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I'm an immigrant from Venezuela,
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and I've lived in the US for six years.
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If you ask me about my life
as an expatriate,
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I would say that I've been lucky.
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But it hasn't been easy.
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Growing up, I never thought
that I was going to leave my homeland.
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I participated in my first
student protest in 2007,
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when the president shut down
one of the most important news networks.
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I was getting my bachelor's degree
in communications,
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and that was the first time I realized
I couldn't take free speech for granted.
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We knew things were getting bad,
but we never saw what was coming:
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an economic crisis,
infrastructure breaking down,
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citywide electrical blackouts,
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the decline of public health care
and shortage of medicines,
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disease outbreaks and starvation.
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I moved to Canada with my husband in 2013,
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and we always thought we'd move back home
when the crisis improved.
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But we never did.
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Nearly all my childhood friends
have left the country,
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but my parents are still there.
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There have been moments
where I've called my mom
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and I could hear people screaming
and crying in the background
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as teargas bombs exploded in the streets.
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And my mom, as if I couldn't
hear it, would always tell me,
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(Speaking Spanish)
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"We're fine, don't worry."
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But of course, I worry.
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It's my parents, and I'm 4,000 miles away.
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Today, I'm just one of more than
four million Venezuelans
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who have left their home country.
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A lot of my friends
are Venezuelan immigrants,
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and in the last few years,
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we've begun talking about
how we could make a difference
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when we live so far away.
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That is how Code for Venezuela
was born in 2019.
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It began with a hackathon,
because we are experts in tech,
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and we thought we could use
our tech skills
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to create solutions
for people on the ground.
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But first, we needed to find some experts
actually living inside Venezuela
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to guide us.
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We'd see so many other hackathons
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that came up with wily, ambitious,
incredible technological solutions
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that sounded great in theory
but ultimately failed to work
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in the actual countries
they were intended to help.
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Many of us have been
living abroad for years,
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and we are detached
from the day-to-day problems
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that people are facing in Venezuela.
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So we turned to the experts
actually living inside of the country.
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For example, Julio Castro,
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a doctor and one of the leaders
of Médicos por la Salud.
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When the government stopped publishing
official health care data in 2015,
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Dr. Julio began collecting
information himself,
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using an informal but coordinated system
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of cell phone communications.
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They track available personnel,
medical supplies, mortality data,
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disease outbreaks,
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compile it into a report
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and then share that on Twitter.
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He became our go-to expert
on health care in Venezuela.
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Luis Carlos Díaz,
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a widely recognized journalist
who reports acts of censorship
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and human rights violations
suffered by the people of Venezuela.
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He helps us make sense
of what is happening there,
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since the news is controlled
by the government.
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We call these people
our heroes on the ground.
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With their expert advice,
we came up with a series of challenges
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for hackathon participants.
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In that first hackathon,
we had 300 participants
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from seven countries
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come up with 16 different
project submissions.
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We picked the projects
with the most potential
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and continued working on them
after the event.
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Today, I'll share two of our most
successful projects
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to give you a taste of the impact
we are having so far.
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They're called MediTweet
and Blackout Tracker.
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MediTweet is an intelligent Twitter bot
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that helps Venezuelans
find the medicine they need.
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Right now in Venezuela,
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if you get sick and you go to a hospital,
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there is a good chance they won't have
the right medical supplies to treat you.
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The situation is so bad
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that patients often get
a "shopping list" from the doctor
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instead of a prescription.
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I live the need for this firsthand.
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My mom was diagnosed with cancer in 2015.
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She needed to have a lumbar puncture
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to get a final diagnosis
and treatment plan.
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But the needle for this procedure
wasn't available.
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I was in Venezuela at that time,
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and I was seeing my mom
getting worse in front of me every day.
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After looking everywhere,
we found the needle in a site
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that is like the eBay of Latin America.
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I met the seller in a local bakery,
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and it was like buying
something on the black market.
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My mom brought the needle to her doctor
and he did the procedure.
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Without this, she could have died.
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But it's not just medical supplies,
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it's medicines, too.
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When she was first diagnosed,
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we bought her treatment
in a state pharmacy,
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and it was, like, practically free.
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But then the state pharmacy ran out,
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and we still had six months
of treatment ahead.
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Six months of treatment ahead.
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We bought some medicines online
and the rest in Mexico.
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Now she's in her third year of remission,
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and every time that I call,
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she tells me, "I'm fine, don't worry."
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But not everyone can afford
to leave the country,
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and many aren't healthy enough to travel.
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That is why people turn to Twitter,
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buying and selling medicines
using the hashtag #ServicioPublico,
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meaning "public service."
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Our Twitter bot scans Twitter
for the hashtag #ServicioPublico
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and connects users who are asking
for specific medicines
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with those who are selling
their private leftovers.
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We also pool the location data
of those Twitter users
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and use it for a visualization tool.
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It gives local organizations
like Médicos por la Salud
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a sense of where they have a shortage.
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We can also apply
machine learning algorithms
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to detect clusters of disease.
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If they've received humanitarian aid,
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this could help them
to make better decisions
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about the distributions of the supplies.
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Our second project,
is called Blackout Tracker.
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Venezuela is currently going through
an electricity crisis.
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Last year, Venezuela suffered
what some people consider
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the worst power failures
in Venezuelan history.
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I had two long days without
communication with my parents.
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Some cities experienced
blackouts every day.
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But you only know about this
on social media.
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The government won't report
blackouts on the news.
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When the power goes out,
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many Venezuelans, we quickly tweet out
the location with the hashtag #SinLuz,
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meaning "without electricity,"
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before their phones ran out of battery,
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so people around the country
know what is happening.
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Like MediTweet,
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Blackout Tracker scans Twitter
for the hashtag #SinLuz
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and creates a map using
the location data of those users.
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You can quickly see
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where the blackouts are happening today
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and how many blackouts
have happened over time.
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People want to know what is happening,
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and this is our answer.
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But it's also a way of holding
the government accountable.
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It's easy for them to deny
that the problem exists
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or make excuses
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because there is no official data on it.
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Blackout Tracker shows how bad
the problem really is.
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Now, some people in Silicon Valley
may look at these projects
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and say that there are no major
technological innovations.
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But that is the point.
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These projects are not insanely advanced,
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but it's what the people
of Venezuela need,
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and they can have a tremendous impact.
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Beyond these projects, perhaps
our most significant accomplishment
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is that a movement has been created,
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one where people around the world
are coming together
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to use their professional skills to create
solutions for the people of Venezuela.
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And because we are partnering with locals,
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we are creating the solutions
that people want and need.
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What is so great about this
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is that we are using
our professional skills,
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so it comes easily and naturally.
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It's not that hard for us
to make a difference.
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If someone from San Francisco
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were to hire professionals
to create solutions
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like MediTweet or Blackout Tracker,
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it would cost a small fortune.
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By donating our services,
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we are making a bigger impact
than if we were just to donate money.
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And you can do the same thing --
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not in Venezuela, necessarily,
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but in your own community.
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In a world that is more
connected than ever,
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we still see how specialized communities
can be living isolated or in silos.
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There are so many great ways to help,
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but I believe that you can use
your professional skills
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to connect diverse communities
and create effective solutions
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through those relationships.
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Anyone with knowledge
and professional skills
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has a powerful force
to bring hope to a community.
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For us at Code for Venezuela,
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this is just the beginning.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)