Tags
El Salvador, Haiti, Immigrants in America, Javier Zamora, Koyote the Blind, Temporary Protected Status (TPS)
Wahoo Bay Beach – Haiti
It is so easy to disparage others when we are in a privileged position of wealth and power. In such positions, we can lose touch with our shared fragility as human beings. We can forget that the labor of millions of invisible human beings sustains our lives. Immersed in our comforts and luxuries, we can believe we belong to an invincible special breed.
In October 2017, I featured the work of the young immigrant Salvadoran poet, Javier Zamora, who holds a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) now up for review by our Congress. Following that post, another Salvadoran immigrant, who blogs under the name Koyote the Blind, started following my blog. Our president’s disparaging remarks about his country has struck a deep wound.
Ruins of Tazumal – pre-Columbian Mayan archeological site in Chalchuapa – El Salvador
In his blog post, “I come from a shit-hole,” on Thursday, January 11, he wrote:
I am Salvadoran, even if the term was imposed by Spain. I am American, even if the US thinks they own the name. I am güanaco, even if you think it’s an insult.
I am not Mexican. Mexicans call me “cerote”–a piece of turd.
Today, Trump agreed with them. Today, he said he didn’t understand why liberals want to bring people from those shit-hole countries.
I am a piece of turd from a shit-hole country in the backyard of Ronald Reagan.
Yet, I am here. And I come from the Land of the Jewel, Cuzcatlan, the last bastion of resistance.
I am here to stay, and to change this land, this entire continent, into what it truly is: the mother land in the process of awakening.
You may see in me a turd from a shit-hole country, but I see in you and me and all the true silver light of the empty mind, the freedom from the past, the glory of the New Sun that heralds the coming of the True Human Being. I am here to share that future with you, my reader, without hatred in my heart, without resentment, and without any names to hurl back at you.
You can read his complete post here.
Whether we live on the African continent, El Salvador, Haiti, Norway, or the United States of America, we are all human beings with short life spans in the grand scheme of death and rebirth of interconnected cycles of life on Planet Earth. What makes our insignificant lives meaningful is not our material trappings, but rather the way in which we touch the lives of others we meet along our journey. The greater our influence and power, the greater our responsibility to do good in the world.
Three Worlds One Vision 
Wow. So powerful and painful Rosaliene. It’s such a dark time in history. I probably mentioned that I no longer watch the news nor read anything DT related online. My heart is hurting for humanity.
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This is Sha’Tara: I am just about ready to join you on boycott of anything DT online. I certainly walk with your on the heart hurting part, so you are not alone, for what that’s worth, and your comment is precious to me.
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Shine in true heart. We walk arm in arm. I’m so happy you join me Sha’Tara!
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… and your Gravatar says you are from Vancouver? I live in Chilliwack.
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Oh how amazing is that! You are the first fellow Canadian I’ve met on WP. Sleepless in the Pacific NW tonight 🙂
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Hi! Yes, I’m writing a new fantasy novel (was supposed to be a short story) and I completely forgot about time. In the story, it was daylight after all…
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Sounds great!
Apologies to Rosaliene as it appears our chat took off a little! Two chatty Canucks! 😊
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No problem, Diana. I think it’s great that my blogging friends can connect through my blog 🙂
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Yes you attract like minded folk! And we are indeed your friends and allies in beliefs 😊
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❤
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Diana, I have a white male American writing friend who no longer watches or listens to the news for similar reasons. Here in the USA, it would be unwise for we-the-people to ignore the words and actions of our president, especially for me as a brown-skin legal immigrant from a “shit-hole” country.
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It’s one of the most perplexing mysteries to me that his party has not ousted him for his outrageous behaviours and beliefs. One day students will study his incompetence in their “how did we let it happen?” classes!
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Diana, his party has not ousted him because he serves their agenda.
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But surely another would be less of an imbecile as well. Or would number two be as bad?
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Diana, sad to say, but number two (a right-wing conservative who would not meet with another woman without his wife present) would also be bad for America, especially for women’s rights, as well as for the LGBT community.
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A knowledgeable friend did allude to this but I wanted your opinion. I’m dismayed to hear this …. very much so. 🙁
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Quote: “The greater our influence and power, the greater our responsibility to do good in the world.” Oh, wow! “If only” those with the greatest influence and power read and understood that line. Just once. In a free and unprotected moment when looking at the stars. Then came off that moment with the sudden realization that until then they’d had it all wrong.
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Sha’Tara, wealth and power tend to corrupt the human mind still in its early stages of evolutionary development. Our cognitive behavioral scientists can probably explain the reasons for this.
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Well, all you cognitive scientists out there, will you just hurry up with the explanations as to why we’re so, so, stupid? That said, I wonder how many realize that while we’re pounding (maybe deservedly but…) on DT as the One to blame for our problems, we’re doing the same thing as those other racist and ethnic minority blamers? It’s just a thought, and hopefully I’m out to lunch in this, but what bothers me is, where’s the “mea culpa” in all of it? Where the realization that “I” most certainly and in many ways contributed to the current social conditions? Should I not first of all be looking at those fingers pointing at me as a relatively well off Westerner, recipient of the “largesse” provided by the tentacles of the Empire – yes even here in Canada? I’m in that dangerous introspective mood!
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As part of the system, I am also culpable.
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Unfortunately Trump is turning America into a shit-hole. Where did his parents come from, anyway?
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Derrick, he appears incapable of perceiving the negative fallout of his words and policies on the lives of the most vulnerable in our nation. Just read today in the Los Angeles Times that California where I live has the highest poverty rate in the USA where one in five people is poor.
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So sad
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Pingback: The Sh*thole Chronicles « Frank Parker's author site
Shared over on my site. Among other things I said: “How can the widespread acceptance of such views ‘make America great’?”
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Thanks for sharing my post, Frank. Sad to say, it becomes clear that his idea of a great America is an all-white America.
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I don’t know if it made the news over there, but another thing he did this week was to turn down an invitation to open the new US embassy in London. It seem he thought the site was too downmarket and that the old site didn’t make enough money when sold. (He blamed Obama for that, of course, even though it was George W Bush who made the original decision on security grounds!) http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42663977
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Frank, these days the only news I watch on TV is the BBC news reports, so I heard about the embassy and his excuse for turning down the invitation.
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Bravo! Golden words, dear Rosaliene!
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Republicans are tired of winning … I’m tired of apologizing for America’s version of the “Third Reich” I often hang my head and cry.
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I also hang my head and cry.
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It is Trump who is a stinking diseased turd turning America into a shit-hole – just my opinion.
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He cannot and does not accomplish this alone.
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Yeah, 63 million Americans voted for him.
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Clearly and beautifully stated Rosaliene. The more we openly display our disapproval of trump and the sociopathic moguls, hopefully, the rest of the world will see that these individuals are not supported by the American populace. The one thing I’m sure of is that these people are miserable having forfeited their souls for meaningless ambitions they’ve become hollow entities of unsatiable hungry ghosts.
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“[T]hese people are miserable having forfeited their souls for meaningless ambitions they’ve become hollow entities of unsatiable hungry ghosts.”
~ Well expressed and insightful description, Mike. Perhaps, as a hollow entity, DT simply mouths the things he hears within his bubble.
~ I miss your pearls of wisdom.
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Thanks Rosaliene. He is confined by his own mind, becoming president is the worst thing that could have happened to him. It will haunt him for the rest of his life because he only knows who he is by the reflection he sees in the mirror of pretense. “pearls of wisdom”, very kind of you to say. I haven’t given up writing, just enjoying visual expression for a while.
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I share your view, Mike. He is a tragic and sad reflection of what we humans become when we focus only on ourselves and have no compassion for others in our hearts. Worse yet, when such individuals rise to positions of power – within organizations, institutions, corporations, governments – they become a danger to society and the world.
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Yes! They are dangerous.
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You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. The president has no class, not even a sense of sportsmanship.
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Rosaliene,
But of course the President is crass and insensitive, but we have known that a long time. This is nothing new. I’m of two minds about whether to obsess about his malapropisms or whether to ignore them. While I don’t want to bury my head in the sand, I also believe we feed the problem by paying (so much) attention to it. The guy seems to love the attention, and it only makes things worse. I’m one of those TV avoiders, but that pre-dates Trump.
Good article, though, and to hear from someone so directly affected by the San Salvadoran deportation decision humanizes it even more for me.
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Katharine, to ignore the things he says and does would mean normalizing his behavior. We cannot do that. He is energizing his base of white supremacists and other hate groups.
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Rosaliene,
Or showing himself for the boor he is. You may be right, though. If enough people call him on it, he may not change, but at least people will know others, too, believe it is inappropriate.
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Did you notice how quickly he denied using those remarks?
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Rosaliene,
No, because I only see the news when I visit my sister and her TV. I doubt the prez remembers much of what he says.
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Another thought: Because I don’t have a TV, I’m particularly sensitive to media obsessions. When the same stories are broadcast over and over, on all the channels, I feel justified in avoiding the “olds.”
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Katharine, I receive my news online from independent news outlets that I subscribe to, most of which depend upon donations from readers. These include The Nation, Union of Concerned Scientists, Tom Dispatch, Truthout, Common Dreams, and The Intercept.
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Rosaliene,
I commend you and appreciate the news you pass on. I don’t get much news online, because it’s harder on my eyes than print media. Of the sources you mention, I’ve only heard of The Nation, which I see in print from time to time.
Generally, I feel overwhelmed with information, misinformation, propaganda, opinions, and other demands on attention and allegiance. I have to restrict it to maintain my sanity (such as it is).
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Katharine, we much each do what is best for our sanity.
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These are beautiful words from a sensitive, caring person. trump and his ilk are not worthy of being in the presence of someone like this. In a compassionate society in which intelligence, justice and integrity are valued – and without $400 million left by a racist slumlord father, trump would be scraping by as a salesperson in a two-bit shoe store or on a used car lot.
I wish people who voted for him would think about how they’d feel and what they’d say years from now when their children and grandchildren ask them how they could justify supporting such a despicable parasite. Despite the relentless attack we face every day from corporate indoctrination, I don’t see how the long held admiration we’re taught for wealthy people can outweigh the racism, sexually predatory behavior, flaunting of ignorance, narcissism, pathological lying, embarrassingly violent wars of words with heads of state and other hateful behavior he wreaks on us. While I’ve struggled with hate in my heart since the night he was elected, I know that I must release it and embrace all of my fellow beings in order to help us survive this debacle intact. It is a struggle.
Maybe that is actually the most disturbing thing about this entire mess. Hate flows from him like a terrifying breeze touching everything in its path. We need to learn to dissipate his effect on everyone and everything.
Thank you for a beautiful post.
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Thanks for reading Koyote the Blind’s message of humility and love to his fellow Americans.
Today, as we celebrate the legacy of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., let’s reflect on his words from his book Strength of Love (1963):
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
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Reading “Letter From A Birmingham Jail” changed my life. I never imagined the level of strength and courage to forgive and love people who wanted so viciously to do mindless violence to you was possible.
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Earth and her humanity always somehow manage to bring forth their heroes, in every generation. It’s been a bit dry in recent times, the few who arose were quickly snuffed, which makes one wonder (and thrill) at the idea that such a hero is still growing up somewhere and almost ready to step upon the stage of history once again. There is someone, I sense it, particularly today. If/when that happens, where will it take us this time? It’s one of those things that have never worked, so… it’s not something I would support, but these heroes don’t care; they sweep across the stage and for a few bright moments, the entire audience goes along. The question, as always, is how do you keep the momentum going once the hero has done her/his stuff and leaves the stage?
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Love in action demands great inner strength and courage. Men and women of such courage will always be a threat to those in power. The history of humanity is paved with their violent deaths.
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How elegantly put. Whatever we think of where Mr Trump is going – and, personally, I’m still unsure – being an egotistical oaf demeans the office. I didn’t agree with Obama on everything, but least the man had (and has) style – and he was out for America’s best interests too!
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One wonders if he himself knows. Problem is, his words and actions are taking us closer to a nuclear World War III and climate change disaster.
Thanks for dropping by. Love your website.
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Rosaliene, I listened to an extremely interesting interview with the Saker last night on Guns and Butter and he was explaining what a Neocon is. He describes it as a very narrow self-centered ideology that is totally ignorant of history, foreign languages and other cultures and societies. By totally devaluing other cultures, Neocons justify unleashing violence and cruelty on any group that refuses to bend to their will. The Saker says the entire Trump administration are Neocons at present – now that they have gotten rid of Bannon and Flynn – and their stupidity has caused them to mess up pretty badly in the Middle East (by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem) and Afghanistan (by sanctioning Pakistan).
Here’s the link if you’re interested: https://tunein.com/radio/KPFA—Guns-and-Butter-p51769/
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With the violence and cruelty the Neocons unleash, they leave behind “shitholes” for the surviving population that never recovers from the onslaught, as occurred in El Salvador.
Thanks for sharing the link to Saker’s interview. Will check it out.
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the American Constitution is a cleverly drafted, well thought of piece of legislation that was meant precisely to avoid centralizing power in a demagogical President who might usurp the power of a King or Tsar. Whether it works or not, will depend on the Congress. I have hope…
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Ken, with a corrupt corporate-controlled Congress, the improbable can become possible if we the American people remain silent.
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Hello Rosealiene. You might find some interesting bits in my Blog http://www.kenpud.wordpress.com about my writing and such. Check the menu. Follow if you like. Guaranteed not to inundate follwers…
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I’ve signed up to follow, Ken. Will stay in touch.
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thanks Rosaliene. Hope you find something of interest there, sometime.
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Reblogged this on Guyanese Online.
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Cyril, thanks for sharing Koyote the Blind’s message on behalf of our Salvadoran immigrant community.
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Pingback: I come from a “shit-hole”
GuyFrog, thanks for sharing Koyote the Blind’s message of humility and compassion.
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A great post! The poem sums it up very well!
Dwight
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Thanks, Dwight. The poem comes from Koyote the Blind, a Salvadoran-American.
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My “aching” thoughts (submitted to GO and on FB):
Shithole in the Act
(An Experimental satirical Sonnet in iambic pentameter, written in Caribbean-style local (creole) English and standard English – based on the de facto current political events in America.)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/huppke/ct-met-trump-shitholes-huppke-20180111-story.html
What this President say ‘bout yuh country
That it’s a shithole and yuh come from dat,
Is but a racist gaffe for yuh and me;
And this is how he thinks, no matter what.
But yuh know chutney sang say,* ‘Mudda Count’;
He don’t know what he say, ‘cause he lying
Even when he twitter media account,
And mix-up dis Russian interferin’.
He don’t like blacks, Muslims, and Mexicans,
He hate them like yuh never seen before;
And he wants to deport all the Haitians,
And build wall to keep coloureds out the door.
That his time is short, a matter of fact;
He is a shithole, something in the act.
*Mudda Count – refers to all the derogatory, pernicious, vulgar, racist remarks made by the incumbent Prez over the years….
~Leonard Dabydeen
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Thanks, Leonard. You capture well in verse our plight as a nation and across our planet. Our tragedy is that he appears incapable of seeing the darkness within himself.
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The Emperor new clothes and who will bell the cat
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Thanks for dropping by, Patricia.
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Pingback: I come from a “shit-hole” – By Rosaliene Bacchus
Thanks for sharing, GuyFrog 🙂
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I am so sorry! I wish we could have Trump impeached. Unfortunately, we will have an uphill battle. The truth is we all have negative aspects in every part of the world. No one should call someone else’s Homeland bad names! Thank you, Rosaliene.
Dear World, Please don’t hold our idiotic President as our lantern. He is not everyone’s fault! Please forgive America. Hugs and peace. 💞 🕊
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Robin, I watched an interview with some members of Trump’s faithful base. One person had no problem with his remarks. After all, she said, he was only saying what half the country believed. Our battle is not just with Trump; it’s with our individual attitudes towards those we deem less desirable than ourselves. Hugs and peace to you, too.
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I cannot imagine or “fathom” such ways of disrespect towards our neighbors and community, Rosaliene. It isn’t even in my thought processes! Thank you for the hugs and peace you sent to me. Hope is still what gets me through the days, sometimes. . . 🕊 🙏
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i had to train myself to stop swearing
when i got out of the air force decades ago.
never thought there would be a US leader so profane!
thank you for your courageous expressions, Rosaliene!
i come from a shithole country, too 🙂
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts, David 🙂 We are all involved. No wall would be high enough to contain the karmic debt of our nation.
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Beautifully written post. Thank you for your inspiring words. I’m a new follower.
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Thanks and thanks for the follow. I look forward to staying in touch on the blogosphere.
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Me too!
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Thanks for connecting me with that response. And for what it’s worth, I regret the damage that shithead does every day of his life.
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Thanks for the support, Ellen. In his strategy to please his base of faithful followers, he thinks not of the damage he’s causing to our nation among the international community.
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Or of the damage he’s doing at home.
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True.
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