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Creative Non-Fiction


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Creative Non-Fiction

IS A CRIME JUSTIFIED BY ANOTHER??

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IS A CRIME JUSTIFIED BY ANOTHER??

By: Lubnah Abdulhalim

Photo Courtesy: Salem_Beliegraphy

 

At one point of our lives we must go through pain, betrayal, heartbreaks, or any other kind of suffering. That is life and without all these problems that we go through, we could as well be in heaven straight away. These problems are what can change a personality forever. Could be for the better or for the worse. Most of the times though, people tend to get so bitter on what has befallen them and decide to follow the dark path of revenge which brings us to the question, is a crime justified by another??

Taking a scenario of a lady who was raped and contracted AIDS. The lady thereby decides to seduce all men coming to her way so that she can spread the disease to others with the lame and selfish thinking of ‘I shouldn’t die alone.’ No, it is never justified. No humanity law will ever justify your action. A crime remains a crime whatever the case and a sin remains to be a sin whatever the situation.

Human beings should stop making each other victims of their lust, greed and selfishness just because they have been in a hard situation. Who in this world has never been in a hard situation? Who in this universe has never tested pain? No one. Not even the queen of England or the Sultan of Oman. Not the pauper nor the begger. For sure when we were told ‘an eye for an eye’ it never meant you go poking everyone’s eye you meet on the way just because someone poked yours. It is not acceptable to be ruthless on others for something they have no connection to.

Many a times we have seen people who get horribly heart broken by their loved ones ache and mourn for so long about their pain to the extent of becoming so cold hearted and heartless. Their lives may never become the same and they tend to become so rough to the people who come into their lives afterwards.  But why should it be so? Why should it be that it is always the next person that has to pay the consequences done by someone else? Why are the undeserving ones that always fall to become the victims of someone’s anger and frustration?

We all feel pain and not just feeling it, we live with it. It sometimes becomes part of us. We understand you are hurt. We understand that your life may never be the same again. We understand your suffering and aching. We do. But no one will ever understand why you have to pay it forward to the next person in such a ruthless and heartless way. No one will justify your actions, because you are never justified. Because a crime remains a crime and one crime doesn’t make another be alright.

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THE CHANCES THAT NEVER RETURN

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Photo Courtesy: data:image/jpeg

One year ago, my aunt was critically ill with diabetics and her leg had been mutilated thrice.Every evening at the end of my classes I would go to the hospital to check on her condition. She was my mentor and the only other person who deserved the name ‘mum’ after my real mum. So on one particular evening, my mum called me to rush to the hospital and check on my aunt. I was so tired just from class and didn’t want to meet that familiar hospital smells and cries that would always depress me. I refused to go but mum insisted that I should go. Dragging my feet, I got there and saw the critical condition of my aunt that she wouldn’t answer back when we talked to her. She was writhing in deep pain and I watched her helplessly. All I could do was hold her hand and silently pray. That was the last night I ever saw her for early the next morning she passed on. To date, I say to myself, if I didn’t go to see her on that night, then I would have hated myself all my life. Not because I would have changed anything but because it is those last moments beside her that really ever mattered.

Many a times we take what comes on our way for granted and always think that there are yet otherr chances to come. Like how we get a job opportunity not paying much but worth the take but let our arrogance take control over us. We would rather sit lazily around than take the little that we get. The worst part of it all is when you come to realization that you made a mistake and regret but life never offers you such a chance ever again.

How many times do we annoy our parents and bring them nothing but sadness, how many times we break the only true people who ever loved us, how many times do we postpone meetings and appointments, how many of brilliant opportunities did we have and yet wasted them?

Life sometimes may offer you another chance if you are lucky enough. Maybe you wasted your teen life in drugs and illegalities but then your star starts shining on you and you get counselled and rehabilitated and you get a new start for your life and be happy again but not everything in life is the same. Some things are not meant to return or be re-lived. It could be that that particular day that you decide to stomp out of the house while yelling at your mum could be the last time you ever see her.

Beware of people’s anger on you, you may never have the chance to apologize. Beware of not caring on what you do, there will always be a time whereby your actions will backfire on you. Beware of not showing your loved ones how much they mean to you, you may never get the chance to ever do so again. Beware of ignoring meetings or appointments, that friend of yours who is about to travel may just die on his way back. Beware of postponing what you can do today to tomorrow. Beware of all the things you take for granted. Beware before you become regrettably aware.

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Creative Non-Fiction

THE TWO FACED BEING

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Photo Courtesy: http://www.youngisthan.in/

Have you ever met the two faced being? The one with such sweet words that can entice you so much, make you trust them completely and make you eventually fall into their traps? That person who is an angel to everyone’s eyes and is loved by all yet he is the devil himself??

In this world, human beings have proved to be the most sophisticated creatures; very difficult to comprehend. While the best of personalities and the worst have always been known, there are those who are the best and yet still, the worst at the same moment. Such a person may come to you like an angel in disguise. He/she might help you tirelessly, spend money on you, and give you a shoulder to cry on and much more. It is that person who may stand by your side when everyone else left, gives you words of encouragement and makes you to take decisions you never thought of.

This person would really play the ‘friend’ part so well and make you think that everyone else is a hypocrite behind your back. He/she can make a wife quarrel with her husband; he can make family get apart and make friends hate each other forever. He will tell you so many lies about different people in your life and maybe even approach the others and do the same about you. He/she is a slanderer.

The strange part about them is that there is nothing they really want from you. They don’t gain anything from destroying anyone’s lives apart from the pleasure they give their ego. They just find it fun to play around people’s life, make it when they can and destroy it when they can. It is even sad how you can find such a person seated amongst important people, all listening to his spiced words, praising him of his wisdom and big heart yet it is a heart only with a cover of golden linen while inside him, he is rotten.

For a moment when you warn others about that person, they wouldn’t believe you and claim that you are the bad one slandering him/her. They will not listen to you because they have also fallen into the enticing trap; because she has a miraculous charm on people. Not until they come into the same regrettable situation like yours or give it a whole lot of time to listen and think about your words is when they will believe that you are right.

Many have been victims of this two faced being whom we considered our best pals and our family more than our real blood. When we finally come to know them in their real colours, it is often too late; after we broke friendships and ties, after taking big regrettable decisions, after hurting our loved ones, after our lives have totally collapsed to nothing. Their pleasure is to see you helpless, crying alone, with no one beside you, bankrupt, with an ill opinion by other people and with a lot of pain and unhappiness.

It is for this reason we are supposed to be smart when dealing with people. We are to understand a person and try to know their deeper intentions before really trusting or giving any person an upper hand than others. So beware of the two being faced who hovers around your life.

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THE VIEW FROM THE FRONT DESK

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Every beginning of a day means new drama for the people dealing with customer care. As much as we all complain how awful customer care is in most offices in Kenya, there is always the other side of the story.

Talking of how miserable Kenyan customer care is, there are times you go to the same office often and you always find the one at the front desk grumpy and snapping at you whenever you ask a question especially at the airport and immigration offices. After you’ve had to stand for a long time in a long queue, the last thing one would want is to have an encounter with a too serious, frowning face that can’t even force a fake smile for you. Some purposely make you wait and wait and wait for hours as they take their sweet time doing the services for you. It can actually ruin your entire day’s mood by how they talk to you and even when you try to be friendly, all you will get is an ungrateful glare. All this, chances are, maybe they just didn’t have a good start or they missed breakfast or rather, the boss had the wrong start with them but then, in the end of the day, as a front desk clerk, your sole aim is to attract customers to make them come again tomorrow not to chase them away.

When you work as a customer attendant in an office where you have to deal with different people everyday, you might as well end up having tough headaches, migraines or even depression. Every person has a different character and ironically speaking, the person would expect the one behind the desk to talk in the same way as they do. One needs to be very patient especially when arguments get to the boiling points and you can’t take it anymore.

Out of the curiosity of capturing the other side of the story, my friend who works in one of the Samsung offices at the front desk made me stay around for almost one and half an hour just to see how the conversations go like in their office. Every person who came by came with a different tone; the friendly ones, the very impatient ones, the ones who must create a scene, the ones who would ask gently, the ones who would create so much tension even to the boss himself, the ones who always had something to whine about repeating the same things again and again, the ones who would loudly insult your products and services and how bogus you all are, and by the time I was leaving the office I just had to ask my friend ‘and how do you survive this everyday?!’ I bet they carry paracetamols and hedexs in their wallets and eat them like sweets daily.

I’ve ever seen groups of ladies go to boutiques or stalls selling jewellery or watches and they would keenly ask the seller to remove the stuff so that they may see them clearly. They would wear them and each would ensure they have a taste of the bracelet or watch on their hands. At this you can imagine maybe it is a group of five to six young girls, clearly coming to just have fun. They would make the seller remove almost all what is on the shelves and by the end of it all, they would not buy one single thing. Obviously, anyone would be pissed by such tendencies and it is always the next customer who walks in that pays the price of the attendants being angry and grumpy.

Customers are mostly drawn to the offices that have a lounge room, where one will be offered tea or coffee and sometimes even biscuits to go along with the drink but then, this can only happens in well established companies which apparently, know very well how to win their customers.

As much as you, as the attendant, may be having a bad day, your emotions shouldn’t be reflected in how you treat your customers. Many people end up not buying things or even buying unnecessary things just due to how friendly, gently they are handled or the vice versa. Patience should be a main characteristic amongst the attendants at the front desks but still, even we as customers need to be considerate on how we make our demands. Just as we are in a hurry to get proper quality attention, they also need a peace of mind from all the tension we create for them!

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THE EXTREMES IN WEIGHT

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Photo Courtesy: http://www.alivehealthblog.com/

Have you ever been called fat? Obese? Fatso? Or maybe stick, 1gb or any other kind of name related to your body size? Have you ever had people rubbing it on your face on how ugly you look because you just gained some weight or is too skinny? Well, you are not the only one.

It is always hurting and rather irritative when someone starts discriminating you by your weight or height. Many people end up having stress and being depressed for the comments they get from friends and relatives or colleagues. We tend to forget that we are all creations of people and each individual are beautiful just as they are. Sometimes the woman you laugh at for being obese could be suffering from hypertension or that very skinny boy could be suffering from diabetes. Yet still it isn’t a must that there should necessary be a reason for someone being fat or too skinny.

We can all remember as children at school, there would never miss that one boy or girl who was called fatso and everyone including the teachers would mock at their eating behaviours and body weight. The poor children always had a low esteem and are mostly exposed to bullying. Some end up hating themselves and their lives which makes them lock themselves up at home, with very few friends while others start extreme diets that rather becomes unhealthy at some points.

It has been noted though that it is mostly women who are hurt on how they are perceived in terms of body weight and height. Many take up strict diets to ensure that they lose much and never gain. The irony though is that some women, though very skinny, still deny themselves food for the fear of gaining weight. It is hereby that some become anorexic which is characterized by a phoebia of gaining weight.

For one to know whether they are underweight, normal, fat, overweight or obese you should calculate your BMI, body mass index, which is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to adult men and women. The weight of each person depends on their height too and that is why for example people who are both tall and fat, have big bones and thus the weight of the bones goes both to the height and weight. So this tests clearly shows in which category one is.

Gaining weight isn’t an awful thing as most people make it seem though it is important that one takes control of their eating habits such that they grow healthily.

For those who are overweight or obese, don’t be too sad on your situation. There are ways of keeping fit and dieting such that you may be in your right weight category. As for those who are underweight, start eating well and not just well, but healthily too. Keeping fit is better than dieting that could make you fall down due to extreme food reduction. Accept yourself as you are, which is most important.

What some people forget is that one mans poison is another persons meat. The person you may consider to be fat and ugly may still seem pretty to another person. The rest of the world should show appreciation to every fat person we know instead of being insensitive by mocking them. So today, we will make it special to celebrate all the fat, overweight, obese as well as the skinny underweight all over the world cheers to you! You are beautiful as you are!

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THE PLIGHT OF GAZA

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Photo Courtesy: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/

Can you feel what am feeling?

Like insects on my skin are walking

i can feel in me the chill

of the cold blood being spilt

This is for the small kid in Gaza wondering,

what’s happening? They must be figuring…
All they see are the lifeless bodies
and all they see is that death is calling..
Then who are the real terrorists??
The instigators,the war catalysts?
Its those tears that break my heart
their small smiles that pain hides
When will freedom come??
When can they finally call home-sweet home? </3
#FreePalestine #FreeGaza

#Whoever you are,Wherever you please pray for these innocent souls all over the world! Allahuma nsurhum ya Rab!

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THE CHAINS OF LOVE

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Photo Courtesy: http://orig07.deviantart.net/

Someone once said, ‘True love is like ghosts which everyone talks about but few have seen.” Many people have gone up and down in search of their ‘Romeo’ or ‘Juliet’.  Many people became victims of ‘lust’ in the name of ‘love’ with the imagination of the fairy tales we read about. The youth have been so much held up in this dark cave to the extent that they can no longer stay without being in a relationship.  If I am going to trace back to our grandparents and ancestor’s time, I don’t see them having the kind of stress and depressions the youth of today have. And this is because, they very well realized that love is not everything in the world and yet still, not nothing. Many girls are weeping right now, so heart broken, so sad that the guy they trusted turned their back on them. Still, some boys somewhere have given up on life and completely lost their trust on ladies cause of a certain cheap girl who decided to play on him.

Love is that overrated feeling that can barely be described in words. For decades, people have tried to give it a definition but alas, it could never happen, because this special feeling varies from each and every person and is special in its own way.

What I could feel for my family could be pure love, for someone else; love is when he brings a present to his baby sister. Another person would describe love as when he massages her mother’s feet while for another, it is that burning feeling one feels for the opposite sex. The list could go on and on without an end. As the French proverb would explain it, ‘There is only one kind of love, but there are thousands of different copies.”

Filial love is always the purest of them all. That feeling you get when your mother wakes you up with a beautiful smile and a plate on her hand for you to eat, or when you wake up and find your son washed your car for you. There’s that joy that always keeps you alive in making your family members; parents and siblings happy. After all as we all know, ‘blood is thicker than water.’ We may be married or engaged in relationships but in the end, nothing can be compared to what you feel towards your mother, father and each special individual that falls in your family tree.

The difference between prior marriage love and post marriage love may be described as a garden of flowers. Young people in search of lovers to share with a relationship, can be compared to when a young boy or girl is taken to the large garden of flowers and asked to pick the most beautiful flower in the field, he/she would rush to the first and would think ‘this is it!’ but then his eyes stray a little bit further and notices another pretty one and decides to go for the other. He will go on and on, from one flower to the next further in the field thinking, ‘I have finally found it’ and in the end, he ends up with a rotten wilted flower. While in the case of a man or woman who is genuinely looking for a life partner in matrimony when taken to the same garden of flowers, the first beautiful flower in the garden that he comes across will be sufficient for him. Thus, the love in relationships is just like taking salty water, the more you drink, the more you get thirstier.

Many have committed suicide, many have wounds that may never heal, and some remain heartbroken forever while some will never forget the deep pain of betrayal in love. Stories on love have been narrated for decades but it is important that we note that the Romeos and Juliets we read about are but an illusion that can never become a reality.

 In the bible (Corinthians 13:4-7), describes : Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.’ Just in the qur’an where love is mentioned many a times and this kind of love is always linked to the kind and generous good actions and words we say to one another.

If I were to describe love then it would be that beautiful smile you give to the orphan, the helping hand you give to your neighbour, the respect you give to your parents, the joy you create in your family, the hugs you give your friends, the charity you do to the poor, the prayers you make for the oppressed without expecting anything in return. Most importantly though is the inner love you have for yourself, for there is no day your heart will wake up and tell your soul, ‘I don’t love you anymore!’ Food for thought.

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IS THE GLASS HALF-EMPTY OR HALF FULL?

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Photo Courtesy: http://spacecoastdaily.com/

“A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life,” the words of the great boxer Mohammed Ali, the champion that lived. A person’s thinking is what defines them. Is the glass half full or half empty? It’s all upon you to decide. Life has never been easy on anyone and a problem is always what you make out of it. A problem is never a problem until you decide to make it one. Many lack the positivity in life and quit at the smallest test.

Mohammed Ali once more said, “I never ask ‘why me?’ for no condition. There’s so much good, I’ve been so blessed. God tries you. Some things are good. Some are bad. All of them are trials.”

Two people may be faced with the same challenge but one will take that to be a mere challenge for them and work it out as they can while the other will grow depressed over the ‘problem’ in hand, complaining gloomily and hoping that the problem will take a different turn itself. All champions started somewhere but definitely not in the spot light. Some of the greatest scientists and personalities were dyslexic, with very poor ability to read or write but they turned out smarter than those who were the ‘geniuses’ of the society.

Albert Einstein said, “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” You have to be smart and if you can’t be then act like one. Be optimistic and you’ll conquer the unconquered.

Albert once more said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it” and “a person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

Whatever could be bothering you now, whether it’s the failure in school work or the incapability to cope with the job work or the money that you so direly need or the big blunder you made, don’t give up now. Have faith in God and in yourself; trust that you have all the strength in the world to overcome what seems to be a problem to you.

The late Malcolm X said, “Anytime you see someone more successful than you are, then they are doing something you aren’t!” so have time with yourself and think. Take a look at your glass of life. Look at the half filled water in it. Is the glass half full or half empty??  If you still call it ‘the half-empty’ glass then you are still living in your old pessimism but if you can now call it ‘the half full glass’ then, hurray! Way to go pal!

SO, IS THE GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY??

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HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR CAREER COURSE

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Photo Courtesy: http://heythrop.su/

 

  • Have a goal

It is important that before one chooses the career to do, he/she should think well and consider the following things. Do have a goal on what you want to achieve in your life. Having set your goals is like a step stone to getting to your final destination.

  • Focus on your strengths

It is always better to focus on your strengths when choosing a career course. Do what you are good in and which stands to be the better option for you.

  • Be realistic

Don’t go for the almost impossible choices. Go for what you know you can handle. Don’t just assume you can do it while you can’t. For example is a person seeking a career that needs public speaking while he/she can barely speak out in a group of three. It becomes hectic for the person trying to fit into a course that doesn’t even suit them.

  • Don’t take up anything to please anyone

It is always important one does what he/she is comfortable and enjoys doing. Don’t do a career course because all your friends are doing it or because you heard that it pays well. Do what you think is right for you and not for others. Parents should not persuade their children into doing a course just because they succeeded in it or it is a course that shows your status. They should advise them instead and let them think for themselves what they can do.

  • Money isn’t everything

If your aim is to take up a career choice that pays you a hundred thousand in the first month then it is important you know that money isn’t everything. It isn’t wise enough to take up a career course that will stress you up and which doesn’t suit your personality just because you’re eyeing the big money at the end of the month. This will lead you into getting tired and exhausted of the job at a very early stage. You may consider the money you’ll earn but you must also think of yourself first.

  • Be focused

Be sure of what you want. Don’t be changing your goals each and every day; jumping from one course into another randomly. Decide to settle down into doing the one right thing.

  • Don’t get cheated

No one should lie to you that such and such a course is very tough to do and the other is the easiest thing to do. Every course has its difficulty however easy it may seem. Even the artist who just draws out of his own creativity and talent, there comes times he faces challenges. The challenges aren’t meant to make us fear doing the career but instead they make us stronger to get to our goals.

The most important thing is that you do what you enjoy. Even if it may be difficult or tiresome or monotonous but so long as you are comfortable with it, the rest of the things shouldn’t bother you. Have faith in yourself and go achieve your goals.

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THE REAL HUSTLERS

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THE REAL HUSTLERS

By: Lubnah Abdulhalim

A fresh morning, a beautiful morning, a wonderful morning, it doesn’t really matter to the citizens coming from Mtwapa and beyond. The moment that you arrive at the busy and crowded road on a Monday morning, your mood already turns off and Monday blues just begin. From the first stage to the last point where your eyes can reach, are people of all kinds. Then, you know, it’s time to hustle.

You can walk from the first stage then to the next and the next and you still don’t get a Matatu to get you to school or work. Apart from the dusty and muddy pathways especially during rainy days, sometimes I must say, the walk can be interesting. You meet old friends, teachers, classmates and relatives on such occasions. Each one of them is waiting for the same thing as you are; matatus.

The wait could take as long as quarter to half an hour and if on a very bad day, an hour. The irony of it all is that, you who comes from home as early as 6.30 a.m could eventually meet your friend at the stage coming from home at 7.00 a.m, meaning, for us, no early bird really catches the worm. With each Matatu that stands in front of you, before you even think to blink, the entire crowd is scrambling into it. For others, without hesitating, prefer to imitate our long cousins the monkeys and climb into the Matatu through the windows. At this point, you remember Darwin’s theory of survival for the fittest and just sigh in confusion. If you pretend to be an honourable one who can’t take the effort of participating in the scrambling, then you could stand to 7.30 a.m or even longer. Without mentioning the fare prices which could go as high as double price especially during rush hours like on Mondays. While on a Saturday, you may get to the stage and find a whole stream of Matatus like on display. The conductors come from all corners and rush to you. The irony now is that they are the ones who are scrambling for you today. They all beg at the same time, each persuading you to get into their Matatu. And even if you insist on getting a certain specific seat they may go to the extent of requesting to the other person seated there before you to exchange it to you for another seat. It is at this moment that you willingly enter any Matatu you want and just at fifty shillings only to get you to town.

During that waiting, for a moment, you actually wish that you could just turn back, go home and continue with a good sleep and taking an off from school or job, but you still have to go. But yet still, before you finally reach your destination, there is that annoying traffic jam that never ends. It really makes one restless and wishing to fly over to the destination. It’s all sweaty and the heat adds more irritation to oneself. And with the endless reconstruction of the Bamburi road, the jam has become more intensified, so instead of the normal half an hour wasted in the traffic jam, it’s now more than an hour.
When you finally arrive at school, you see the teacher on duty glaring at you, not ready for any explanation. Then you know it’s time for punishment. As for those rushing to job, well, the boss is always ready with an entire questionnaire on how and why you got late for work.

With all that struggling, Mtwapa remains to be a harmonious place, a place you could call home…it seems like a small world of its own where everyone knows the other as family.

Without concentrating on the bad picture that people have about Mtwapa, maybe this is why they have had good personalities and achievers from the area. Well, they learn it the hard way. It’s not a matter of pride or loyalty but a matter of plain truth.  Ask for yourself and see.

TO ALL THE MTWAPIANS,

I SALUTE YOU ALL!

 

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