By ANI Ekanayaka –
Professor A.N.I. Ekanayaka
Looking back on the US presidential election campaign one recalls the avalanche of shock, feigned moral outrage, and sense of injured innocence that greeted the widely circulated tape recording of Donald Trump uttering some vulgar profanities about women during a raucous conversation inside a luxury coach way back in 2005. No doubt millions of people all over the world heard this conversation over and over again on TV and the internet as it was played up by a malicious mainstream media hostile to Trump . There is no question that the crude and sexist comments by Trump were unbecoming of anybody, let alone a presidential candidate. One can understand ordinary people being appalled that Trump should have spoken such obscenities which are the stuff of raunchy uncouth banter that one associates with schoolboy locker rooms, men only clubs, bars and bachelor parties. That being said there was something deeply hypocritical and contradictory about the sanctimonious self righteous indignation of American society ( especially the mainstream media like CNN and the Democratic party ) over Trump’s remarks. Judging by the extent to which people were shocked and offended by this revelation one would imagine that Americans are a nation of coy innocent puritanical nuns easily embarrassed by a short burst of macho profanity !
The reality is very different. Americans are no angels when it comes to sexual immorality. For a start a survey of swear words on Facebook has found that over a 3 day period the commonest swear word was shit with 10.5 million US Facebook interactions, closely followed by “f **** ” the ubiquitous four letter profanity in the West with 9.5 million interactions ! America today ( not to mention much of Europe ) is a country that is wallowing in sexual immorality and sensuality to a point that is comparable with the moral decadence and debauchery of ancient Rome before the collapse of that civilisation. According to research by the Centre for Disease Control(CDC) in 2012 two-thirds of teenagers and young adults in the USA have had oral sex — about as many as have had vaginal intercourse. 44% of 15-17 year old boys and 39% of girls of the same age engage in some sort of sex with a partner of the opposite gender. CDC Surveys of High School students in 2015 have shown that 41% have had sexual intercourse, 30% during the past 3 months 21% of whom had taken drugs or alcohol before intimacy. Not surprisingly it is estimated that there are 750,000 teenage pregnancies in the USA every year the vast majority unintended. That is the level of sexual permissiveness in a society that is now highly embarrassed by 5 minutes of sexually explicit banter by a presidential contender. 
No wonder marriage has become increasingly unfashionable in that country. According to the US Census Bureau as of 2012 47% of the adult population representing some 112 million people were unmarried, and in 2010 unmarried households were 45% of all US households. And marriage when it occurs is a very fragile institution with 53% of marriages in America ending in divorce. No wonder that in 41% of marriages one or both spouses admit to infidelity either physical or emotional with 36% of men and women admitting to infidelity while on business trips and 36% to having an affair with a co-worker. By some estimates roughly 30% to 60% of all married individuals (in the United States) will engage in infidelity at some point during their marriage. Indeed 74% of married American men are reported to have said that they would have an affair if only they knew they would not get caught ! That is the state of adultery in a country whose official motto is “ In God we trust”. Fine words indeed. But sadly nowadays a lot of Americans appear to have forgotten the inalienable 8th Biblical commandment of the God in whom they hypocritically claim to trust ie “ Thou shall not commit adultery”
And there is worse to come. In June 2015 the US Supreme Court ruled that homosexual marriage ( where men have sex with men, and women with women )was legal throughout America. The ruling effectively legalised buggery and sodomy and was a major step towards further popularising the abominable homosexual lifestyle in America. President Obama who favours homosexual marriage even claimed that the ruling was “ a victory for America”. Not surprisingly his administration is committed to a diabolical policy of worldwide cultural imperialism spending millions of dollars to train homosexual activists in other countries, and promoting the LGBT agenda by making foreign aid to developing countries conditional on an acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle. And he is supported by public opinion in the United States where the proportion favouring the legal recognition of same-sex marriage has remained consistently above 50% in opinion polls since 2010. In legalising homosexual marriage America has joined some 21 other countries in undermining the glorious institution of the traditional family that has been the cornerstone of human society from the dawn of civilisation. The effect on future generations of dispensing with so sacred an institution as the traditional heterosexual family is too horrible to contemplate. But that is the direction in which modern America that has got the shakes over five minutes of Donald Trump profanity is headed !
It is an incredible contradiction that millions of Americans who are shocked by a few minutes of vulgar utterance by a presidential candidate have no qualms about endorsing a lurid homosexual lifestyle in which according to studies the average male homosexual is known to have hundreds of sex partners in his lifetime. Nor are Americans bothered by the devastating CDC statistic that 83 % of all new cases of HIV among males aged 13 and older occur among gay and bisexual men, proving that homosexual relations are defined by a type of sordid unnatural physical intimacy ruinous to health rather than idyllic love and romance as the LGBT lobby would have us believe. Moreover there are deep concerns among conservative Americans about the way in which the homosexual lifestyle is being popularized in schools with even young children in elementary school being brainwashed at an early age into regarding the homosexual lifestyle as normal and acceptable. It is frightening to contemplate the effects of such early indoctrination in pushing over whole generations of children into a homosexual lifestyle who would otherwise have grown into normal adults in stable heterosexual relationships.
The final irony is that millions of American women who are so prickly about the sexist chauvinistic remarks of a presidential contender are not only complacent about but would actually defend the slaughter of 58 million unborn babies – which is the number of abortions done since the notorious US Supreme Court decisions of 1973 which legalised abortion all the way up to the 9th month of pregnancy based on a highly liberal and fanciful definition of the health of the mother. Surely the 56 million babies killed worldwide every year (1.06 million annually in the USA alone) constitutes a genocide of historic proportions. Yet a Gallup poll in 2015 showed that while 44% of Americans do identify themselves as “pro life”, 41% still felt that abortion should be legal under “any or all circumstances”. Obviously US shock and outrage over a burst of profane banter by Donald Trump is not matched by public outrage over the brutal genocide of unborn infants.
It is yet another example of double standards, where one individual’s moral conduct is sensationalized with self righteous condemnation by a permissive and morally decadent society which has itself abandoned the moral restraints of its glorious Judeo Christian heritage and is today defined by the licentious morality of a self gratifying lifestyle. Other countries like Sri Lanka can learn from the recent hue and cry over a burst of profanity by a candidate, during the US presidential election campaign. More important than political philosophy or economic ideology, is for governments to have a definitive “moral vision” for their nation, one that actively promotes a clean wholesome sober lifestyle based on enduring traditional values, uncorrupted by the rampant liberalism, aggressive secularism, moral relativism and obsession with individual choice that has lead to the moral degeneration of western societies. For such permissive societies which themselves reek of moral laxity to pounce on individual lapses with lofty self righteous posturing is surely hypocrisy. Looking back on the election, that conservative opinion has prevailed notwithstanding for the moment against all odds is some consolation.
lasith / November 10, 2016
May be a callous ,outspoken , fearless and slightly manic person is better than a scheming hypocrtical ,deplomatical “angel” with a million dollar smile,who wanted to protect terrorists.( read asia tribune about the leaked wikileaks e mails about her struggle to save ltte leaders at the final phase of war)
Only time can tell us.
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Dude / November 10, 2016
This Dude Ekanayaka is a nutter living in the dark ages!
Of course, US is now the biggest Banana Republic on earth! but that is no reason to peddle gay bashing and moral indignation at oral sex which is more the norm than exception among youth all over the world!
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nimal fernando / November 11, 2016
You are barking up the wrong tree Prof ANI Ekanayaka.
Sure, men and women are put on this earth for one thing!
But there is a broad line between courting a woman with respect like a gentleman and sexual harassment.
I have witnessed crude sexual harassment and it’s not pleasant even to witness.
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Spring Koha / November 10, 2016
Prof. Ekanayake exposes the raw underbelly of the US and the West. Hardly an exposé!
We in Sri Lanka can match them every step of the way:
* PAKAYO (in parliament, in front of school children, no less) is just the tip of a very large iceberg.
* Lewd potty-mouthed men dressed in saffron robes letting fly “uuge ammata hokanda”…”para demala hooththa”…..” marrakala waasige putha”
* ‘Clinics’ hidden behind araliya and bouganville that provide pregnant women with a ‘service'(other countries could learn from us, no?)
Anyway, enough, Professor, I think we best hold on to those stones until we put our own house in order.
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jim softy / November 10, 2016
Professor A.N.I. Ekanayaka
Understand there are lot of people who approves it. Some people come here and say, Prostitution is good for the country.
When I say, first start it as a family business, they say no.
In the west, there are lot of women who agree with that culture and live that culture.
Only thing is, even in roman culture at the degredating phase of Rome, rich women had started going in the evenng looking for men. In the west, that is called dating by going to night clubs.
It is the culture now whether it is counter culture or not.
Read and see emails. Destroying countries is for simple reason. One email says destroy Syria in order to help Israel. Another email says why Libya was destroyed for personal achievements.
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Native Vedda / November 10, 2016
Spring Koha
If and when my friend from Galle decides to insult a female colleague he always tells the colleague that she slept with Bikku from such and such Vihara.
It always worked for him.
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sekara / November 10, 2016
There are a several things that trouble me in this comment.
There is much more that is objectionable about Trump than the use of bad language. (Politically, his rival was not particularly better.)
Most importantly, Trump is utterly sexist. (See for example: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-sexism-tracker-every-offensive-comment-in-one-place/).
He is also a racist who appeals to all forms of reactionary social and political views.
Prof Ekanayaka seems to have strong views on marriage and homosexuality.
I am not gay, transsexual or any such thing or in any way sexually adventurous. But I accept peoples choice of sexuality. I concede that homosexuality can be natural.
Marriage is a man-made institution whose origins are linked to private property and gender subjugation. Very nearly all religions are male chauvinist while marriage has no uniform code of practice across religions. For instance, the much maligned Islam has a more progressive view on divorce than its rivals.
The failure of the institution called marriage has little to do with the American way of life. It has more to do with the capitalist system, especially as it evolved in the past century.
Capitalism redefined the role of women as a commodity and pre-capitalist religions have come to terms in one way or other with the impact of capitalism and its more modern developments.
Socialism in its many forms is no guarantor of marriage either. But its attitude to women is fundamentally different from that under capitalism and feudalism before it.
Intolerance towards non-conventional sexuality is not a good attitude towards other humans.
Asian religions, despite their various failings, have been rather tolerant towards such ‘deviations’. Although they do not encourage any, they do not make them punishable under any divine law.
As for sexual morality, a lot more of breaches are in the open now than in earlier times.
Society needs to readjust to changing personal attitudes and adapt in ways that will protect vulnerable sections of the population, especially children.
If children can be cared for by the community as a whole as in several pre-feudal societies, marriage loses all meaning except as ‘legalized prostitution’ as GB Shaw would put it.
Many of us respect marriage since we have been trained to do so.
Let us tolerate difference even if we cannot celebrate it.
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Native Vedda / November 10, 2016
“If children can be cared for by the community as a whole as in several pre-feudal societies, marriage loses all meaning except as ‘legalized prostitution’ as GB Shaw would put it.”
How about promoting “Open Marriage”?
Partners can be honest to each other, remain with in the family without breaking it up.
Open Marriage
– a marriage or relationship in which both partners agree that each may have sexual relations with others.
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jim softy / November 11, 2016
Dumb Native Veddo:
How about promoting “Open Marriage”? Partners can be honest to each other, remain with in the family without breaking it up.
first ask your daughters, if you ever have children, to practice it and then see it.
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Native Vedda / November 11, 2016
jim softy dimwit
“first ask your daughters, if you ever have children, to practice it and then see it.”
It is for individuals to chose their own path and then face the consequences of their choice.
In your case you never would have had the opportunity to make your own choice among various life styles, simply because you are so repulsive hence no women would have talked to you more than a couple of second. In fact they would have picked up your “bad vibes” from miles away and crossed the road and vanished into thin air.
A person who has no social skills cannot understand relationships.
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jim softy / November 12, 2016
Dumb Native Veddo:
A person who has no social skills cannot understand relationships.
Did I hit right on the head.
If you have social skills, why do you go for living together, you cn marry and use your skills.
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sekera / November 10, 2016
NV
I agree with you; and I have an open mind in these matters.
I do not object to anything that does not willfully hurt others.
When we differ from others in our taste it is wise to be sensitive to the feelings of others. People on their own can be very tolerant, unless provoked in some way. But as groups, people can be very intolerant– partly under peer pressure or because one does not want to deviate from what one perceives as general consensus.
Globally there is a drift towards “open marriage”. Even conservative Asian communities are facing it.
Once certain things reach a ‘critical mass’ they gather unstoppable momentum.
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Native Vedda / November 11, 2016
sekera
The reason I have mentioned Open Marriage is that we also know there are about 95,000 young widows in the North East.
These are young women who have young children and most likely to be abused by men. It is already happening in the North.
Open Marriage is one which can begin to solve their problems,i.e economic, social, psychological.
How would you tackle social taboos about open marriage?
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Art Vandalay / November 10, 2016
What an absolutely terrible article!
The problem wasn’t the fact that Trump used a profanity. The problem was that he admitted to sexual assault by saying he likes to grab women by their genitalia without their permission.
Also where in the world did the writer get his facts on abortion from? Abortion isn’t legal in the 9th month of pregnancy in the US. It’s only legal up-to the first 6 months at most when the fetus is still not fully developed. Also how is this relevant to the discussion at hand?
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Clarifying US Law / November 10, 2016
Under Roe v Wade, state governments may NOT prohibit late terminations of pregnancy when “necessary to preserve the [woman’s] life or health”, even if it would cause the demise of a viable fetus. This rule was clarified by the 1973 judicial decision Doe v Bolton, which specifies “that the medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors—physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age—relevant to the well-being of the patient.” It is by this provision for the mother’s mental health that women in the US legally choose abortion after viability when screenings reveal abnormalities that do not cause a baby to die shortly after birth. A late termination of pregnancy often refers to an induced ending of pregnancy AFTER the 20th week of gestation which can be legally interpreted as any time up to the time of delivery while applying the liberal Doe Vs Bolten judicial definition of the “health”
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Art Vandalay / November 11, 2016
@Clarifying US Law
Rather than just copying and pasting the law did you understand what it meant?
It means the pregnancy may be aborted after the 20th week ONLY ON THE CONDITION that the mother’s life is in danger. Hence to state that it’s legal to abort after the 20th week without stating that condition is disingenuous and inaccurate.
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soma / November 10, 2016
Commentators seem to have got the wrong end of what the prof. is attempting to say. He is not preaching or upholding a position on sexual morality. He is just describing the self contradictory situation in the American culture. Neither he is extolling any other culture, ours included. Americans being what they are voted for Trump regardless.
Soma
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soma / November 10, 2016
Nothing makes me sad and indignant like this spectacle of policemen parading some women attempting to hide their faces before a judge in the courts. When will we grow up?
Soma
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Nicola / November 10, 2016
Very bigoted views
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justice / November 10, 2016
Dear Professor,
You have obviously not heard of Rugby Songs.
One is here:-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Eskimo_Nell
These were sung in the good old days, after matches with a bottle of beer, just in a spirit of camaraderie and relaxation.
Trump’s ‘locker room talk’ was similar.
Sex between same sex partners is worldwide.
Mankind’s habits are unlimited.
Sex problems are many and varied.
The abortion issue is similar.
Daily, thousands of early pregnancies are terminated.
In family planning clinics in the sixties, loops were inserted in wombs of women who begged for same, as they had large families with hardly any income.
With oral contraceptives and ‘morning after pills’ widely available, the number of “criminal” abortions still occur because of paucity of health education.
Americans are not “shocked” by these issues, hence the votes for Trump.
Religions are mere Codes of Behaviour.
Threats of hell/heaven/rebirth as lower beings etc. are no longer believed by rational people.
Don’t be a prude, man. Let people live as they want, as long as they do not commit crimes.
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Raj / November 10, 2016
Typical hypocrisy of a SL mind. Professor, are implying that SL is any better?
The leader of the most powerful nation has to conduct himself better in the eyes of the world. Trump’s conduct & views show his character which appeals to the majority white, poorly educated blue collar workers, just like MR’s appeal to people of that mentality in SL.
Wake up Professor, this is the 21st century. Look at the world in a broader perspective.
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Mallaiyuran / November 11, 2016
A Hypocritic loose cannon, A CT Phd, from a country which has earned the name of one of 22 countries who use rape against women as weapon, has outspoken his mind. He better should come to know in some American beach people walk with out cloth and if a congressman enter the House Chamber without coat and suit, the speaker may deny entry for that congressman. There is something called “law and order”. Many Sinhala Intellectual professors don’t know what that phrase means. While the American pledge of allegiance say under one god, they are having secular constitution. They balance and accommodate the extreme ends of the belief of ideas. Any man or woman can do anything he/she like in their private. But they don’t allow anyone to offend anyone else. Using profanity language is punishable where it is called for. Apparently Google like web site can not ban it. Using it on google does not mean it is the living standard. The CT PhD is not able to differentiate an actress and a average woman in the normal life. They both exist in the real world but the average woman is one meant by “Woman”. After abusing, Lankawe monks walk freely. But American Priest were caught and punished in all possible situation.
A man or Woman holding a public office is measured by tougher laws than average Business people. These are the systems of a civilised society. The common system has to give a fair chance for the weak one to live peacefully. This guy have to understand, White American did not ignore the Trump’s raunchy behaviours. They have evaluated him with many other attributes. They feel America has to dictate again the world. They think Hillary will not be doing it. They certainly did not vote against Hillary because Obama made same gender marriage legal. When Al Gore lost, it was blamed on Clinton’s Monica Lewinsky affair. Clinton denied having sex with Monica, but the law defines sex as beyond Clinton explanation so people did not accept his explanation. In this occasion American have excused Trump. But America is one of the developed country has strigent law on sextual abause and law to free concentual sex.
People opposed Trump because they do not wanted America to adopt Lankawe’s hypocritical rules, one for Royals one for common.
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jim softy / November 11, 2016
Mallaiyuran
for Tamils Rape is a tribal custom. christian Fathers bang Married women, whose husband is away in overseas, inside the church.
So, this article is joke to you.
You Tamils have got a stupid deal in Sri lanka. YOu don’t have that ddeal even in South India.
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jim softy / November 11, 2016
That society always talk with Fk, Sht and sex. Now other people have accepted it and they think that is cool.
I think in the capitalist society women tolerate anything if the man has money.
See how hugh hefner, even though he is an old rag, is enjoying young women.
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Sigmund F / November 11, 2016
Musings of an incorrigible ‘puritan’ that have no place in the world of today.
Live and let live, professor, and stop trying to impose your narrow-minded values on the rest of us.
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Tripti / November 12, 2016
Your narrow minded views sound like those of Evangelical Christians more than of a Buddhist intellectual.
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Serious Sira / November 12, 2016
Then why God did not pick up Hillary? Read the following from another Website:
“It was announced that 1008 coconuts were broken by a Sri Lankan-Tamil at the Nallur Kovil in Jaffna seeking the help of the Hindu Pantheon to get Hillary Clinton elected as the next President of the US. And that bit of hocus-pocus did not work as she was not elected as President of the USA last night. It seems that this coconut-breaking act has some rub-the-Aladdin’s-lamp-magic for the Tamils. I suppose sometimes it works, but some times it doesn’t, like after breaking millions of coconuts at Kovils around the Tamil Diaspora world for 30 years, and killing thousands of innocent Sinhalese, plucking infants off their mothers breasts and thrashing their heads on rocks like breaking coconuts and watching the blood ooze like warm-ketchup for the want for their mono-ethnic, racist, separatist Tamil state, Eelam. That mythical Eelam they still haven’t got and I wish that they damn well will never, ever, get..”
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Dunstan Jayasekera / November 12, 2016
Professor Ekanayake,
I noticed that the previous commentators have got side-tracked from the point you are making. The hypocrisy and double-standards promoted by powerful forces in American society. Thank you for your article. You are not alone. 60 million Americans agree with you. You only stated the facts. The moral decline of the U.S.A.
I just heard President Sirisena saying that moral discipline is needed to build a good society. I would be very happy if more Buddhist monks are sent to the U.S.A. to help in the building up of a moral society
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Eusense / November 16, 2016
dunstan
Are you serious??? Buddhist monks to build morality?
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jay gunasekara / November 12, 2016
Dear Asoka,I was surprised on the rank condemnation of American society at large and comparing it to the Italian debauchery of the Borgias.Having lived for 40 years in the most progressive state in the union and having 3 sons who were born and raised here I never observed or witnessed any of the mentioned activities which if true is a bad omen for the future.First I said let it go but what you wrote rankled that I had to pen some repudiation.This subject is something for a face to face discussion when we meet next.Homosexuality is not a learned activity but a brain anomaly and this has been shown scientifically and these people are not all that happy in their situation.The Roe vs Wade descision is one of the greatest where the woman has control of her body and has to live with her action for the rest of her life.America is one place where one could see progress in ones lifetime.I could go on giving examples and it will be a lenghty affair.
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justicia / November 12, 2016
What Soma says is absolutely right.
What Prof said was what Trump’s Trump’s ‘locker room talk’ is not that a big issue compared to the immoralities exists in the U.S. society.
Some do not understand that this has been said by Trump in 2005 (over 11 years back), not in public (not at an election rally). but among his colleagues in private. Don’t the others too make similar comments when among friends and colleagues. I know many people do even worse than that. Has anyone spoken the immorality of using something said in private, to be made public and brought it out to the entire world to know, to attack a person (Trump)? If what Trump said is immoral and wrong, what Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton (who allowed that to be used as election propaganda) is worse. Why should Hillary allow some comments made in private over a decade ago to be used to attack her opponent. I believe it is an infringement of Trump’s privacy and a violation of Privacy Act.
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jay gunasekara / November 12, 2016
[Edited out]
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