire process of social development of the Western European nations, especially that of Scandinavia, which has become so socialist that it can no longer change back.

Question: For the Scandinavians, there is no longer anything to want. I asked the Norwegians what their children want, and they could not answer the question. In these nations, there is only foreign labor at work. The local residents don’t even understand what to do in life. Their future seems entirely arranged to them.

Answer: This is happening at the present time until the foreign workers become the masters. That is usually how it happens in history. Europe was once conquered by the Romans. After that, the Romans became weaker and Europe conquered them. The present historical period is typified by the spread of Islam over Europe, exactly as Europe once wanted to extend itself over the Islamic nations.

From a historical point of view, there is nothing new in this, but the period ahead is shocking to us because Europe is the center of culture and developed civilization that is going through a wild fall.

There is no remedy that will help anymore, except for one: It is only if all of the civilizations and religions will understand that the future must be in resembling nature, and that nature, the Creator or whatever you want to call it, is demanding that we become integrally linked with each other. If we don’t achieve this, we will constantly receive all kinds of blows.

We already see that we cannot control and manage the connections, resources, and systems that we ourselves have created in human society. We cannot continue to exist normally. A decline in morality and all human values is happening.

We are not giving anything to our children and have ourselves reached a common understanding that there is no need to raise a family, to reproduce, and no need to educate children. We have reached a situation where the system is beginning to bury itself.

The result is that we understand that resemblance and equivalence to nature, about which the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks, is the correct and singular solution to the problem. So, we must take an example from nature. This could happen after many blows and wars, and it could happen much sooner if people would begin to listen to the Kabbalists and we were to create the correct society. In any case, humanity must break this deadlock. We hope that humanity will achieve this with only a minimum of suffering.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 1/28/16

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Syria – Negotiate With Terrorists?

laitman_600_02Question: Delegates from more than twenty countries—including the Syrian opposition, delegates of President Assad, and of course delegates from Russia and the US—are taking part at the peace talks in Geneva about the situation in Syria.

The delegates of the Syrian opposition are members of different terrorist organizations who have changed their military uniforms and arrived in suits.

Is it possible to hold negotiations with terrorists, and is it possible to reach an agreement with them?

Answer: I don’t think it is possible. Maybe an agreement can be reached today, but we all know that such agreements are never kept and are not relevant for very long. They always dissolve and lead to new problems.

I think that because there are a lot of certain major powers, the most important thing is to establish some balance between them , to divide zones of influence. Bringing them to a common denominator is impossible, and there is actually no need to do so since you may reach an agreement today which may not be kept the next day.

Each party must be given its “piece” and told: “This is where you are in command, this is where you live, and don’t count on more than that.” It seems that this is the only way that we can bring the world to relative quiet state where we aren’t seeing dozens, hundreds, and even thousands killed anymore, or a multitude of refugees leaving their homeland, not knowing where they are headed and what to do.

We see cities destroyed, non-operational factories, and so forth. It will take decades to rebuild Syria and make it a normal country under rigid dictatorial control. Therefore, the security forces should engage in restoration, each in its own field. This is my advice.

Syria will be divided into regions that will receive different names. In the past, this region was part of the Ottoman Empire under British mandate. Syria is not an ancient country that has existed for ages; it is only a few decades old so it could be divided into new countries.

The Kurds are also in need of their own state. They are a huge nation and have no territory of their own, so they will require it.

Until each of the rivals has his own land and home, nothing will be resolved since it must be done according to the order that each party wants to have in its area. They need to divide and post international observers from Russia and the US in order to curb what is happening today. This is the reason they must begin rebuilding this region!

Question: Will such curbing suffice in the long run?

Answer: It depends on the agreement between the superpowers since they can calm things down and punish or pressure the local ego, but Syria will not be able to unite unless their people are reeducated. If they aren’t reeducated, it will be an endless struggle, and the world also is advancing toward a war that will soon break out.

Question: You always speak about the need to unite, which means that we must advance toward that in any case.

Answer: Of course, we must advance toward unity, but first we must at least bring some order to this small region.

I do not think the superpowers are interested in this arrangement because each pulls out chestnuts from the fire for itself. Each superpower is only after its own goals. The Americans are ruining the Middle East and the entire world in general, creating chaos. Russia wants to rebuild its military bases and establish regimes that are suitable for it.

It seems that both Russia and the US have lost big in the battle with Iran, but they still don’t understand what they have done there.

Everything is advancing toward the big battle.  Or things can be different, and they may sober up and realize that if they don’t, everything will come to an end and get out of hand. Then there will be nothing to figure out, who is right and who is to blame, since no one on either side will be left to do so. Therefore, it is reaching such a critical condition, they will come to their senses and begin to reorganize things and shape the world.

Question: Is it possible to avoid this critical revolution?

Answer: According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is always the option of a third nuclear world war and even a fourth one, and there are about twenty countries in the world that have nuclear weapons.

Question: Will we need to reveal that in practice?

Answer: No, they may understand that they are starting something that will bring the end of the world, or they may use such weapons in the short-run and in a limited manner. And then they will be convinced that it is impossible to continue, because the next volley will have on each other. If they bomb a third country, it is a different matter, but I doubt that they will want to bomb each other. A war is conducted in order to win or in order to defend one’s self, but if they destroy each other, there will be nothing to defend and no winner left on either side.

Our egoism must feel this reality. It must cry out so that the world will come to its senses and discover the rules that it follows, how nature pushes us to the recognition of evil, to the recognition of egoism! But when we will do so is not clear. It depends on our connection to one another.

We are those who engage in the method of unity, the Kabbalists. If we are strongly connected to each other and turn ourselves into the right conductor of the Upper Light into our world, the world gradually will feel that. We indeed are trying to do so, and I believe that there are many signs in the world of our influence, but it is not enough. Let’s hope for the best.
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From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 2/2/16

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New Life #639 – Natural Disasters

New Life #639 – Natural Disasters
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Yael Leshed-Harel

Summary

Why does nature go wild sometimes? It isn’t that nature goes wild but that we disrupt the balance of the system.

Until the middle of the 20th century, we more or less kept the balance, but since then we have destroyed our planet. Everything contains poisonous materials that contaminate and destroy everything only in order to make a greater profit.

Nature is totally round and connected and we humans also have to be harmoniously connected to one another. Our planet can feed even tens of billions of people if the relations between us are good. In order to do so, we have to make sure that everyone feels good and agrees to give up everything that is excessive.

Israel is about to undergo more qualitative blows in the form of hatred and pressure from all over, which will bring us closer to connection.

Human thoughts are also part of nature, and good thoughts about others balance the system. We can learn to spur the force that balances nature by studying the principles of “Don’t do unto others what is hateful to you” and “Love thy friend as thyself.”

Farmers in the Negev say that the Negev can become a greenhouse that can feed all of Europe.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #639 – Natural Disasters,” 10/27/16

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New Life #641 – Violence And Incitement On The Internet

New Life #641 – Violence and Incitement on the Internet
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Summary

What happens on the Internet reflects what happens in human society, but a virtual battle is preferable to a physical battle. The more rapidly we recognize that we are evil animals, the sooner we can advance to the correction of human nature.

The Internet, and not archaic bodies like the UN or UNESCO, will determine the future of humanity. Seemingly civilized people allow themselves to go wild on the Internet and in the future will come up with techniques for eliminating entire peoples through the Internet.

Today, a “School for the Young Martyr” is conducted on the Internet; in the future they will explain how to build an atom bomb on the Internet. Bad things spread more rapidly than good because that is tailored to our ego; we benefit from evil. In the future the Internet will become so vile that we will understand that it is an X-ray of the malice within us.

From this we will reach the correction of human nature, correction of the malice in a person, and we will learn how to communicate well to everyone. People love looking at evil, our open atmosphere is evil, hatred, and violence. The network spares us from a lot of bloodshed and basically it, not the schools, is the educator of people. In the future the Internet will help us change our nature and relate to everyone with connection, sympathy, and love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life #641 – Violence and Incitement on the Internet,” 11/1/15

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