Refugee Update: Nauru

Nauru files show Wilson Security staff regularly downgraded reports of abuse (GA, 12 August 2016)

Nauru security guard ‘grabbed boy by throat and banged head against ground’ (GA, 11 August 2016) "Leaked documents in the Nauru files reveal reports of misconduct by numerous officers and alleged attempts to stop asylum seekers complaining to police."

Nauru guard hit five-year-old girl ‘so hard it lifted her off her feet’ (GA, 12 August 2016) "Incident reports show that Wilson Security bosses knew the alleged offender’s name and position, although Senate was later told there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to identify him."

While the Australian government dismisses or downplays the 2000+ reports and Amnesty and HRWs' investigations, the world is taking notice. For example: Missbrauch in Australiens Flüchtlingslager enthüllt (Revealing abuse in Australia's refugee camps) (der Standard, 10 August 2016) | Claims Probed Of Brutal Conditions For Refugees On Island Of Nauru (NPR, 11 August 2016) (Thanks jeriendhal!)

Big whoop

Hi, I'm hypomanic. Really interested by the "history behind Game of Thrones" DVD doco in which a historian described King Jeoffrey's loose historical inspiration (whose identity I have forgotten) as "drunk on his own majesty". Usually "majesty" has a positive connotation - "greatness" - but here it just means "bigness", the same root and sense as "major". Jeoffrey is literally puffed up.

I thought of similar words in other languages which can mean both "large" or "great". In Sumerian, the king is literally a "big man" and a lion is a "big dog". In Korean, the word is 대 dae (probably borrowed from Chinese 大 dà) - eg daehakgyo, "big school", a university; Sejong Daewang, "Great King Sejong"; and an early phrase I learned from a reality show, "dae silpae", literally "large failure" ie - "epic fail". :)