# The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread November 2012



## The Bread Guy (30 Oct 2012)

*The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread November 2012 *               

*News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!*


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## GAP (10 Nov 2012)

*Articles found Nov 10, 2012*

 Parents accused of killing daughter with acid for talking to boy: Police
By QMI Agency  
Article Link

Parents in a rural village in Pakistan are accused of murdering their 15-year-old daughter by dousing her in acid when they caught her talking to a boy outside the family's home, local police said.

Anvu Shah suffered third-degree burns on her face, arms and chest.

The girl wasn't taken to hospital until the next morning, where she died Wednesday, Tahir Ayub, a police officer, told Agence France Presse.

The teen's older sister notified police, AFP reported, and the girl's parents allegedly confessed to the attack.

"(The girl's father Mohammed) Zafar beat her up and then poured acid over her with the help of his wife," Ayub said.

The attack happened in the Khoi Ratta district in northern Pakistan
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  Girl's marriage deemed compensation in Pakistan rape dispute
By QMI Agency
Article Link

Pakistani elders have ruled a nine-year-old girl must marry a 22-year-old man as compensation to settle the case of the rape and abduction of another young girl.

Five men in the rural village of Bahalak in Punjab province were arrested for the abduction and rape of a wealthy landowner's daughter.

As compensation, one of the men — a farm worker named Arshad — was ordered to offer his nine-year-old daughter to marry the landowner's adult son.

"The jury on Sunday decreed that Arshad would marry (off) his daughter Sidra to Ali Sher's 22-year-old son Maqsood," local police station chief Mohammad Khalid told AFP. "Arshad agreed verbally but Sidra, who is too young, remains with her family."

Legal marriage age in Pakistan is 18 for men and 16 for girls, and "vani," the practice of giving daughters as compensation, is illegal and punishable by up to seven years in prison.

But vani and child marriage are still practised in some rural areas. In these cases, the children are usually wed then returned to their families until puberty.
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 Damned by Riches: How Afghanistan’s Mineral Wealth Undermines NATO Mission
Article Link
By Nathan William Meyer June 27, 2012

It is like something out of a movie: deep in the archives of a war torn country a team of intrepid scientists discovers forgotten maps leading to buried treasure. Fantastical as it seems, such a scene played out in 2004 when American geologists found a cache of charts in the Afghan Geological Survey’s library dating from the days of Soviet occupation.

Returned to the library after the NATO invasion, these Russian charts were protected in geologists’ homes through the tumultuous 1990s’ and for good reason: the data indicated under Afghanistan’s mountains and dry plains lay vast mineral deposits.

Guided by Soviet charts, aerial surveys in 2006 and 2007 covered 70% of the county and produced the most comprehensive geologic study in Afghan history and estimate the nation’s untapped mineral wealth at $1 trillion.

Today the Afghan government believes this wealth buried in their rugged provinces could exceed $3 trillion, but as frequently asked of buried treasure: is it cursed?

Afghanistan’s mineral resources are hard to underestimate and current projections border on the hyperbolic. In June, 2010, the Pentagon confirmed reports that Afghanistan’s massive deposits could make it a major world producer of iron and copper. The lithium deposits in Ghanzi Province may rival Bolivia’s for the title of world’s largest. The country’s Samti gold deposit is estimated to hold 20-24 metric tons and according to the US Geological Survey a single million ton deposit of rare earth elements (REE) in Helmand Province gives Afghanistan the world’s sixth largest REE reserves.

All this has caught the attention of the region’s major economies. Already Indian corporations have secured rights to most of Hajigak’s 1.8 billion metric tons of iron.

Having bought a 30 year lease for $3 billion, China Metallurgical Group now operates a copper mine at Mes Aynak on what used to be an Al Qaeda training camp.
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 The Fallacy of Choosing Favorites in Afghanistan
Article Link
By Daniel Wagner and John Lyman July 10, 2012

Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution has written a piece in the Washington Post “Picking a Winner in Afghanistan” that argues that whoever replaces Karzai in 2014 will prove to be as important in holding the country together as whether a return of the Taliban and Al Qaeda can be prevented.

O’Hanlon takes the position that the United States should in essence help facilitate selection of the next Afghan president once Karzai’s second term ends, and do whatever it can to encourage the election of a reformer. He places a lot of faith in the supposition that Karzai won’t find a way to extend his term under some emergency law, or have Afghan lawmakers loyal to him make it possible for him to run for a third term. He also assumes that a viable, desirable alternative to Karzai will prove to be acceptable to a Loya Jirga.

Accepting that Karzai will abide by Afghanistan’s constitution and allow the political process to unfold, O’Hanlon mentions three possible reformists who could succeed him.

Among them are Hanif Atmar, a former education and interior minister, economist Ashraf Ghani, and Abdullah Abdullah who challenged Karzai in 2009. Abdullah withdrew from the race before a runoff vote was to occur.

Both Karzai and Abdullah claimed to have won the first round of voting and that widespread voter fraud made a runoff vote necessary. When Abdullah withdrew, he accused the Karzai government of widespread corruption and electoral fraud. Since 2009, the United States has been slow to pressure Kabul to seriously address the allegations of electoral fraud, or indeed, the wider question of the endemic corruption throughout the Afghan government.

Given that the U.S. has so significantly supported Karzai and his government since he was first elected in 2004, one could certainly argue not only that the United States approves of Karzai’s version of reform, but also the corruption and nepotism that has accompanied it, and has only gotten worse. In that regard, we must question in the first instance what ‘reform, Afghan style’ really means, and secondly, whether a ‘reformer a la Karzai’ would be any more effective in creating a government more consistent with American values.
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 Taking a Bite out of Terror: Battling the Taliban’s Influence in Schools
Article Link
By Franz-Stefan Gady October 15, 2012

When US Major Lee and Captain Gil entered Ganat Kahiyl High School in eastern Afghanistan recently, a local teacher slipped them a small note: “The Taliban have visited our school and forced their curriculum upon us. Can the government help?”

This was not an empty threat. Insurgents burned down Sahakh High School in the same district a couple months earlier for teaching girls and the government’s curriculum. Taliban attacks on schools that defy insurgents are reported often, though difficult to confirm because of Taliban influence, say analysts. In fact, the US officers were visiting the school to promote the Village Outreach Program, devised by the local US Army and the district governor of Zormat to battle that type of Taliban influence on schools and children.

The new project, loosely modeled after McGruff the Crime Dog, a cartoon bloodhound used by the American police to build crime awareness in children, is meant to teach schoolchildren civic responsibilities and instill trust in the government and the police.

“If your parents don’t let you go to school, you should cry. Cry until they let you go to school because you are the future of Afghanistan!” District Chief of Police Abdul Wahab, who was visiting the school with Lee and Gil, told high school students that day. Given the relatively poor reputation of the Afghan National Uniformed Police in most parts of the country, this friendly, fatherly policeman and his message seem revolutionary here. Local forces say there is a lot of hope riding on the program as it builds confidence among schools in places like Zormat. Lee says he hopes it can instill an appreciation for civic responsibility and trust in police and government, so that they can help teachers and schools like Ganat Kahiyl High School, but it still has a long way to go.
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 China Begins Pumping Lots Of Oil
Article Link
November 5, 2012

 The government is seeing more instances of soldiers or police killing their comrades. Some of these attacks appear to be the result of personal disputes. Men from different tribes, clans, and ethnic groups will stick together in a police or army unit, and this will sometimes lead to disputes between groups that have led to shootings. Afghanistan is a very violent place and “outsiders” can be other Afghans from a different tribe or part of the country.

This sort of violence has led some NATO officials to question if the current government can remain in power after NATO troops leave. It’s been noted by foreigners (and admitted by many Afghans) that each of the 34 provinces have three leaders. One is the governor appointed by the central government. The second is the strongest warlord or tribal leader, who is sometimes more powerful than the governor. Third, there is the Taliban “governor”. These Taliban leaders only have real clout in about a dozen provinces. When NATO troops leave the appointed governor loses quite a bit of power. But most of these men know how to adapt and form a better alliance with local warlords and tribal chiefs. The Taliban are always the outsiders because they are allied with drug gangs in at least six provinces, and the drug gangs are very unpopular with most Afghans.

American and Afghan officials are trying to locate two Afghan intelligence officials (a captain and a major) who disappeared in the United States when it came time for them to return to Afghanistan. The two were in the United States for a ten week training course and, like many other Afghans sent abroad for training, apparently decided to stay and quietly blend into the local Afghan community. Despite American fears, none of these illegal migrants has ever been found to actually be a terrorist.

A NATO sponsored amnesty program has caused several hundred Taliban a week to surrender over the last three months. The amnesty terms include free health care (especially of existing combat wounds), temporary housing, and a free plot of land. Those taking the deal have to undergo an interrogation, if only to eliminate those who are pretending to be Taliban just to get the benefits. This is especially the case for those who do not turn in weapons when they give up. Some of those taking the amnesty are men who were with the Taliban but already left. There is a lot of turnover in the Taliban, with many men joining for only a few months. The Taliban often pays their men monthly but sometimes cannot. The Taliban leaders are paid better and more regularly and if killed their families get a larger payment. 

The government insists its police force (146,000 strong) and army are ready to maintain peace after NATO troops leave. While the police are not as competent or honest as their Western counterparts they have proved capable to foiling terror attacks and patrolling large areas of the country. There is no problem attracting sufficient recruits. But because of low literacy, training them is a big problem. A greater problem is the shortage of experienced police commanders. Afghanistan has never had a national police force and there are simply not enough men around who can supervise police effectively. 
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## GAP (10 Nov 2012)

For Afghan troops, donkeys are the new helicopters
Article Link

“You are the richest and most powerful country in the world. Of course you can afford helicopters. The best we can do is donkeys,” said 16-year-old Qamuddin, one of the donkey handlers. Like many Afghans, he uses only one name. “Without donkeys, there would be no Afghan army.”

But even a solution as seemingly simple and sustainable as donkey supply convoys has become subject to corruption and incompetence, an emblem of the logistical problems plaguing the Afghan army. Just as Afghans are preparing to inherit dozens of bases, all of which will require donkeys for daily or weekly rations, the funding to pay donkey contractors has disappeared. The Afghan army’s relatively modern bureaucracy has proven incapable of acquiring even ancient tools.

Some contractors, mostly local farmers, haven’t been paid for more than a year. In the volatile Pech Valley, where many key strategic outposts have for years been supplied by U.S. aircraft, Qamuddin said he has been waiting nine months for payment. He’s thinking about quitting.

“We need more water!” Afghan Col. Ashraf yelled when Qamuddin arrived at the outpost with his donkeys last week.

“Well, then I need a new contract!” Qamuddin replied.

For their part, U.S. advisers have devoted much of their time to solving the problem of the unpaid donkey contractors — an unexpected puzzle for military leaders typically focused on the machinations of modern warfare.

“Who knew that the end of this war would boil down to donkey contracts?” said Lt. Col. Brandon Newton, commander of Task Force Lethal Warrior in Konar. “I wasn’t trained for this.”

Some American military advisers acknowledge the irony of being deployed to one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan only to negotiate donkey contracts. But the “Donkey Problem,” as it has become known in some U.S. military circles, has prompted much ire and urgency because a failure to solve it could result in a paralysis of operations at key outposts.

“If you lose the outposts, the Taliban have an open door to walk right in,” said Sgt. Travis Washington, part of the U.S. military advisory team in Konar.
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## GAP (21 Nov 2012)

*Articles found Nov 21, 2012*

 Afghan leaders warn of 'chaos' if NATO leaves
  Article Link
Canadian army role over, MacKay asserts
 By Richard Foot, Postmedia News November 19, 2012

Afghanistan is "very, very vulnerable" and will descend back into "chaos and civil war" unless the world - especially the United States, and NATO allies such as Canada - remain engaged and committed there.

That stark warning was issued in Halifax Sunday by a panel of high-profile Afghan business and political leaders. They spoke on the future of Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Halifax International Security Forum, an annual conference on global security issues hosted by Defence Minister Peter MacKay.

Afghanistan "needs a lot of resources and patience on the part of the international community," said Abdul Rahim Wardak, a former defence minister and current adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"Unfortunately the Taliban and their supporters have counted from the beginning, that sooner or later the international community will run out of patience and they will leave, and that is why they are preparing for that day."

For that reason, said Wardak, "we hope international support will continue."
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Calgary court martial hears troops injured in deadly exercise thought they were under Taliban attack
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By Kevin Martin	,Calgary Sun November 20, 2012

Canadian troops injured in a deadly Afghan training exercise believed they were under Taliban attack, one of the wounded soldiers told a Calgary court martial Tuesday.

Master Cpl. William Pylypow testified he was under half cover behind a light armoured vehicle (LAV) when he was struck by two ball bearings from a Claymore mine.

“We always presume it’s Taliban, so I just thought they got to us,” Pylypow told the hearing, at Calgary’s Mewata Armoury.

Pylypow’s then commanding officer, Maj. Darryl Watts, faces six charges, including manslaughter, in the death of Cpl. Joshua Baker and the injuries to four others, including Pylypow.

Watts, then a captain, was in charge of a platoon on Feb. 12, 2010 during a weapons firing exercise at Kan Kala, just northeast of Kandahar city.

Pylypow testified the troops received no specific briefing on the use of the C19 Claymores before the weapons were deployed.

He said during the third relay of explosions he felt a concussive blast and then two metal ball bearings struck his right arm.

“I pretty well went into shock,” he told prosecutor Maj. Anthony Tamburro.
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 Suicide attackers hit near US base in Afghan capital
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Published November 21, 2012 Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan –  Two men wearing suicide vests blew themselves up near a U.S. base in the Afghan capital early Wednesday, killing two Afghan guards in what looked like a thwarted attempt to attack the American base, police said.

The blast reverberated around Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood shortly after 8 a.m. local time. An alarm started going off at the nearby U.S. Embassy, warning staff to take cover. The neighborhood also is home to many high-ranking Afghan officials, international organizations and the headquarters of the international military coalition.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing in an email to reporters.

The attack came as foreign and Afghan forces tightened security around the capital ahead of the holy day of Ashoura on Saturday, when Shiite Muslims commemorate the seventh century death of Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

Last year, the commemoration saw the first major sectarian attack since the fall of the Taliban regime. In that strike, a suicide bomber on foot detonated his vest amid scores of worshippers at a Shiite shrine, killing 56 people and wounding more than 160 others.

Wednesday's bombers were on foot and were spotted by Afghan security guards as they approached Camp Eggers, the Kabul police chief's office said in a statement. The police fired on the attackers and they detonated their vests. Two Afghan security guards were killed and five civilians were injured in the explosion, the statement said.
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## GAP (22 Nov 2012)

*Articles found Nov 22, 2012*

 Afghans Working With NATO-Led Forces Fear For The Future

Article Link
November 22, 2012  By Frud Bezhan

They have been branded "traitors" by the Taliban, which has said for years that it will kill any Afghans working for the NATO-led coalition.

With the majority of U.S. and NATO-led troops set to leave the country in 2014, many Afghans working in support positions look ahead with trepidation.

Their fears appear to be well-grounded.

Scores of Afghans working for foreign military forces have already been targeted by the Taliban. On November 14, in the latest such killing, the Taliban shot dead two Afghan interpreters working for NATO troops near Kabul. Their bodies were left next to their cars. There have been other killings and many others have received death threats warning them to quit their jobs or face a similar fate.

In response, some NATO members and their allies have created special immigration programs to help endangered Afghan workers leave Afghanistan. But many Afghans who have applied complain that they have been left in a no-man's-land after not hearing back, sometimes for years, from foreign immigration authorities.

Special Track

One U.S. initiative is called the Afghan Allies program. It was created in 2009 in a bid to boost the number of visas available to Afghan workers employed by the U.S. government. It has allocated 7,500 spaces for Afghans and their families to emigrate to the United States over five years. But so far, only 293 cases have been processed. And since 2010, only 31 cases have received the green light.

Afghans must prove there's an ongoing threat and that they worked at least one year for the U.S. government to get a visa.
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Kabul Attack Kills Two Guards, Injures Civilians Outside Coalition Offices 
Article Link
 Thursday, November 22, 2012

Two Afghan guards have been killed in a suicide attack targeting an international military complex in Kabul.

Agency reports suggested that five civilians were injured.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which targeted the Wazir Akbar Khan district of the capital around 8:20 a.m. local time, according to Sediq Sediqi, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

The area is home to many high-ranking Afghan officials, international organizations, and the headquarters of the U.S.-led international military coalition.

Police say the bombers were spotted by security guards as they approached the international coalition base on foot.

The guards fired on the assailants, killing them, but one of the suicide vests exploded.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid described the attack as marked by "fierce fighting"  and carried out by fighters with "light and heavy weapons."
end


With Perks And Privileges, Tajikistan Seeks To Draw Male Teachers Back To Schools 
Article Link
 Tajikistan Thursday, November 22, 2012
By Zarangez Navruzshoh and Farangis Najibullah

It's been less than a year since Sidiq Abdulloev got a job in a school in the southern Tajik town of Qurgon-Teppa.

But the 24-year-old teacher is leaving for Russia, swapping his chosen profession for manual work on a construction site or potato farm. The reason? Abdulloev says wages are unrealistically low in Tajik schools.

"A teacher's salary is disproportionate to living costs," he says. "For example, a jacket and pants cost 800 somonis [about $170] but my monthly salary is 500. How can you manage? Should I buy a set of clothes and a tie, or buy food?"

Low wages have prompted thousands of male teachers like Abdulloev to quit their jobs in Tajik schools to look for better incomes elsewhere. The Education Ministry says schools are in dire need of male teachers who -- in the words of one official -- possess "more assertiveness and authority" with students than their female colleagues.

In a bid to stem the outflow, the ministry has proposed a law that seeks to make teaching a more attractive prospect for men.

The bill, currently before parliament, envisages new perks and privileges for young teachers, both male and female. But along with benefits such as free health care, financial awards, and discounted accommodation, the bill also effectively exempts teachers from compulsory military service.
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 Taliban bomber kills Pakistan Shia marchers
Article Link
  22 November 2012 

A Taliban suicide bomber killed at least 23 people at a Shia Muslim procession in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, police say.

The bomber targeted marchers as they approached a mosque near the city centre. Another 62 people were hurt.

Blasts earlier on Wednesday outside a Shia mosque in the southern city of Karachi killed at least two people, and a bomb in Quetta left five dead.

The bombings come as Shias mark the holy month of Muharram.

First reports from Rawalpindi said 10 people had died in the attack late on Wednesday night, but officials raised the figure on Thursday morning.

Police rescue spokeswoman Deeba Shehnaz said several people who were critically wounded had died in hospital.

Police say they attempted to stop and search the bomber who then blew himself up. The force of the blast ripped a hole in the wall of the mosque.

"It was like the world was ending," one of the victims, Nasir Shah, was quoted as saying by Associated Press.
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## GAP (28 Nov 2012)

*Articles found Nov 28, 2012*

France Follows Canada’s Afghan Lead (plus Germans)…
Afghanistan, Germany, France Add comments

…out of combat, still training:
Article Link
    France ends combat mission in Afghanistan

    French troops on Tuesday [Nov. 20] ended their last combat mission in Afghanistan by withdrawing from Kapisa province as part of an accelerated departure from the war-torn country.

    The last 400 soldiers deployed to the volatile province started to leave Nijrab, the French base in Kapisa, at 10:00 am (0530 GMT) after a departure ceremony.

    Of the 2,200 French soldiers still left in Afghanistan, a military official said that about 700 would return to France by the end of the year.

    Around 50 trainers will remain based in Wardak province, west of Kabul, and 1,500 would stay in the Afghan capital, where most will be tasked with organising the final departure of French troops by the summer of 2013.

    After that date, only several hundred French soldiers involved in cooperation or training missions will remain in the country, the military official said.
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Afghans protest Remembrance Day ceremony in Canada
Article Link

I was looking for this thread and found there wasn't one. Some Afghans(mostly women) made a stink at our(that includes the Afghans) Remembrance Day ceremony last week. 

It was spitting in the faces of Canada's 158 Afghanistan war dead and the thousands who fell in wars before them.

And done on the very day families were tearfully remembering them. It was also grossly disrespectful to a group of veterans — aged 80 to 90 — from both World War II and the Korean War.

It was disgusting.

But freedom can be as ugly in what it must tolerate as this protest on Remembrance Day at Old City Hall was crass.

Interesting that much of this disrespect came from, seemingly, some of the very people who should have been at this ceremony saying thank you. Instead they attempted to ruin it. 
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 Major General Jim Ferron struggles to understand Afghanistan
November 25th, 2012
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TORONTO — You never get to fully understand Afghanistan — you just learn to work within it and alongside the people.

So says a Canadian career soldier who knows more than most about operating in what is still one of the most dangerous places on Earth.

Maj.-Gen Jim Ferron is five months into his year-long posting as commander of the Canadian Training Mission in Afghanistan and deputy commanding general for the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan.

It's a double-hatted role: Ferron leads Canada's contribution of almost 1,000 troops and serves at senior staff level with his NATO colleagues tasked to train an efficient Afghanistan army able to fight for itself.

"Yes, it is a rare double-role, but I am here to work," Ferron said from his base in Kabul. "It's also not my first time here, so I am very aware of the challenges that lie ahead for our people and the Afghans themselves.

"I certainly don't see it ending tomorrow or the day after. It is dangerous, challenging work."
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  Canadian leader in Afghanistan wears two hats
Article Link
 Simon Kent ,Toronto Sun Saturday, November 24, 2012 

TORONTO - Like a riddle wrapped inside an enigma, you never get to fully understand Afghanistan.

You just learn to work within it and alongside the people.

So says a Canadian career soldier who knows more than most about operating in what is still, for all intents and purposes, one of the most dangerous places on earth.

Maj.-Gen Jim Ferron is five months into his year-long posting as commander of the Canadian Training Mission in Afghanistan and Deputy Commanding General for the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan (NTM-A).

In military parlance it is a double-hatted role: Ferron leads Canada’s contribution of almost 1,000 troops and serves at senior staff level with his NATO colleagues tasked to train an efficient Afghanistan Army able to fight for itself sooner rather than later.

“Yes, it is a rare double role but I am here to work,” Ferron said via a phone interview from his base in Afghanistan's capital Kabul. “It’s also not my first time here so I am very aware of the challenges that lie ahead for our people and the Afghans themselves.

“I certainly don’t see it ending tomorrow or the day after. It is dangerous, challenging work.”
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