"South Sudan’s 2008 Child Act prohibits early and forced marriage, but according to Unicef, child marriage is “still a common practice” and “recent figures indicate that 52% of girls [in South Sudan] are married
before they turn 18,
with some girls being married off as young as 12 years old"
"After the ceremonial part of the wedding in June, when she was given as a wife to Chol Marol Deng, for a payment of
123 cattle,
120m South Sudanese pounds (about $44,000 or £33,000) in cash
and a plot of land, she was dubbed
“the most expensive bride in South Sudan”
"Globally, 12 million girls are married in childhood every year, according to another Unicef report. Across sub-Saharan Africa, more than a third of young women were married before the age of 18."
"Questions around Athiak’s age were sparked by a Facebook post by her maternal uncle, Daniel Yach, a Canadian citizen, who said “she is a minor” and condemned the proposed marriage as “a classic example of pedophilia”.
"I was very shocked because I had not seen Athiak since I left to Canada in 2015,” he says in a phone call. “By then she was six years old. Then I saw the posts about the marriage and I discovered
how tall she had become.
“But she’s just a child. This little girl is being brainwashed. It’s the craziest stuff ever.”
"Sarah Diew Biel, a protection manager for the South Sudanese development organisation Nile Hope, says: “When you’re going against
a thousand people who are saying ‘this marriage is OK’,
you become a traitor in the eyes of the community, with a khawaja [foreigner] mentality. It’s mentally and emotionally draining.”
Athiak’s mother tried to stop the wedding.
“I tried telling the family that Athiak should not be married,” she says. “But they all insisted.
"They were looking for the cows. They saw that Athiak will bring them that great wealth. When I refused, they separated me from my daughter.”.
"The lawyer, Adhet Deng, believes Athiak is now probably in Nairobi with the family of
Chol Marol Deng, who has returned to Canada, where he works."
"Athiak has never spoken publicly about the controversy surrounding her marriage. But, on the eve of the agam celebration in June, she told the Guardian that, had the marriage process not started, she would have
“preferred to study"
_____
'The author Cormac McCarthy, who died last year aged 89, began a relationship with a 16-year-old when he was 42
(42-16 =26)
and the woman became his “secret muse”, Vanity Fair has reported.
The author of The Road and Suttree gave very few interviews, so little is known of his private life other than that
he married three times and lived in Spain and Texas before settling in New Mexico.
(Spain plus Texas equals NM)
"Augusta Britt, now 64, told Vanity Fair she was “in and out of foster care” when she first saw McCarthy at a motel pool in Tucson, Arizona, that she would frequently visit. "
" The author looked familiar, and when she got home she realised she had recognised him from the author photo on the back of the novel she was reading, McCarthy’s debut, The Orchard Keeper."
"The next day, she brought her copy of the book to the motel, along with a Colt revolver, which she said she had stolen from the man who ran her foster home and “had taken to wearing”, having experienced violence at the hands of her father and foster parents. "
" The author was still there, and apparently asked her if she was planning to shoot him – to which she responded no, she wanted him to sign her book.
Britt said the pair began a relationship and in 1977... ."
Britt said the pair had sex for the first time when McCarthy was 43 and she was 17.
“I loved him,” she told Vanity Fair. “He was my safety. I really feel that if I had not met him, I would have died young.
What I had trouble with came later.
When he started writing about me.”
___
He was my revolving safety revolver trouble
I coulda popped off babies
Rather I troubled pops
Flip switch fire Europe USA
Always writing the head head in charges not filed
Reading reading always sex on safety the eyelashes pop
The bikini pop the novel tee peep oops pops
Novelty trouble stag stagnates
Horny thorny trouble sells double
So different than South Sydan, Texas New Mexico Canada
____
"Israeli attacks have destroyed huge areas of land used for crops, with 90% of cattle killed, analysis shows"
'More than 90% of cattle have died and about 70% of land for crops in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war in the territory, an analysis of satellite imagery by the UN has found.
More than half of sheep and goat herds have been wiped out, while more than three-quarters of the territory’s famous orchards have been destroyed or damaged, the survey in September found."
"Satellite images … indicate that heavy vehicle tracks, razing, shelling and other conflict-related pressures have damaged large areas of farmland, infrastructure, wells and other productive infrastructure,” Paulsen told the UN security council, adding that the destruction substantially increased the risk of famine there.
Before the outbreak of war last year, farms covered about 40% of Gaza and produced enough vegetables, eggs, fresh milk, poultry and fish to meet around a third of local demand. Many families had their own olive or fruit trees."
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