For Monsieur Moix there’ll always be Yemen

Trump trumps commies. Martina Navratilova tweets, January 8:

I can tell you all this for sure — whatever ridiculous propaganda we were fed in then Czechoslovakia, which was mandated by Soviet Union, pales next to the lies being told and repeated by trump (sic) and his ilk. I am not kidding … trump (sic) truly trumps the communists. And that’s not easy.

Worse than commies? Ilya Somin, Washington Post, November 7, 2017:

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power, which led to the establishment of a communist regime in Russia and … other nations … It is an appropriate time to remember the vast tide of oppression, tyranny and mass murder that communist regimes unleashed upon the world … Col­lec­tively, communist states killed as many as 100 million people … The biggest toll arose from communist efforts to collectivise agriculture and eliminate independent property-owning peasants … In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin’s collectivisation — which served as a model for similar efforts in China and elsewhere — took some 6 to 10 million lives … Millions died in slave labour camps, such as the USSR’s Gulag system and its equivalents elsewhere. Many others were killed in … mass executions, such as those of Stalin’s Great Purge … Even those fortunate enough to survive still were subjected to … violations of freedom of speech … of religion, loss of property rights and criminalisation of economic activity.

Marwan Ali Noman, deputy permanent representative of Yemen to the UN, tweets January 9:

Glad to be elected as vice-president of @UN_Women Executive Board for Asia-Pacific Group for 2019

UN Women — Asia-Pacific re­tweets, January 8:

Yemen is the world’s least (gender-equal country) according to a new report from the World Economic Forum … The three-year civil war … has … (left) 2.9 (million) women and children severely malnourished … More than 3 million Yemeni women and girls are also at risk of gender-based violence.

Patrick Goodenough, CNS News, January 10:

(Every year since it was included in the WEF annual Global Gender Gap report in 2006) Yemen has come in last. (The) UN Women’s executive board in 2019 (also) includes … other countries that score poorly … (including) Saudi Arabia (141 out of 149), Nigeria (133), Burkina Faso (129), Angola (125) and United Arab Emirates (121). Last year’s executive board … included Pakistan (148), Iran (142), and Bahrain (132) … Islamic nations … account for 26 of the 30 lowest ranking countries.

Guaranteed a virgin. Hakim Almasmari, CNN, January 23 last year:

Child marriage is entrenched in Yemen … It’s a traditional practice preserved in proverbs like, “Marry an eight-year-old girl, she’s guaranteed” — an assurance of a child’s virginity … More than two-thirds of Yemeni girls are married off before they reach 18, a staggering leap from half of all girls before the conflict … (Kafa) was wed to a man 15 years her senior when she was just 13.

Worn out. Marianne Mairesse (45) interviews author Yann Moix (50), Marie Claire, January 8:

Mairesse: You say that … at some point women are “worn out” and you need a “new” woman …

Moix: … It often happens to me, after a few months, to no longer desire the woman I am with and … it’s over …

Mairesse: (Could you) love a 50-year-old woman?

Moix: Oh no … That’s not possible … I find them too old … They don’t disgust me … but it would never cross my mind. They are invisible.

Comedian Marina Fois (turning 49 on January 21) tweets, January 8:

Only one year and 14 days to sleep with Yann Moix. Inshallah, it will happen.