Sunday, July 28, 2013

RESOLUTION OF THE NATIONAL MEETING OF ALBANIAN ORPHANS


REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR THE INTEGRATION OF ALBANIAN ORPHANS
Address: Rruga “Dibrës”, nr. 312/1, Tiranë
email: nifao.orfan@gmail.com,      web: www.nifao.org


RESOLUTION

OF THE NATIONAL MEETING OF ALBANIAN ORPHANS

FOR THE INTEGRATION OF ALBANIA AND THE ORPHANS IN THE EUROPIAN UNION


APPROVED BY ALBANIAN ORPHANS ON THE OCCASION OF 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDANCE OF ALBANIA AND 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF FOUNDATION OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR THE INTEGRATION OF ALBANIAN ORPHAN CHILDREN, ON MAY 20TH   , NATIONAL DAY OF ALBANIAN ORPHANS, CONCEIVED AND FOUNDED AS A NATIONAL DAY FROM THIS INSTITUTE AND ANNOUNCED BY THE ALBANIAN PARLIAMENT     

On May 20th, the National Day of Albanian orphans, on the occasion of 100th anniversary of Albania Independence and 10th anniversary of National Institute for the integration of Albanian Orphans, was held the national meeting of orphans from all around the country  with the participation of all generations that belong to this community, in the presence of the most important representatives of international organizations, representatives of higher Albanian institutions, diplomatic body and outstanding personalities of culture, science and art. The meeting, besides the celebration of 100th anniversary of independence, promoted 10 years activity of the National Institute for the Integration of Albanian orphans. The meeting approved this resolution about the current difficult situation of Albanian orphans, to make it known to all international organizations, representatives of European Parliament, European Commission, the governments of Western countries and member countries of UN.  

The meeting CONSIDERED:  

 1- Achievements of the National Institute for the integration of Albanian orphans for the awareness of public and politic opinion of the country, to protect the orphan rights by making known the values, situation and the real concerns of this community as well as the direct contribution that this institute has given for the welfare and integration of a part of Albanian orphans.    

2- The contribution of Albanian personalities of culture, art and science which come from the community of orphans, for the cultivation and distribution of human values. 

3- The support of higher representatives of International Organizations to the activity and the mission of the National Institute for the integration of Albanian orphans.

4- The cooperation and the support that the President of Republic of Albania, Prof. Dr. Bamir Topi  has given to the orphans and the National Institute for the integration of Albanian orphans, these last 5 years. 

5- The contribution of the Western countries in support of Albanian orphans that have emigrated because of blood feud. 

6-The cooperation and support that the Committee of Nationwide Reconciliation has given to the National Institute for the integration of Albanian orphans, for the protection of orphan rights, in and out of Albania, especially for the protection of the rights of orphans that emigrate because of blood feud.

7- The support that Media and Non-public Universities have given to the Albanian orphans under awareness of the National Institute for the integration of Albanian orphans.

The meeting APPROVED:

tHE LETTER TO THE gENERAL SECRETARY OF uN AND MEMBERS OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, TO DECLARE MAY 20TH AS THE “WORLD DAY TO SUPPORT THE ORPHANS”

 The meeting CONSISTED:

The condition of orphans and Social Service network

This service reports that social assistance covers 65-67% of people in need, whose number amounts to 464800, or 14% of total population. Indeed, the number of those who need social assistance is over 700 000. This number has varied from time to time from 700 000 to 1000 000 individuals who actually remain in an extreme poverty due to unemployment crisis. From 700 000 Albanians in need of social assistance, 184 000 of them are children, 31 000 of whom are orphans. Over 2/3 of this age face the extreme effort for survival, but the orphans remain the most affected by this extreme poverty and struggle. Only a few of them receive social assistance. The social assistance guaranteed by state covers only 5 % of their minimum needs. From 31 000 orphans in all over the country, only 400 of them are treated in 9 government residential centers  and 360 others in non government centers (NGO). 100 000 persons with disabilities, among whom there is a large number of orphans, are in the same poverty situation and struggling for survival .      
Social centers for services to the groups in need are only a few compared to the needs and remain fragile in front of  local, center and state administration which change their destination because of “lack of funds” every time that private construction firms , related to the representatives of politics and government, buy them with a low and ridiculous price.  State Social Service Network operates with 12 regional offices in all country which have not functioned properly during the transition years. This happens because in most of the cases this service network has been corrupted and informal, bringing considerable damages to the state in achieving the standards. Rehabilitation Center for orphan children isolated from blood feud,  that was constructed in Poliçan by the decision of the government in 2008, failed because of the corruption and the lack of vision. Despite the warnings and the denunciation of the Committee of Nationwide Reconciliation, there were spent only 38.000 Euros from 5 million Euros that the government and the donators provided for the project. There have failed other projects such as the “Second Chance” of the Ministry of Education for the isolated children from blood feud, and the project of establishing a special structure of the police in Shkodra to stop the blood feud.  This has caused skepticism to a part of international partners, as the main donators in implementing of social programs in favor of groups in need, about these projects and institutions of private, state and social services. Unfortunately a part of these donators continue providing funds to the wrong direction and without the proper vigilance.

Non Governmental organizations and their relation to the orphans

In this sector, there are publicly stated 140 associations dealing with the treatment of poor layers and children in need, especially the orphan children and the ones isolated because of blood feud. This fact hasn’t only not relieved the phenomena that affect these layers, but has made their situation worse, since most of them are pseudo-associations. This happens because most of the individuals that create these fake NGO-s, are individuals without a background, the necessary stature and the moral integrity, and unfortunately have severely damaged the cause of civil society, movement for emancipation and social development. Most of them are non educated or with purchased diplomas, who obviously manifest low moral acts and behavior, plagued by permanent fraud and theft habits  on behalf of unprotected groups of society.   These individuals who are easily identified as social extortionists, are mainly traffickers and former bodyguards of casinos, that cheat the public opinion ,state institutions, private operators, business, foundations, embassies , showing in Albanian medias or internet as representatives of orphans of families in enmity. They have severely compromised the mission of the Civil Society creating occult relations and without any transparency with the foreign donators, mainly from Islamic countries for commercial and profit purposes. Further, these individuals have created relations to irresponsible and incriminated persons from western countries to trade “aids” from USA, Canada, Belgium, England etc.  Some representatives of Islamic societies operating for years in our country with suspicious activities guarantee financial support to these abusive individuals with mutual benefits. The law in Albania allows every individual to create formally a nongovernment organization and many traffickers, rogues and criminals have benefited from this. A part of them are related to the corrupted employees of public administration. Such individuals have absorbed, through the media and internet fraud, donations in considerable values on behalf of orphan and blood feud children. These founds were never available to the orphan or isolated children.  Unfortunately, in many cases, not only the citizens, but also the Western donators have fallen prey to these frauds. In addition, these speculators misuse the orphan children in electoral campaigns and in propaganda meetings in the interest of people with politic power that support them, for personal profits and to mask their abusive activities in a flagrant way and in contravention with the Convention of the Children Rights.  
Under the influence of these individuals, the government and the International Community have disconnected the relations with the serious operators of the Albanian Civil Society. The situation gets more serious when the government in an oppressive way goes against the serious operators of the civil society because of their constructive opposition, involving the structures of the state police. The police involvement to damage the image of the most devoted organizations of the Civil Society because of their opposition to the government is the worst strike to the democracy, the state of rule and law, Human Rights and citizen freedom.
This political criminal game has supported and encouraged the incriminated people and has hidden the other actors of the civil society, businesses and citizens to avoid their confrontation with the bad governance, government decisions and the laws approved in parliament which are the best indicator of the mafia and the organized crime relations to the structures of the state and government.

Boarding Schools in the service of the orphans

For 21 years there are hundreds of young orphans, unemployed persons in ghettos conditions, sheltered on the boarding schools in Tirana, Shkodra, Saranda, Durres, Berat Korce, Fier, Elbasan, Gjirokaster (whose intention is the accommodation of the boarding students from the districts). In this miserable situation, they are not provided with the minimum vital conditions and have no hope for the future. Remaining orphans doubled, in a miserable situation these young people are the most vulnerable and marginalized contingent of Albanian society. 

THE MAIN CAUSE OF THIS SITUATION IS:
 
The lack of national development planning and the consolidation of the state of rule and law:

By 4 million people of Albania, 1.5 million have emigrated through the hardest clandestine ways facing the killings in the border, deaths due to the bad weather and the drowning in the sea from criminal drivers or military ship attacks.  A considerable part of these victims have been orphans, 50% of this emigration are citizens forced to leave the country because  of the enmity conflicts created due to the absence of  effective law state. The lack of the  effective law state has brought into the scene the Kanun which is applied in a distorted way and with tragic consequences even to the women, children and orphans. By 10400 victims of the self-justice murdering, in and out of Albania, , 68% of them belong to the poor families and the same percentage results to the families which has caused these killings. These killings have brought 1400 orphans that do not only remain in poverty and misery but are imposed to find the justice of their lost parents. Actually there are 1500 isolated families with 900 children that do not attend school. Like the most of the orphans, the threatened families have not found the necessary protection or support, except that of the Institute for the Integration of Albanian Orphans and the Committee of the Nationwide Reconciliation. Many orphans and families in blood feud, when they do not find the reconciliation and the survival in the Albanian conditions, find that their only way is to leave the country. Unfortunately, also in this case, the engagements of the traffickers and extortionists who have created pseudo-associations have damaged the right of the families who are really in blood feud to get protection in western countries.    
Albanian orphans as most of the citizens, even though they belong to a young age population, do not have any business opportunities and have lost their hope for the future in their country . Often they have become a prey of these frauds of pseudo-associations and traffickers.  Local power (districts) do not have a plan for the social support of the orphans  they do not have a plan for the development of citizen economy and environment.  The relation to the parties interests has done the local administration incapable to take useful and stable decisions for community. According to the information provided by  organizations of human rights and those of environment , the geographical Mediterranean position of Albania and its nature, relieve, climate, vegetation, water and underground resources , satisfy the conditions for higher living standards and business , but the problem is that this property is forgone and not managed because there is not any national planning. The corruption as a distinctive feature of poor societies is becoming an ugly feature for Albanians who find it very difficult to be disconnected  since they have many vital needs. On the other side they see that the government people provide fabulous wealth being in power. The anti-corruption laws operate only to the poor citizens and low-ranking employees. Until now there is no minister convicted for corruption, his relation to mafia and  the sale of national property.      
The corruption has continuously undermined the administration which is created by militants and devoted people of the party in power. The weakness and the professional incapability of these people ascended in government directly from the auditors of politic parties, have influenced in all life areas, bringing poverty and devastation not only in the everyday life, but also in political, social, legal and judicial life. International organizations and diplomatic representatives have not been able to recognize the social and politic reality of the country and have not contributed adequately for the protection and consolidation of state of rule and law. Their annual reports that are published and read by government are superficial, with careful phrases not to anger any politic party. These reports are totally out of reality and often ridiculous. In none of their reports, in these 21 years of transition, is presented the real picture of orphan children, even though the situation is consisted easily.  This comes as a result of the absence of a real civil society and trade unions in Albania. Non-government organizations funded by internationals do not have volunteerism except the paid staff and the leader who gets the Lion’s part of the amount provided by the donator. Politic parties have been interested that the trade unions are run by their people. The projects of civil societies have never provided the groups in need. As far there are 83 projects for the orphans and 176 for blood feud supported by donators, but only a very litle number of the orphan children or families involved in blood feud have benefited from these projects.  In Albania, especially in cities, the culture of protest and gathering for human rights is absented. Albanian citizens, even though they suffer every day the stress to provide the minimal vital conditions cannot be gathered in protests because they have lost any hope for change and face every day the psychological and media oppression of policy. The citizens have neither trade unions nor civil society to lead or protect them. According to the recent data   the number of beggar children, thieves, prostitutions and children who work for their family is increased more than 30% in the last three years, even though the government says that the country has an economic growth. Orphans are the most unprotected layer of these contingents. 60% of these orphans remain very poor during all their life and their existence is in constant danger. The businesses in most of the cases provide donations for public celebrations of people in politic power and not for direct investments in education and well growth of this group in need. Donations provided in support of foundations leaded by people with politic power, have deprived group in needs for real support. The Albanian tradition of liability of relatives to take care of the orphan is disappeared. The situation remains hopeless when 40 000 young people who have finished their studies are unemployed, 30 000 persons of age 14-30 are drugged and 7000 of them turns out to be involved in criminal acts. The institutions, public and non-public programs are missed. There is only a rehabilitation center for 30 young drug users. Violation cases in family are increased in a tragic way, often ending with the killing of the wife or husband in front of children eyes. In poor families the violence is extended to the children forced to obey the parent orders, to leave school and go to work. In cities the families have degenerated into  divorces and conflicts because of the poverty, bringing many tragic cases for both parties. A considerable number of wives and daughters of poor families find the illegal prostituation as a solution to survive. Victims of this miserable situation are especially orphan daughters.

Concerns of the National Institution for the Integration of Albanian Orphans

The National Institution for the Integration of Albanian Orphans has continuously insisted that the government and the state should be more sensitive about this situation. The Institute has long insisted that the structures of the local power, in the process of decentralization and social services, should have all taxes and necessary legal instruments to act for the improvement of social conditions of the orphans. The Institute has raised its voice for the cooperation between the government and the operators of the society, for the prevention of crime against life since these 21 years the self-justice killings have left 1400 orphan children, but the government has ignored its voice. There are about 600 orphan children of the police officers fallen on duty, who have not really felt the warm hand of the state, as a moral obligation and a sign of respect for their 350 fathers, martyrs of the homeland which gave their life in this painful transition in defense of order ,peace, freedom and its values.  There are 1050 other children from Rom community that remain disdained in the eyes of all society, begging along the streets of the major cities of the country. All the problems arising from this resolution as well as the report of Amnesty International indicate the continuity and high preocuppation with which the National Institute for the Integration of Albanian Orphans have arised these problems, but there has not been shown the proper attention to this important institution of the civil society. Tha Albanian Parliament, international community, donators and the Albanian government are responsable for that. Members of Parliament have amended 40 times the law on “Status of Parliament Member”, which provides them support and welfare to their families, while the law on “Status of the Orphan” is never amended, leaving the quote for an orphan living only 28 USD per month, as in the beginning of transition, when the minimal cost of an individual in Albania was 400 USD per month.


The Amnesty International Report.

            In the last six years, the Amnesty International has ​​published its annual report on the deplorable situation of orphans in Albania. This report has been presented every year to the Albanian government, the international institutions and the European Parliament emphasizing that during the 21 years of transition in Albania the rights and the fundamental freedoms of orphans have been denied and flagrantly violated.

 The Amnesty International states that:

- The Albanians orphans were denied the right to housing, employment, medical assistance and many other rights, they are the most marginalized and hopeless part of the society. "
"Young people who leave social care need shelter and dignity”- appealed the Amnesty International in 2010 during Albanian Orphans’ National Day
The Amnesty International has called on authorities to ensure that orphans and other young people who grow up in social care structures not become homeless once they finish school. Social housing in Albania is very scarce and generally the poorest and the most vulnerable (orphans included) have no access to it. The majority of these youth cannot afford private housing without financial assistance. Amnesty International calls on the authorities to ensure them, without delay, access to adequate housing, either by providing them with support in the form of bonuses to housing, or other by means. The Amnesty International states: “poverty is one of the main reasons why children are placed under the care of social structures in Albania and the state does very little in helping them to come out of poverty.” As a result of non-sufficient protection of their rights by the state, when they reach adulthood, they often remain homeless and are threatened by extreme poverty and social exclusion. The right to adequate housing is guaranteed in the international law, which requires states to give priority to disadvantaged groups. The Albanian legislation guaranties orphans the right to priority treatment in regards to housing. According to official statistics, during 1996-2011, only 29 out of 1150 persons with orphan status have been provided with housing under the provisions of this law (none of them after the change of government and since 2005). The current government policy on housing has not given priority to housing people in need and the current social housing programs will only benefit a small minority of the homeless in Albania. The Amnesty International is of the opinion that the youth who leave social care do not receive the necessary support needed to complete their transition to independent life. Many of them graduate without obtaining the skills and the necessary qualifications that would enable them find a secure employment and sufficient income to live independently. Not having a family from which they can seek help and often in unsafe and poorly paid jobs, they may have little other option but to live in the harsh conditions of semi-abandoned school buildings - the only "solution "the state provides for their housing needs. Some of them have been living in these kinds of shared accommodations for approximately twenty years and now they are raising their children in these miserable conditions. Every year other youth are added to their ranks, the ones that become homeless as soon as they graduate. A young woman who was raised in the structures of the social care told the Amnesty International the following: “A human being needs more than a loaf of bread, needs to live life with dignity...An orphan is dignified only when he is able to live in a house”.
            Jezerca Tigani, the Amnesty International Coordinator states that the right of housing is a minimal right, but the Albanian Institutions play the finger pointing game. “This report highlights of how the Albanian governments have failed and continue to fail in protecting the human rights of orphans and how this failure has led to their marginalisation. The denial of their right to housing has taken this group into a deeper poverty and social exclusion and has limited their access in other rights”-miss. Tigani says.
            Melanie Anderson, representative of the Amnesty International and one of the main authors of the report on Albania states that the municipalities and the government should accommodate the orphans just like everyone else. “The Albanian law requires central and local authorities to take measures to accommodate orphans graduating from high school, but in practice, these legal requirements are ignored, creating harmful consequences for orphans and sometimes with tragic consequences" - says Mrs. Anderson. 
Amnesty International activists visited the dormitory of Tirana technological school, the "Arben Broci" boarding school in Shkodra and the trade school in Vlore; they called them uninhabitable, ghetto of orphans where they live in isolation and extreme poverty. Miss Anderson said: “There are not a large number of homeless orphans and this goal can be achieved if there is a political will”.
The Amnesty International urged the government and municipalities to implement international conventions that Albania has signed, especially the law on the "orphan status", to raise the amount of social housing and distribute them with full transparency, having orphans’ representatives participate in the housing commissions. Housing is only one of the problems faced by the 31 thousand Albanian orphans who deal with enormous difficulties such as education, employment, food, clothing and insufficient funds, only 50 USD a month. 

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF INTEGRATION OF ALBANIAN ORPHANS HAS PROPOSED TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE UN, NEW YORK.

To Declare May the 20th, “the World Day to Support Orphaned Children”

The official letter forwarded to the UN Secretary General states:
                           
The understanding of man, which supports the declaration of 1948, is not abstract or even surreal. Since it stems from an absolute and universal desire - the inalienable dignity of man - this international instrument takes into account the diversity of the entire political situation, economic and social, in which living people of flesh and blood whose rights can encounter real barriers that need to be defined and thus be overcome.
In our day and time, worldwide, regardless of the specifics of one's culture, the human rights belong to the common heritage of mankind and should continue to serve as the basis upon which to support solidarity - a necessary condition for the full realization of the future of any individual. For example solidarity with the ones who are of a greater need, and specifically, the orphans. Namely, to establish this spirit of solidarity and to give them a universal dimension to the global concern for this category of people the National Institute for the Integration of Orphan Children, addresses the General Assembly of the United Nations with this memorandum, proposing May the 20th as "World Day to Support Orphaned Children". The fate of the world’s orphans is and should be inseparable from it all. A day like that would remind people that the exclusion or the removal of this social group may have consequences on everyone’s progress. There is a threshold of poverty, and even of humiliation on these people of whom many democracies risk their universal values. Albania, our country of a thousand troubles, where orphans are lacking the basic reasons to be engaged as citizen in the daily practice of democracy, has made some impressive steps. Eight years ago, with the proposal of the National Institute for the Integration of Orphan Children and supported by the Academy of Science and a group of intellectuals (the best of our country), the Parliament declared May the 20th, “The National Day to Help Orphaned Children, a decision that was adopted by Kosova Parliament as well. The Albanian and the Kosovar orphans probably have the most tragic story in the world, because many of them were left alone as their parents were executed by the communist regime who eliminated intellectuals who had studied in the West, but also by the tragic events of ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia and the war caused by Miloshevic dictatorial killing machine upon Kosovo’s vulnerable population. The sufferings of the Albanian children who were orphaned during the 50 year dictatorship are of unprecedented proportions. 
Mr. Secretary General!
Of course, our cultures are different, just like our languages ​​are different, but orphaned children around the world have much in common, other than their common tragic fate. What will be able to unite and give them more hope for a better and secure future would be Your announcement of a World Day to Support Orphaned Children which though not, had originated from our poor country on the Adriatic coast. It would be no small thing nor a luxury for Albania, which in addition to drugs, illegal immigrants and organized crime that has accompanied this prolonged period of painful transition, with reoccurring crisis  from the lack of culture and basic notions of democracy, will turn to show the world an important part of our human aspect. I hope and believe that by remembering every year on May 20, a common day for orphans around the world, we would have shared the project for a better future and secure for all mankind.

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE ALBANIAN ORPHANS APPEALS THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO SUPPORT THE INTEGRATION PROCESS OF ALBANIA IN EUROPE ALONG WITH ORPHANS, AND ADDRESSES THE MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AS FOLLOWS:

Honorable Eurodeputies!

We Albanian parentless children, like many other children in the world, suffer from unfulfilled dreams. It is not our practice to talk to much or blow things out of proportions, but this is the truth. We have doubts about our rights. We are not being taught how to be better for ourselves and for our country. The politics in Albania are very tense, is causing us to lose faith and strength. We feel we are becoming foreigner to the present and distant to the future. Politicians of both sides attach great importance to their individual goals, their fight for power, but they forget that we, children, exist, they forget that there is a democratic nation that has suffered from a dictatorship, a nation with boundless love for freedom. Believe us, we have rights. We want dialogue, self-control, maturity. We want the politics to own the truth, to contemplate the fate of its citizens, to think of us. Why should our European country become a epicenter of conflicts, why should it blow the horns of social hatred and be wrapped in the dark clouds of doubt and corruption, our country, of an ancient civilisation and rich in every aspect? There are wars, tensions and hostility in the world of today. This is one more reason to apply self control and restrain. Therefore we must preserve the balance of the soul so that we would not feel ashamed.  Since we have chosen the alternative of change, we have planned the continuation of life. We should practice goodness everywhere because is the value of human life. Faith in such values is the belief that baptises the future. Civilisation is like a religious fanatic, demands great faith and spiritual devotion.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of European Parliament.

Help us to change our lives, and please strive to change the lives of children around the world, the lives of those in needs but who do not demand mercifulness. Above all, fight for the freedom and the rights of the orphaned children! We are looking for and will, definitely, find purpose in life.  There are values in this life worth living for and to love, to seek passionately, without even tiring, to find them and enjoy to the full. But we need moral strength; the physical strength is often not enough. Moral that is not prescribed like pharmaceutical prescription, but sincere moral that gives us wings to fly. Otherwise we risk being conditioned by hatred that can damage our spirit, our conscience; the world will be most likely filled with more selfishness, more violence and we, probably, will not be able to even adjust to ourselves. Certainly the consequences would then be catastrophic Education in this spirit of solidarity and understanding amongst us will increase the social sprit in general, it will increase the sense of pride. The world needs a reliability standard that lasts without end. The world needs a reference in the form of a special day, to remind everyone that it should never forget that caring for children without parents, abandoned children or the ones left adrift. The Albanian Parliament with the proposal of the National Institute for the Integration of Albanian Orphans has assigned May the 20th to be the National Day of Help for Orphans. Would have not been better if there was a global day for orphans? A day to remind us all, without exception, that we are this world’s citizens and it is not enough to be only citizens of our respective countries?
Our life should take a more global meaning, that the loneliness would not eat away the hope of the unfortunate marginalised children around the world, that they live alongside other people, enjoying all rights and freedoms of life so they can  take pleasure of it to the full and not vegetate in solitude, in the dark pockets of the consumer oriented society.
We need a day to unite us all, on the whole planet, a world day that is ours, where the desire to assist and human solidarity will appear, without barriers of prejudice; we need a day for human dignity.
            We, the orphans of Albania, the representatives of the National Institute for the Integration of the Albanian Orphans and the representatives of Kosovo Orphans, express our gratitude and make the request for the European Parliament becomes the promoter of this change in world politics for orphaned children by proposing to the UN to announce May the 20th as the “World Day to Support  Orphaned Children”


From The National Assembly of the Albanian Orphans.

Tiranë May 20th, 2012



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