Saudi Red Crescent Authority

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Safety

I have been flying a long time. A safe program will have the same safety record as the rest of the industry,and that covers the whole planet. I think the ratio is about 5 or 6 % of flights have an incident of some kind. I am not certain on the number as I have not reviewed the data in several months. There are a lot of things that influence flight opps other than the actual mission. Appropriate qualified maintenance, management pressure to fly especially from a management that has no concept of HEMS. You can do everything else and let just one thing have the wrong influence and the crew pays the ultimate price. At the end of the day a person can have all of the letters of the alphabet and all the numbers after their name and still succumb to non compliance and complacency if management politicizes the program. Good luck with everything,just get paid well in advance and when the advance comes due again require payment or shut down opps immediately.
 
I have been flying a long time. A safe program will have the same safety record as the rest of the industry,and that covers the whole planet. I think the ratio is about 5 or 6 % of flights have an incident of some kind. I am not certain on the number as I have not reviewed the data in several months. There are a lot of things that influence flight opps other than the actual mission. Appropriate qualified maintenance, management pressure to fly especially from a management that has no concept of HEMS. You can do everything else and let just one thing have the wrong influence and the crew pays the ultimate price. At the end of the day a person can have all of the letters of the alphabet and all the numbers after their name and still succumb to non compliance and complacency if management politicizes the program. Good luck with everything,just get paid well in advance and when the advance comes due again require payment or shut down opps immediately.

You are absolutly right (sorry for my english). You can do all you want for the best safe service, but at the end there are these small problems, nobody have seen, which comes together and at the end, you will have the big problem causing in a crash. So mostly the crashes have been influenced by human factors..
 
Ooofah....
 
Yippeee!

Gotcha.
Sounds like a bad day for you. I can get over it as fast as you can pay us all for our work! Until then it will only get worse. From this point on no response will be necessary from you unless you want to talk about paying what you owe to all. Unless you just need to vent.
 
And the SRCA Mr Ahmed Almaziad does act in a professional manner???

How many Sth African employees had passports confiscated and no exit visas including emergency exit visas issued let alone denied vacations etc since Oct 2007? (Sth African Embassy/Ambassador can confirm this)

How many years has it taken the Paramedic project to get the much needed life saving equipment requested instead of cheaper inferior equipment we didnt want but purchased anyway from Uncle Alis' emporium because maybe 20% commissions were paid to people?

How many employees (expat) have had salaries deducted/reduced for no valid reason?

How many employees have left since Oct 2007 when the first expats arrived because of the poor standards the SRCA shows employees? Come on, what is the total number hired? I knew everyone of them and they would have stayed if they were treated better by the Saudis in the SRCA.

What is the real reason Dr Mowaffag Albayouk and anyone associated with him removed ? Is it true after Dr Albayouk was removed the new CEO walked into the SOP and ordered the Aviation team to vacate their office space on level 3?

Talking of morality the SRCA is using students, no qualifications, no experience to drive emergency vehicles in the ALST. Would you do the same in a HEMS operation and risk lives?

And the way you are speaking it sounds like you are on the 8th floor at Sahafa? You keep referring to everything as yours and were there before the management changed. You also write very well for a Saudi so must be educated outside Saudi.

If I am correct the professionalism of your staff is to be looked seriously. After 2.5 years there I know when I am being called an infedel in Arabic and can understand enough of the language to know when the Arabs were talking about the expats.

You all preach the love and harmony of the Islam you "practice" but Allah knows the water in all of the world oceans could not wash you all of your sins.
 
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Well Well Mr Ahmed. Did Dr R pay you overtime for this message. Ohhh I forgot. SRCA does not pay its staff nor its contractors regular wages let alone overtime. I am sure the Faisal and other more reputable health care organizations in the Kingdom pay correct salaries.

Anyways what you say is kind of correct and incorrect at the same time. Lets make some corrections.


Yady yady yada,

Let me add something to your story to make it more interesting.

Mac Daddy was in Qatar when he heard about my project and breached his contract there in order to contract with me. As he informed me that he had an experience with my proposed project, I selected him over 80 tenders thinking that he is the one. I didn't knew that Mac Daddy had a history of breaching contracts until 2 weeks back when I contacted the company in Qatar and they told me that Mac Daddy even made some crew member quit there jobs over there to come to my project. :mellow: How moral is that?
Did Mac Daddy put a gun to their head and force them to come to KSA for this doomed Air Ambulance Project? We all make our own choices!!!

Anyway, Mac Daddy started the project of 6 machines in 2 diffirent cities (3 in central region and 3 in western region) with minimum equipment. He brought in only four machines. One was broken the whole time.
Thought it was only 4 Airframes and only in Riyadh. Never saw any airframes make it to Jeddah.

He asked for storage for his machines. so I made some contacts to get this storge, but his idiot "Project Director" refused the storage and claimed he wants to refuel his machines only. So I lost the storage because of his mismanagement. Hmm maybe your are right on this one

Later on, Mac Daddy said; we need ladders. so I sent some guys to help out and buy ladders. His engineers say; no we need special stages that are only sold on line in Grainer.com. so I asked him to buy what he needed and I'll pay him in cash. What do I get? normal 8 Ft. + 10 Ft. + 12 Ft. ladders that could have been bought locally to fix his broken machines.

Next, He asked for the salery for his crew. I pay him SAR 24,407,000 to cover all saleries and other expenses. Two months later, when I changed my management, he became anxious and do not know what to say or what to do...Why did SRCA change its management so abruptly and so quickly? The new management was and is ruthless and uncaring. Its doing its best to shaft its own employees let alone Mac Daddy

He started to fire people (Chris, Richard, Len) because they have some safety concerns that he didn't like. :angry: You only have one of the names correct here. Actually the correct one you mention was quite a competent. One of the others spent his time in Jeddah playing golf all day and the other was a young loud mouthed idiot from West Texas who spent his days insulting Saudis and sorting out his Facebook profile. We never heard anything from these guys about "safety concerns" They were more concerned with there own wallets!!! This is a JOKE

Then, he asked for more money to pay saleries. I didn't like what's going on, so I stopped paying him and asked for a breakdown for the 24,407,000 that I paid him earlier. Of course, him and his idiots refused to provide me with any information at the time, but later on, he finally gave me the breakdown after my lawyer called him and was for twelve millions and said that he owes me 12 mills. :angry:
Could this be true??? Only SRCA and Mac Daddy knows

Your Mac Daddy claims he wants to restart the project, but he must be paid first in order to cover the "restart expenses"

I do not deny that Mac Daddy brought some good people that wanted to help, but he also brought some idiots like (Steve, Will, Bill, Ken, Pablo ... etc) I remeber Steve didn't believe he was the Project Director and Will "Mac Daddy's Private Pilot" was Deputy Project Director. Bill was ??? I don't know what. Ken was the paramedic at end stage. Pablo, a car sales man who worked previously in General Motors and then became a Dispatcher and when everyone left became the new "Project Director"
Who the hell is Ken???. Anyhow Ahmad you are 90% correct on this one. Actually the only one who had any promise on this team was old Bill. Dont throw the baby out with the bathwater here.

What can I say about this company??? :unsure:

and now 2easy4u comes here and starts talking about the project like he knows everything. Maybe he does???

My question is: Did you have a contract with me or with Mac Daddy?
I don't know why you have this much hate for me and you accuse me for not paying you. Well this is a bit like BP blaming its contractor for ruining a large part of the Gulf of Mexico. Its contractor was only there at the request of BP. BP is supervising this whole project the same as SRCA for its Air Ambulance operations. Mac Daddy would not have turned up if SRCA had not accepted it as a vendor/contractor. SRCA cannot wash its hands of this mess. Because at the end of the day this is your project!!! Right now there are all these guys that have not been paid and this steaming pile of crap will continue to haunt both Mac Daddy and the SRCA until its finally sorted out. I asked for your CV to correct your status, but your management refused! What else do you want me to do? :o You can do plenty...you are supervising this project and it belongs to you. You can either pay all of us who are out of pocket and re-hire all these guys to continue this important service. Many of us had no idea that you were asking for CVs. Maybe you could have communicated this better???

You know, if you can't get over this after 2 months I suggest you see a shrink to help you.
Well this situation will continue to haunt both Mac Daddy and the SRCA for a lot longer than 2 months so you better get used to it. The sooner SRCA mans up and sorts this out the better. A lot of people have been screwed up the arse by SRCA also. This includes Westerners, Saudis and other Arabs. At least SRCA does not discriminate about who it screws!!! I am not sure any shrink is going to help.

Ohhh and your friends from Abu Dhabi have been reading this and if they had any brains would be wondering what the hell!!! As I said SRCA does not care who it screws.
 
Gotcha.
Sounds like a bad day for you. I can get over it as fast as you can pay us all for our work! Until then it will only get worse. From this point on no response will be necessary from you unless you want to talk about paying what you owe to all. Unless you just need to vent.

We have a saying here:

Whatever you cannot reach with your hand, reach it with your leg. That means (keep barking at the wrong tree) and we will move on.

The truth of the matter is that you were contracted with AA and you didn't get paid by them.
 
And the SRCA Mr Ahmed Almaziad does act in a professional manner???

How many Sth African employees had passports confiscated and no exit visas including emergency exit visas issued let alone denied vacations etc since Oct 2007? (Sth African Embassy/Ambassador can confirm this)

How many years has it taken the Paramedic project to get the much needed life saving equipment requested instead of cheaper inferior equipment we didnt want but purchased anyway from Uncle Alis' emporium because maybe 20% commissions were paid to people?

How many employees (expat) have had salaries deducted/reduced for no valid reason?

How many employees have left since Oct 2007 when the first expats arrived because of the poor standards the SRCA shows employees? Come on, what is the total number hired? I knew everyone of them and they would have stayed if they were treated better by the Saudis in the SRCA.

What is the real reason Dr Mowaffag Albayouk and anyone associated with him removed ? Is it true after Dr Albayouk was removed the new CEO walked into the SOP and ordered the Aviation team to vacate their office space on level 3?

Talking of morality the SRCA is using students, no qualifications, no experience to drive emergency vehicles in the ALST. Would you do the same in a HEMS operation and risk lives?

And the way you are speaking it sounds like you are on the 8th floor at Sahafa? You keep referring to everything as yours and were there before the management changed. You also write very well for a Saudi so must be educated outside Saudi.

If I am correct the professionalism of your staff is to be looked seriously. After 2.5 years there I know when I am being called an infedel in Arabic and can understand enough of the language to know when the Arabs were talking about the expats.

You all preach the love and harmony of the Islam you "practice" but Allah knows the water in all of the world oceans could not wash you all of your sins.

Hubbly Bubbly or should I say (removed) ;)

I've heard about your sneaky ways trying to get every body in trouble. Let me ask you this: Why didn't the SRCA recontract with you? was it because of your behaviour?
 
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Did Mac Daddy put a gun to their head and force them to come to KSA for this doomed Air Ambulance Project? We all make our own choices!!!
(no but he offered something that SRCA and AA didn't agree on like private made, driver, western compound, prepaid cell. phones ... etc plus at least 30% over current salery)

Thought it was only 4 Airframes and only in Riyadh. Never saw any airframes make it to Jeddah.
(See! just like you thought that SRCA is responsible for not paying the crew. There are 2 contracts for 3 aircraft for Riyadh and 3 for Jeddah)

Hmm maybe your are right on this one
(Tell me this, How did you feel bing managed by Steve and Will? How do you think we feel about them managing our project?)

Why did SRCA change its management so abruptly and so quickly? The new management was and is ruthless and uncaring. Its doing its best to shaft its own employees let alone Mac Daddy
(From what I know is that Dr. M is the one who asked to be relieved from his job, and besides at least SRCA changed the management from a doctor to another doctor unlike AA from Beavis to Butt-head; Steve then Pablo. :unsure:)

You only have one of the names correct here. Actually the correct one you mention was quite a competent. One of the others spent his time in Jeddah playing golf all day and the other was a young loud mouthed idiot from West Texas who spent his days insulting Saudis and sorting out his Facebook profile. We never heard anything from these guys about "safety concerns" They were more concerned with there own wallets!!! This is a JOKE
(that's what we hear from some AA employees, rumors and gossip about others. Thank you for making this clear.)

Could this be true??? Only SRCA and Mac Daddy knows
(if you want send me your email and I'll send you the document to prove that just like the document I sent to prove Steve was lying about not receiving the requests for your certificates and licenses.)

Who the hell is Ken???. Anyhow Ahmad you are 90% correct on this one. Actually the only one who had any promise on this team was old Bill. Dont throw the baby out with the bathwater here.
(that is another problem, some AA staff don't know who they work with!)

Maybe he does???
(ya, just like you know about the contracts for 6 aircraft for Riyadh and Jeddah)

Well this is a bit like BP blaming its contractor for ruining a large part of the Gulf of Mexico. Its contractor was only there at the request of BP. BP is supervising this whole project the same as SRCA for its Air Ambulance operations. Mac Daddy would not have turned up if SRCA had not accepted it as a vendor/contractor. SRCA cannot wash its hands of this mess. Because at the end of the day this is your project!!! Right now there are all these guys that have not been paid and this steaming pile of crap will continue to haunt both Mac Daddy and the SRCA until its finally sorted out.
(Man, you have a problem understanding contracts. We are not happy you didn't get paid, this caused you to leave our project. I don't have a problem with you. My problem is with Mac Daddy or Hamish who was the cause of this situation.)

You can do plenty...you are supervising this project and it belongs to you. You can either pay all of us who are out of pocket and re-hire all these guys to continue this important service. Many of us had no idea that you were asking for CVs. Maybe you could have communicated this better???
(as an administrator, I follow the chain of command. Meaning that I communicate with your management and if they did pass the information to you don't shoot me. Speaking of communication, since this is our project like you said then why did AA make their meeting at the intercon by the pool? why not in the building with SRCA staff to share every detail and obsticles to work together to make this better.)

Well this situation will continue to haunt both Mac Daddy and the SRCA for a lot longer than 2 months so you better get used to it. The sooner SRCA mans up and sorts this out the better. A lot of people have been screwed up the arse by SRCA also. This includes Westerners, Saudis and other Arabs. At least SRCA does not discriminate about who it screws!!! I am not sure any shrink is going to help.
(I suggest you either file a legal complaint using the contract between you and AA or you won't get any where because we met all our contractual obligations, but Action Aviation didn't.)

Ohhh and your friends from Abu Dhabi have been reading this and if they had any brains would be wondering what the hell!!! As I said SRCA does not care who it screws.
(Man you can't convince people when you doubt their intelligence.)

Again I thank you for your comments and wish you best of luck.
 
Hubbly Bubbly or should I say (removed) ;)

I've heard about your sneaky ways trying to get every body in trouble. Let me ask you this: Why didn't the SRCA recontract with you? was it because of your behaviour?

Yes Why didn't the SRCA recontract me? You or someone in an official capacity is invited to inform me as to this date i have not received any explanation. Every attempt I made to find out after I received an email informing of " the desire of the CEO not recontract" went unanswered. That you call professional behaviour?

What sneaky ways trying to get every body in trouble? You are invited to listed them all. I will admit the ones I got in trouble (Saudis) were the ones that refused to pay salaries for employees, denied vacations and emergency exit visas to employees and acted in a dangerous and corrupt manner where lives of employees and patients were put at risk.

I did this as a Manager and as a professional. It was part of my role that any competent manager would have done the same but yes thats right I did get questioned by the new regime after 18 months as a manager by the same people that introduced me as the manager in meetings etc on the validity of my position and accused me that I was lying that i was an appointed Manager and maybe self appointed myself.

I have received a warning from the forum admin about my posts. Because I speak the truth and warn others that the SRCA is not the humanitarian organisation it pretends to be to the world.
 
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I don't know you very well man, but let me ask this: When you were working for SRCA were you ever had to work without being paid?

I used to work in maintenance in the U.S at the college I used to go to and my employer fired me after two weeks for no reason. May be bacause I worked part time ?? I don't know, but here I am. I have no hard feelings for him what so ever. He can choose whomever to hire as it's an easy job. As for you, I am sure that besides your "negative behaviour" you still got skills as a Paramedic and there are plenty of institutions that would love to hire you. So move on.
 
I don't know you very well man, but let me ask this: When you were working for SRCA were you ever had to work without being paid?
QUOTE]

The answer is YES.

So what is your position in the organisation? And as you said you dont know me very well if at all? If you knew me you would know what I believe in and how i put my neck on the line for employees who were scared to speak up. I only did it as it was my job as a Manager to do so. So your earlier comments about my sneaky ways getting people in trouble is just hearsay??? Or do you have evidence as thats all I am interested in.
 
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Well up until now I have been kind to Hamish Harding and his so called company (Action Aviation)...So here goes.
It seems as though our "contracts" he promised us was to good to be true due to the fact he has his business registered in Dubai and tie to the UK and according to a UK lawyer he stated that suing him would be difficult. I feel we were set up from the beginning and now we are all out to suffer! His lies deceit and poor business ethics combined with lack of professional morals has made quite a name in this ruckus. He knew that he was not going to (able or not) from the time we got there that's why he waited until the last minute to tell us we were not getting paid. Also we "had" insurance for a whole 29 days and cancelled our policies without us knowing, prior to us getting the so called insurance billing the SRCA for our premiums when we did not even have any. Hiring fixed wing pilots to head a HEMS operation when we used rotor wing...Really? I will tell u this about the pilots we had there though...they were the $hit! They were awesome. I don't care whether the SRCA paid AA the money or not, that's not my problem...My contract was with AA and to tell us (flight paramedics) no pay until I get paid is shoddy on his behalf. If that was the case I would have stayed at my great flight job making big bucks than to give up my job and return home with a big fat goose egg. As to date I am scrambling to get on my feet, my truck has been repo'd, my storage contents auctioned off, and above all else missing my 6 year olds birthday because I have no money to go see him; pleading with Hamish through emails to pay us something at least prior to this happening only to get replies saying "very unfortunate indeed"!...Really, that's all I get?:angry:
 
Bottom line......?? extreme unprofessionalism on both ends. And not only were the AA flight paramedics not asked for their CV's but the few that were still there while the others were on leave, were told that the SRCA was not interested in anyone except the 3 who were no longer with AA that are now being slammed by SRCA?? (wanted to clarify that issue). Regardless of what was going on behind the scenes between management on both sides, the people in operations (pilots, paramedics, technicians) provided a very needed service to the people of Saudi in an extremely professional and proficient way. I have several certifications in management and choose not to work in management due to incidents exactly like this. The first thing you learn in management 101 is that the people on the front lines are what people see of your business. The HEMS program was performing at a top level with the exception of the inability to get the proper tools needed to fully do our job correctly. If you have that in place....then why as a manager (SRCA) would you allow that to fall apart, let alone push it out?? You keep the core people performing the job and re-build around that. The paramedic contract world is very small and even smaller when it comes to aviation. Sure you can hire any medic and throw him on a helicopter but there is so much more to aviation medicine than a ground medic is aware of. Unfortunately pilots ad technicians are not as easy to replace. It is obvious by this ongoing thread that the majority of professionals who have contact with the SRCA are less than satisfied by the treatment they received. It seems peoples lives are used as some kind of game. People quit their jobs to go to KSA and work and try to make a difference. I personally consider myself lucky because I have had better experiences in other middle-east countries and had a safety net to fall back on. Others were not so lucky and this whole situation has caused them problems that will take a long time to recover from. As I stated before that there was unprofessionalism on both sides, but SRCA is the umbrella that everything falls under and if the reputation of the SRCA was not so tarnished than it would be much easier to point the finger at AA. I do agree that AA holds a lot of the blame also but once again the people who have suffered the most are the crews that came over there and performed the service they were hired for, and did so above and beyond what was expected of them. And the people of Saudi will be affected also because what I saw in my short time there by the medics in place including western medics blew my mind at the negligence that was allowed to be practiced. Please no one take this out of context because I also met some great medics working for the SRCA. Unfortunately I don't think they will stay long if things there don't change and some that I keep in contact with have already left. For those in management at SRCA I challenge you not to take this as an insult but as informational and use this to try and help re-structure your organization in a professional and proficient manner. Your fellow countrymen need a better service because the fact is people are dying everyday that don't need to. Please understand that when management demeans people that it is not only unprofessional but unnecessary. I understand that there was a lot of negativity on both sides but the people at the ground level who are innocent have been caught up in this and suffered the most. I have been in the middle-east now for seven years and would be very hesitant in recommending anyone to work for the SRCA until I saw significant changes in operations. Ego's have to be put aside, in this line of work it cost lives when they are not.
 
I do know a few things.

We have a saying here:

Whatever you cannot reach with your hand, reach it with your leg. That means (keep barking at the wrong tree) and we will move on.


I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that. I don't live in Saudi Arabia so you can't reach me with hand or leg. So are you going to come to the US and do what? Cause an international incident? Not wise my friend. The US Embassy wouldn't be able to give you cover on that one like they do in Saudi Arabia. Oil producing companies and countries are kind of on the down turn in the US public eyes right know. And probably for many years to come as the gulf sates coast line become coated with oil. I would also add caution to any action at that level because now I have to prepare for that. And this is my country not yours.

Now that we [The guys that didn't get paid] have your attention when can we expect payment for our work and all of our troubles. I noticed that you stated we were 30% overpaid and had transportation and hotel accommodations provided. The offered pay was barely worth it and if you take away the transportation and hotel accommodations no body would come. So I can take from that, you want cheap inexperienced paramedics to fly around in a helicopter without narcotics or paralytics or the correct equipment to operate and do what. As I have said before, I have been flying well over a decade, and to live long enough to do that in a HEMS program means I know and understand the risks and dangers. If you put a bunch of inexperienced crew on your helo's you will plant have of them in six months. Cheap Charley is not a good idea. SRCA has been very fortunate up to this point,however if this story ever gets into the 24 hour news circuit it's going to be a bad day. Especially if there is a crash,because all of this chatter in the different forums becomes very animated. I have a suggestion for you. It sounds like you went to western schools. If you had an acquaintance in the west that could have some one oblivious to all of this SRCA/Action Aviation controversy to just read what has been said and report their opinion back to you. That could give you a feel for public opinion and how to deal with a helo crash where crew members are killed.
We worked in your country and we helped several people for the short period that we were there. For the Saudi government to respond the way that they have is very unfortunate not only for the HEMS operators,but for the Saudi people.
 
Real Deal

Well I see that this mess has ended up in a mess of a thread with name calling and finger pointing. I think it is about time that I give my side. As most of you know, I was the Chief Flight Medic for the program. I am the one who recruited, hired, supported, and enjoyed working with the Flight Medics. I was not part of the "Operations Management" team, although now I think we should have been! AA was sailing along and had done the impossible by setting up the service within such a short time. This is a big pat on the back for the AA TEAM. We got little help from SRCA during this and it was like pulling teeth to get anything from them. We had limited supplies and several other challenges that we overcame to start and operate the service successfully.

Somewhere along the line people came into the picture and CEO's where changed. People like Bill (not sure what he did other than get insurance for 29days) Dr. Rashid and his team. This is where the rumors fly about who did what and who didn't do what. I am not getting in this mud pit.

What I will do is tell you that I was asked to resign on March 23rd by Bill and Will for rumors that I was recruiting for the SRCA and that I had received a contract with them. That was totally UNTRUE!!! I did give Ahmed all the CV's for the flight paramedics when he asked for them as I knew that it was only a short time until AA was out of business. I did this as a manager and friend to my employees so that they might have a chance of keeping paying work. In the end, the SRCA decided not to contract with anyone from AA. This is their right but I was trying to lookout for my guys. I was just trying to give my guys options.

As for the rest of the story, well as Ahmed states it is history and only time will tell if we get our money from Action Aviation. I personally blame AA for not holding up their end of the contract.

So the moral of the story, nothing is ever guaranteed as I told every medic I hired personally, this is fantasy land so live it for each day as tomorrow they might send you home!!

Cheers,
Jay
 
I don't know you very well man, but let me ask this: When you were working for SRCA were you ever had to work without being paid?
QUOTE]

The answer is YES.

So what is your position in the organisation? And as you said you dont know me very well if at all? If you knew me you would know what I believe in and how i put my neck on the line for employees who were scared to speak up. I only did it as it was my job as a Manager to do so. So your earlier comments about my sneaky ways getting people in trouble is just hearsay??? Or do you have evidence as thats all I am interested in.

I'm very much interested in getting more information about your case so please email me and I will find out what went wrong and if SRCA owes you money I will get it for you. so please through an email to: ahmedalmaziad@gmail.com
 
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