Showing posts with label general. Show all posts
Showing posts with label general. Show all posts

Tuesday, 8 August 2017

Green Liberty: Fifth Six Months of M4D

Journalist joint study trip to Uganda


Two journalists, Sandra Kropa from Latvia Radio and TV and Anna Ūdre from DELFI represented Green Liberty in the joint study trip to Uganda on March 3-16, 2017. 

This study trip was organized by project’s Estonian partner organization MONDO.

Reflections on situations and experience have been published in several proceeding articles and broadcasts, and are available online.
 Broadcasts and articles by Sandra Kropa, and discussions with opinion leaders from different fields:
 
Articles by Anna Ūdre:  

Fairtrade coffee with journalists: Stories about Uganda trip 


On April 21 Sandra Kropa, Latvia Radio and TV journalist and Anna Ūdre, DELFI journalist were invited to a Fairtrade coffee with Green Liberty’s staff and friends to share the story of their trip to Uganda. The trip was organized by project’s Estonian partner organization MONDO and took place on March 3-16, 2017.
 Stories about Uganda trip covered several exciting issues: connections between Uganda and Latvia, similar problems and solutions, learnings from Uganda, connection of Uganda trip experiences with UN sustainable development goals.
 Read the reflections about the event here: Fairtrade coffee with journalists http://www.zalabriviba.lv/par-godigu-tirdzniecibu/godigas-tirdzniecibas-kafija-ar-zurnalistiem-ugandas-brauciena-pieredzes-stasti/



Politicians’ trip to Philippines


Rihards Kols, a member of 12th Saeima, a deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, a member of the European Affairs Committee, and a representative of the Saeima to the OECD was supported by Green Liberty in the study trip for politicians to Philippines. It was an informal study trip for official parliamentary representatives from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to Philippines from 29th of May to 3th of June, 2017, and was organized by Czech relief and humanitarian organization People in Need (PIN). The participants of the trip had an opportunity to visit the development projects’ sites, talk to the beneficiaries, meet with the national and international development implementers and officials in the capital city Manila and in the province of Eastern Samar. 

Development Journalism Trip to Afghanistan

A journalist from media house DELFI – Ansis Īvāns represented Green Liberty the joint development journalism trip to Afghanistan on the July 18-26, 2017. 

This study trip was organized by project’s British partner organization BAAG. 

During the trip Ansis Īvāns together with his colleagues from other M4D partner organizations – Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Slovakia visited Kabul (Kabul province) and Nili (Daikundi province). 


Journalist participation in international trainings


How to find the real stories and sources? How to separate propaganda from reality? How to get behind the headlines? How do we see the world through today’s media? Is the world really getting better or worse?

Journalists from M4D partner organizations together with Finnish journalists were involved in three-day intensive course “From Stereotypes to Covering Global Interdependencies – Training by Journalists for Journalists” on May 22-24, 2017. The training was organized by the Finnish Foundation for Media and Development (VIKES) and Kansanvalistusseura (KVS) and aimed to answer these questions and increase knowledge about development affairs among media. Green Liberty was represented by a journalist Guntars Veidemanis from DELFI. 

Documentaries ready for screening  


A fruitful cooperation with Woodpecker Pictures has been finalized, and three exciting documentaries are ready for screening. 

Clay children (Māla bērni)

Spirits of mountains (Kalnu gari)

Tender giants (Maigie milži)

Watch, enjoy and plan screening in your community! 





Public discussion about global development myths in festival LAMPA 


Development is not just economic growth. Development is a balanced interaction of national, public and private sector. Development can be characterized by values that make the core of public consumerism, that describe human well-being, and characterize civic participation in decision making. Development is not charity and assistance. Development is not a rescue of people in critical situations. Why it is important to inform and educate society about development in the world and the local community?

We invited participants of the discussion festival LAMPA to come to LAPAS tent on June 30 at 16:00 to share their opinion and to shell these hard nut questions.

HAZELNUTS: food security
Myth: Secure food is the one that is not rotten and does not have expired period of validity.  
Hard nut questions: Is it safe to eat everything that you can get in supermarket? What is secure food? Can vegetarianism save the world?

COCONUTS: participation in local and global community
Myth: My involvement in local and global community can change anything.  
Hard nut questions: Can my participation in community life give a global impact? Is riot and aggressive campaigning a way of effective participation? How effective is virtual participation?  

ALMONDS: solidarity economy
Myth: The only value in business is to give personal income.
Hard nut questions: What causes our well-being? Is financial prosperity the main reason of well-being? Is the existing economical model compatible with nature protection and social well-being? Is personal business prior to solidarity with local community?  

PEANUTS: sustainable development
Myth: Development best of all can be measures in money.  
Hard nut questions: Should and can the world constantly develop? How fare we can develop? Where are the limits to growth and development? Is material prosperity the only need for good life?  

WALNUTS: nature capital
Myth: All nature resources should be extracted and financial benefit should be obtained from them.
Hard nut questions: Who is paying for industrial development? What is its true price? Can we all benefit from extraction of nature resources?

This interactive discussion was led by M4D hunter of global stories – Sandra Kropa, a TV and Radio journalist. Shelling the hard nut questions helped participants to change form voiceless representatives of society to active citizens who are responsible driving forces of change in local and global community.

Also, we were selling wonderful baskets made by women in Ghana that served as a practical example of global partnership, solidarity economy, and social entrepreneurship.

Journalist networking in in festival LAMPA


We live in a time where everywhere in the world, including EU, civil society is increasingly under threat. Freedom of expression is more and more controlled and restricted, yet at the same time, the word still has the largest power and influence. Information is still one of the strongest weapons we have to understand the world around us and to take action to change it for the better. Therefore, we organized a networking event where to discuss, share stories, play music, and enjoy art to surface the question - what does the power of word mean to us?

In cooperation with LAPAS we invited journalists and other stakeholders you to expand borders of the festival LAMPA and to join us on July 1 at 14:00 in Raunas street 9 (outside the building some metres away on the opposite side of Cēsis Concert Hall) in networking event. We met at the wall painting by Rudens Stencil (Dainis Rudens) – fresh and opened to co-creating and in the atmosphere of music played by Raimonds Mežals together with journalists from Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Poland and enthusiasts of sustainable development who believe in the power of word and are opened to new cooperation and meaningful actions.

In this networking event participants were adding their light-bulbs to the wider community of light holders and participated in an opening of a wall painting that is telling about power of word #VārdaSpēks. 

E-bulletin “Development Cooperation News”


To enrich awareness of society and policymakers in Latvia about global interconnection, challenges and initiatives to solve them both globally and locally we publish electronic information bulletin Development Cooperation News (DCN).

The 5th issue Security and development is looking for answers on the following questions: What is a priority – security or development? What is a secure society and securitability? How secure is a space of a civic society? How security is related to the field of energetics, internal affairs and nature? What are security and change stories? How to look for a connection between security and development?
Stories that provide different answers on these questions are published in five sections – POSITIONS, EVENTS, EXPERIENCE, OPINIONS, and RESOURCES that shape the structure of DCN.

DCN is published electronically twice a year and features current development cooperation topics from the perspective of practitioners, opinion leaders and policy-makers.

Read and download the bulletin Development Cooperation News here.
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Wednesday, 4 January 2017

Green Liberty: Fourth Six Months of M4D

Opinion Pool


Latvian society is very poorly informed about sustainable global development. Space of people’s thoughts and activities is limited to national scale, and the world in their perception is fragmented.  Latvian inhabitants consider that Latvia in comparison with other countries is much poor than it is in reality. About poor conditions people blame country and international structures, and do not take responsibility on them. Majority of society is not ready for any practical action to support global development, and their active civil position is weak: responsibility and involvement are not priorities. Lack of awareness about development processes in the world encourages formation of false assumptions about global development that creates formation of different misconceptions and social myths.

These are some of the general conclusions based on the opinion pool “Sustainable global development: Awareness and action of Latvian society” (Līdzsvarota globālā attīstība: Latvijas sabiedrības informētība un rīcība) that we implemented in collaboration with the marketing and public opinion research centre SKDS.

Data have been obtained from Latvian residents in the survey through direct interviews. Fieldwork was on April 9, 2016 to April 20 and from May 21 to June 1. With stratified random sampling method in whole country 1,005 respondents aged 18 to 74 years have been surveyed. Respondents’ sample represents a larger population. Study statistical error does not exceed the total responses distributions + / - 3% limit.

Detailed description of the results of this survey is published in the information bulletin Development Cooperation News 4th issue “Global Development Myths”. 


International conference Bratislava Roundtable 


Bratislava Roundtable conference “Sustainable Development Goals - Opportunities and Challenges” was organised by the Slovak NGDO Platform under the auspice of the Slovak Presidency in the Council of the European Union and took place in Bratislava on September 5th 2016. 

Among around 60 participants, including policy makers, media representatives, civil society representatives, private sector representatives and academics from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Slovakia,  United Kingdome and other countries were seven participants who represented Green Liberty: Inese Vaivare, Director of Latvian Platform for Development cooperation (LAPAS), Madara Siliņa, Third Secretary of Development Cooperation Policy Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, Māra Sīmane, Adviser of Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre, Sanita Kalnača, Adviser of Cross-Sectoral Coordination Centre, Āris Ādlers, Board Member of Latvian Green Movement / CEE Bankwatch, Līva Stade, Green Liberty and Inga Belousa, Green Liberty.

This was the second international conference as one of the activities of the project Media for Development. The first conference - Riga Roundtable “Financing for Development: Role of EU Member States” was organized by Green Liberty, Latvian Green Movement and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia in Riga on June 11-12, 2015. 


Joint Study Trip to Nepal


Two journalists, Santa Logina from regional newspaper Zemgales Ziņas and Iveta Sondore from the magazine Vides Vēstis represented Green Liberty in the joint study trip to Nepal on the September 4-11, 2016. 




This study trip was organized by project’s Finnish partner organization VIKES. During the trip Santa Logina and Iveta Sondore together with her colleagues from other M4D partner organizations – Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Slovakia met with CIJ staff, Nepali editors, NGO actors, journalists, editors, European actors (including Nordic Embassy representatives) in the country, local community and local authorities in their visits to Kathmandu, Sindhupalchowk and Dolakha districts.


Reflections on situations and experience have been published in several proceeding articles and are available here: 


Focusgroup discussion about global education 


In November 4 we organized a focusgroup discussion about global education and global citizenship. To share their experience we invited 10 different stakeholders of global education:
  1. Liene Baltmane, teacher of English at Mārupe Secondary school – represents teachers who implement global education at school;
  2. Edgars Bērziņš, teacher of history and development projects at Andreja Upīša Skrīveri Secondary school  – represents teachers who implement global education at school;
  3. Ilze Dalbiņa, coordinator of UNESCO Associated School project and Education department – represents UNESCO LNK;
  4. Ligita Grigule, head of the Practice and global partnership centre of Faculty of Education, Psychology and Art at Latvia University – represents higher education and academic sector that provides teacher education;  
  5. Valters Kinna, Green Liberty – represents non-governmental sector that implements projects and teacher education courses and seminars;
  6. Zane Oliņa, National Centre for Education – represents project “Competence based approach in education curriculum” at the National Centre for Education;
  7. Elita Opincāne, expert of education and life-long learning of Education department at Rēzekne municipality – represents municipalities that implement global education projects;
  8. Sintija Šmite, head of international cooperation programs department at State Education Development Agency – represents State Education Development Agency;
  9. Līva Šteinberga, senior referent of Development cooperation policy department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia – represents Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia;
  10. Iveta Vērse, head of the Education development centre – represents non-governmental sector that implements projects and teacher education courses and seminars. 
Global education week in Latvia this year was organized in November 1 – 12. It was coordinated by the Latvian Platform of Development Cooperation (LAPAS) in collaboration with Green Liberty, UNESCO Latvian National Commission, Faculty of Education, Psychology and Art at Latvia University, Latvian Association for Cooperation in Education (LACE), and other civil society organizations. This year’s GEW motto in Latvia – what you sow, that you reap – highlights that active participation is the way how we all together can shape our community, country and development of the planet.

The focusgroup discussion about global education was organized during the Global Education Week (GEW) that is a Europe-wide awareness-raising event that takes place annually in formal and non-formal educational settings across the continent. The GEW’s aim is to encourage educators and learners to explore educational activities for global citizenship. The GEW addresses issues related to diversity and inequality at the local and global levels, and tries to foster: awareness of the wider world and of our own role as world citizens, attitudes of respect for diversity and intercultural communication skills, responsibility for our own actions, and the ability to take action to make the world a more equitable and sustainable place.


TV/Movie Producers’ Meeting in Finland


Five producers: Elizabete Palasiosa from Juris Podnieks Studio, Zane Kalnina and Laura Cīrule from film studio "Woodpecker Pictures", Ieva Goba from Elm Media, and Danuta Juste from TVNET represented Green Liberty and took part in the TV and movie producers’ meeting in Helsinki and Tampere on November 10-11, 2016.

The producers’ meeting was organized by project’s Finnish partner organization VIKES. Its focus was several meetings (with representatives of the Finnish Film Foundation, Yle Red Nose Day Show Producers, Tampere International Film Festival Executive Director Juhani Alanen, journalist and director Laura Satimus from the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, Yle producer and development reporter Pasi Toivonen), networking and participating in the Yle Red Nose Day Show.

For representatives of Green Liberty this meeting was a great success, especially discussions and experience exchange with producers from Gimmeyawallet Production, Docventures, Madventures and Soundtracker about changing the way of watching documentary films. The GL representatives shared that it was inspiring to observe five hours long the Yle Red Nose Day Show online that had been prepared during the whole year. They expressed their initiative to cooperate with Green Liberty in order to organize similar campaigns in Latvia. Also, the GL representatives were challenged to think about the role of public TV, its competitiveness with commercial channels, and possibilities to attract youth as target audience. Their reflections were directed to communicating meaningful content in an attractive way not losing its value. 


Fair Trade day: What is the real price of sports equipment?


Sports equipment – clothes and accessories – is essential element of sport. The quality of sports equipment significantly influences our wellbeing when we take a part in sports activities and achieve results. But what do we mean by the quality of sports equipment? Those who have been interested to find answers on questions – how fair is sports equipment and what is its real price and impact – participated in the Fair Trade day organized in the Latvia Academy of Sport Education (LASE) on November 10, 2016.

This event invited different stakeholders connected to reflect on how the local and the global contexts are integrated in sport, to clarify the real price of t-shirt, to participate in focusgroup discussion about fairness of sports equipment, to watch two short documentaries about industry of Nike goods and production of football balls in Pakistan, and to discuss about sport and sustainable development.

More info about the event here.


E-bulletin “Development Cooperation News”


To enrich awareness of society and policymakers in Latvia about global interconnection, challenges and initiatives to solve them both globally and locally we publish electronic information bulletin Development Cooperation News (DCN).

The 4th issue is Global Development Myths is looking for answers on the following questions: Is it truth or not that “we should not help other countries, because we ourselves are poor”, “poverty results from too high birth rate”, “help makes a receiver to become lazy”, “financial assistance is the most needed help for poor countries”, “climate change is not connected to increase of poverty”? Stories that provide different answers on these questions are published in five sections – POSITIONS, EVENTS, EXPERIENCE, OPINIONS, and RESOURCES that shape the structure of DCN.

DCN is published electronically twice a year and features current development cooperation topics from the perspective of practitioners, opinion leaders and policy-makers.


Read and download the bulletin Development Cooperation News here. 


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Wednesday, 10 August 2016

Green Liberty: The Third Six Months of M4D

E-bulletin “Development Cooperation News” 
To enrich awareness of society and policymakers in Latvia about global interconnection, challenges and initiatives to solve them both globally and locally we have started to publish electronic information bulletin Development Cooperation News (DCN).
DCN is published electronically twice a year and features current development cooperation topics from the perspective of practitioners, opinion leaders and policy-makers.
The 3rd issue is Sustainable Development Goals. It is looking for answers on the following questions: How can we reduce global poverty, inequality, injustice, and climate change by empowering development of our local communities? This global and local news is published in five sections – POSITIONS, EVENTS, EXPERIENCE, OPINIONS, and RESOURCES that shape the structure of DCN.
Read and download the bulletin Development Cooperation News here.
The next – 4th issue of Development Cooperation News will be on how to measure Sustainable Development Goals. 

Joint Study Trip to Palestine 

A journalist from regional newspaper Zemgales Ziņas - Agnese Leiburga represented Green Liberty the joint study trip to Palestine on the July 11-17. This study trip was organized by project’s Finnish partner organization VIKES. During the trip Agnese Leiburga together with her colleagues from other M4D partner organizations – Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Czech Republic and Slovakia visited Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, Palestinian refugee camp Aida in Bethlehem, Hebron, Jerusalem, and Abu Dis – city, which has been cut away from Jerusalem by the Israeli separation wall. During these visits there was a chance to interview Bashir and Jeanette who are well-traveled Palestinian-Christian couple and have decided to live in Bethlehem, as well as Palestinian family affected by the separation wall, to visit Bethlehem University with the participants of the media camp and much more.
Reflections on situations and experience have been published in several proceeding articles and are available here:
Leiburga, Agnese, (July-August, 2016). Viena žoga divas puses – Izraēla un Palestīna. [Two sides of the same fence: Israel and Palestine]. Zemgales Ziņas [regional newspaper Zemgale News],
- August 11, 2016:

Helsinki Intensive Course “Reporting World News” for Journalists 

On April 20-22 three Latvian writing journalists who have recently started their career together with their colleagues from other M4D partner organizations – Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Czech Republic and Slovakia – deepened their awareness and understanding about reflecting on global development issues in an Intensive Course on Development for Journalists in Helsinki. Green Liberty was represented by Iveta Sondore (Vides Vēstis), Anna Ūdre (FEJS Latvija) and Santa Logina (regional newspaper Zemgales Ziņas). The intensive course was organized by project’s Finnish partner organization VIKES. The focus of the course was on such topics as timely media issues in global context, sustainable development, natural resources and disasters, migration and war coverage. The seminar was a great success because of its relevant content, discussions and workshops, organization and atmosphere.
Read the reflections by journalists who participated the event in the article Getting to the truth: Journalists from Latvia share their experience about participation in media seminar organized by VIKES

Photo and Story Competition Winners’ Trip to Kenya 

From February 28 till March 23 a group of two people representing Green Liberty had a possibility to explore Kenya and challenge our stereotypes on life in East Africa. Lasma Ozola was interested in sustainable agriculture practices in Kenya. Liene Bieza – a photographer – captured group’s moves during the travel. Also, Liene Bieza and Lasma Ozola were the winners of the photo/story competition Decent Life for All. Lasma and Liene were accompanied by Dimitri Vanham from Belgium who was documenting interviews with project developers in video.
During three weeks they travelled through different regions of Kenya to see Laikipia Permaculture Project, Sustainable Village Resources Organic Coffee project in Rongo, Regenerating Rusinga Project, Drylands Natural Resource Centre Reforestation project in Makueni. Read the reflections in the article Environment, agriculture, community and education in Kenya: Reflections from Green Liberty

Evening Tea with Documentary Journalists 

On the February 17th Kārlis Lesiņš and Lelde Prūse, journalists from the Woodpecker Pictures were invited to an evening tea with Green Liberty’s staff and friends to share the story of their trip to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where they filmed a documentary movie about the care for protected eastern gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei andGorilla beringei graueri).
Read the reflections about the event here: Evening tea with documentary journalists

Social Campaign

With a successful piloting in the knowledge festival HELSUS on May 21st in Jelgava we have started a social campaign “Myths and truths about our participation in global development”. The overall address of this social campaign to general public in Latvia is incorporated in the question: Does it seem to you that “we should not help other countries, because we ourselves are poor”, that “poverty results from too high birth rate”, that “help makes a receiver to become lazy”, that “financial assistance is the most needed help for poor countries”, that “climate change is not connected to increase of poverty”? If yes, come and find it out if it is truth or not. Participants interested in finding this out were involved in discussions where they shared their opinions about poverty, birthrate, and impact of rich and poor countries and whether help changes the situation for good or bad. 
The second public debate was during the conversation festival LAMPA on July 1st in Cēsis where we added the next step to our discussion: How to substitute our myths with a rather constructive view on reality?  And why transforming myths to truths is similar to swinging on a swing? The discussion was organized in the LAPAS (Latvian Platform for Development Cooperation) tent that hosted several other discussions, conversations, films, and games about global development organized by NGOs that shared similar vision in the need to lend a hand to make the world a better place.  

Before the campaign we organized an opinion pool that helped us to choose five the most popular myths in Latvia:
    - we should not help other countries, because we ourselves are poor,
     - poverty results from too high birth rate,
     - help makes a receiver to become lazy,
    - financial assistance is the most needed help for poor countries,
    - climate change is not connected to increase of poverty.
We started our discussion with a metaphor of swinging on a swing, and connected it to the process of changing myths to truths. After discussing each myth we shared the relevant results from the opinion pool. Several of proceeding events of the social campaign will be organized in the 2nd part of this year.
Reflections and pictures from piloting the campaign in Helsus: http://www.zalabriviba.lv/par-globalizaciju/tiekamies-sarunu-festivala-lampa/

Photo Exhibition “Decent Life for All”

Green Liberty also organizes a nation-wide photo exhibition Decent Life to All that is ongoing and includes 24 pictures from the photo competition organized in July – September 2015. The pictures included in the exhibition are created by professional and amateur photographers from Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovakia. Among pictures representing Latvia several of them are created by national winner Liene Biezā. This exhibition provides the visitors an opportunity to think about their daily habits and the world as our global home, and to enhance their understanding of development issues. 
Since its opening at the European Union House in Riga the photo exhibition has been hosted by Latvia University, Latvia University of Agriculture, LU Botanical garden, Gulbene Municipality, Olympic center in Riga, Riga Central Market, shopping centre Galerija Centrs, Latvian National Library restaurant and several other famous restaurants, etc.
The exhibition aims to address general public in Latvia starting from school youngsters to elderly people. By choosing popular and diverse exhibition places we are trying to reach people of different professions and interests. In Gulbene the exhibition was used as a tool for teachers to work with pupils and it helped as educational material in local community.


Regional Journalist Training

Our collaboration with regional newspaper Zemgales Ziņas (Zemgale News) initiated co-organization of regional journalist training Global echoes in regional journalistic that was held on March 11 in Jelgava. The aim of the training was to discuss urgent global issues in the field of journalism, to look for answers about the role of regional journalism in a globalized world, and to enjoy a fair-trade coffee and tea. 
The program implied discussions about the mentioned issues and personal experience stories told by a journalist Kārlis Lesiņš from Woodpecker Pictures who shared the story of his trips to several countries of Global South, including Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 

The training gathered 12 participants who highlighted that events like this provided for regional media are very rare. They shared that this and similar events help to open mind, encourage journalists to look at local activities from a global perspective and at global issues from a local perspective, and to cooperate with each other. Several journalists pointed out that this training confirmed that it is crucial to bring topicalities of a European project to the level of local community.  
Concluding ideas that reflect the issues and reflections covered in the training can be summarized as follows:
Regional journalism has a significant educative purpose, especially in local regional communities where the majority of population do not belong to formal educational system anymore. Thus, local and regional printed media are crucial means of informing and awareness rising for a local community. And this purpose is closely connected to the issue of responsibility.
A journalist is like a woodpecker that hammers persistently until she or he gets to the essence. It is not a routine activity, as a journalist should sustain his or her researcher’s spirit by moving around, observing, gathering information, meeting people and creating stories about fresh issues. Yet, in this activity a balance between expectations from employers and media consumers, available information and resources, and journalist’s own interest and passion should be ensured. A journalist most likely cannot change all the global problems, but what she or he can do is to create stories that can serve the aim to raise awareness and inspire to build hopeful future.
An added value of a story is a presence of journalist’s own culture (ethnic, gender, age, social and economic position, etc.) and its dialogue with the story. 



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