Figures of terror: The " zombie " and the Haitian Revolution

Raphael Hoermann

23 Pages

1 File ▾

Race and Racism,

Haitian Revolution,

Gothic Studies,

Haitian History,

Zombies

 ...more ▾

This article investigates the relation of the figure of the zombie to the Haitian Revolution, the only successful slave revolution in the Atlantic World. While existing research often stresses the strong link between the zombie and the slave, this is not borne out by the contemporary discourse on the Haitian Revolution. Whereas horror and terror are associated with the zombie from its inception, it is only with the US occupation of Haiti (1915–1934) that US-American writers and directors invented the zombie of popular North Atlantic culture: a soulless slave without consciousness directed by a zombie master. As I argue, this amounts to a neo-colonialist act of symbolic re-enslavement of the self-emancipated Haitians. This time they are deprived not merely of their freedom as under the slave regime, but even of their consciousness.

https://www.academia.edu/29472532/Figures_of_terror_The_zombie_and_the_Haitian_Revolution

It Is Easier To Imagine The Zombie Apocalypse Than To Imagine The End Of Capitalism

Zara Zimbardo

2,551 Views28 Pages

1 File ▾

Militarism,

Horror Film,

Consumerism,

Caribbean Slavery,

Monsters and Monster Theory

 ...more ▾

In recent years zombies and the zombie apocalypse have loomed large in the collective American imagination, in film and television, theme parties and marathons, shooting target companies and survivalist groups, videogames and counterterrorism training, and used in course curricula from elementary to college levels to teach topics from geography to public health to sociology. As a recurrent monster in the history of capitalism, with its origins in New World slavery in Haiti, zombies reflect what is monstrous in an economic system "that seems designed to eat people whole" (Newitz). As the "political unconscious" of late-era capitalism, what does this increasingly normalized pop culture obsession point to in the "non-human condition", of labor exploitation and unbridled consumerism? What apocalyptic futures are we repeatedly rehearsing, and how do they signal both despair of, and hope for, fundamental change? This piece examines representations in popular culture, draws out historical connections and diverse monster theories that help us see how we, in the United States in particular, are processing and making sense of systemic social and environmental horror.

https://www.academia.edu/8826773/It_Is_Easier_To_Imagine_The_Zombie_Apocalypse_Than_To_Imagine_The_End_Of_Capitalism

Mauritius oil spill: fears for island’s marine life after initial tests fail to resolve fuel mystery

Harry Cockburn,
The Independent•November 7, 2020

Wreck of the Japanese-owned bulk carrier MV Wakashio on 22 August. The ship spilled over 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil in one of Mauritius’s worst environmental disasters (Reuters)

In July this year, the Japanese cargo ship MV Wakashio, chartered by Mitsui OSK and owned by Nagashiki Shipping, struck a coral reef off the coast of the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius and spilled over 1,000 tonnes of fuel oil.

The ship had been sailing close to the reef and ran aground. Less than two weeks later, a major leak began emptying fuel oil into the lagoons and mangroves of southeast coast of Mauritius in one of the worst environmental disasters in the country’s history.

Fresh concerns have now been raised about the exact mix of fuel oil the ship was carrying, and how it will continue to impact the marine life where it was spilled.

It is normal for scientists to conduct detailed analysis of fuel spills in order to guide short- and long-term response plans, and to help protect the health of people working in the area and those handling the clean-up operation.

But as the oil slick began impacting beaches, local people as well as international organisations sprang into action to protect the habitats, without guidance on the type of fuel oil they were dealing with.

Since then, the cleanup has reportedly been conducted in a more secretive way than is usual for major oil spills, according to experts quoted by Forbes.

Last week, Nagashiki Shipping said in a statement that all the floating oil had been recovered, and work to remove oil along approximately 30km (18.6 miles) of coastline was “proceeding smoothly” and would likely be completed by January.

Meanwhile, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) said the first ultra-high-resolution analysis of an oil sample from the Mauritius spill revealed the substance to be “a complex and unusual mix of hydrocarbons”.

The scientists said that “even though some of the components in it may have already degraded or evaporated, what remains still gives it the ability to persist in the environment”.

Chris Reddy, a senior scientist at WHOI, said: “Fuel oils are arguably the most challenging petroleum products to analyse and investigate following marine-based spills.

“There is no single recipe or set of ingredients, and it gets even more complicated with these new low-sulfur fuel oils that require more steps in their manufacture. We don’t know if this was a low-sulfur material, but it’s unlike anything we’ve seen spilled before — that alone demands a closer look.”

The findings have fuelled speculation as to what the mysterious oil is, with the suggestion that a “Frankenstein fuel” made from waste plastics could have been used.

If that is the case, the impact on Mauritius could be considerably more far-reaching than the oil spill, as the creation of fuel oils with a plastic component is based on using an unknown mixture of various toxic chemicals to break down the plastics.

Since the spill, more than 50 whales and dolphins have been found dead on Mauritius’s coast, along with thousands of other sea creatures, all within a few miles of the wreck of the ship, although the cause of their death is not yet known.

The analysis of the collected fuel oil by WHOI researchers revealed that the sample contained relatively low levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are known carcinogens in humans and animals.

“Although low, the levels of PAHs might accumulate in certain parts of the marine environment,” the scientists said.

The findings will increase pressure on the Japan Ship Owners’ Mutual Protection & Indemnity Association — the insurers that are handling the cleanup operation, and which have been accused of a lack of transparency regarding the spill, with no independent organisations overseeing the cleanup.

The scientists at the WHOI have called for a “fresh” sample taken from the ship, in order to analyse the fuel oil’s makeup.

This would allow researchers to determine what has already been lost from the oil as a result of evaporation, dilution, photodegradation, and other processes.

“This [the WHOI analysis] was just a first step,” said Professor Kliti Grice, director of the Western Australian Organic Isotope Geochemistry Centre.

“Our limited view of what spilled only reinforces the need for long-term monitoring, access to samples from the ship, and a more in-depth analysis that officials can incorporate into detailed plans to help Mauritius and its environment recover from this.”

Read More

25 dolphins wash up dead in Mauritius weeks after oil spill

Mauritius conservationists race to save rare species from oil spill

Mauritius scrambles to save pristine beaches and coral reefs from cata

Mauritius oil spill: The ecocide that sparked a revolution

What's the science behind mink and coronavirus?

Helen Briggs - BBC Environment correspondent,
BBC•November 8, 2020

Mink outbreaks are a "spillover" from the human pandemic

Mutations in coronavirus have triggered culls of all 17 million farmed mink in Denmark.

Part of the country has been put under lockdown after Danish authorities found genetic changes they say might undermine the effectiveness of future Covid-19 vaccines.

More than 200 people have been infected with mink-related coronavirus.

And the UK has imposed an immediate ban on all visitors from Denmark amid concerns about the new strain.

Danish scientists are particularly concerned about one mink-related strain of the virus, found in 12 people, which they say is less sensitive to protective antibodies, raising concerns about vaccine development.

The World Health Organization has said the reports are concerning, but further studies are needed to understand the implications for treatments and vaccines.

"We need to wait and see what the implications are but I don't think we should come to any conclusions about whether this particular mutation is going to impact vaccine efficacy," said chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan.

Officials arrive at a mink farm to put down the animals

The coronavirus, like all viruses, mutates over time and there is no evidence that any of the mutations found in Denmark pose an increased danger to people.

Dr Marisa Peyre, an epidemiologist from the French research institute Cirad, said the development was "worrying", but we don't yet know the full picture.

"Every time the virus spreads between animals it changes, and if it changes too much from the one that is circulating within humans at the moment, that might mean that any vaccine or treatment that will be produced soon might not work as well as it should do," she explained.

Mink, like their relatives, ferrets, are susceptible to respiratory viruses

This is a very unusual chain of events: a virus that originally came from a wild animal, probably a bat, jumped into humans, possibly via an unknown animal host, sparking a pandemic.

Mink kept in large numbers on mink farms have caught the virus from infected workers. And, in a small number of cases, the virus has "spilled back" from mink to humans, picking up genetic changes on the way.

Mutations in some mink-related strains involve the spike protein of the virus, which is targeted by some vaccines being developed.

"If the mutation is on a specific protein that is being currently targeted by the vaccine developers to trigger an immune response in humans then it means that if this new virus strain comes out of the mink back into the humans, even with vaccination, the humans will start spreading it and the vaccine will not protect," Dr Peyre told BBC News.

More than 50 million mink a year are bred for their fur, mainly in China, Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland. Outbreaks have been reported on fur farms in the Netherlands, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Italy and the US, and millions of animals have had to be culled.

Millions of mink are being culled in Denmark

Mink, like their close relatives, ferrets, are known to be susceptible to coronavirus, and like humans, they can show a range of symptoms, from no signs of illness at all to severe problems, such as pneumonia.

Scientists suspect the virus spreads in mink farms through infectious droplets, on feed or bedding, or in dust containing droppings.

Mink have caught the virus from humans, but genetic detective work has shown that in a small number of cases the virus seems to have passed the other way, with the virus spreading from mink back to humans.

Mink have become "reservoirs for the virus" and surveillance is required in other wild and domestic animals that may be susceptible, said Prof Joanne Santini of University College London.

"Mink is the extreme but it could be happening out there and we just don't know about it and that's something we need to be checking," she told BBC News.

"What we do know is that the mink are picking up the virus from people; they can be infected and they are spreading it between themselves and it's come back to humans."

Scientists in Denmark are carrying out genetic studies on mink-related strains, and the genetic data has been shared with other researchers, to allow further investigation.

"We need to find out where these mutations are and we need to see what effect that has on transmission of the virus and how infectious it is, because if it is changing and being more infectious or having a broader host range, then that's really quite scary but it might not be, because we don't know," said Prof Santini.

Some scientists have called for new restrictions on mink production, saying mink farming "impedes our response and recovery from the pandemic".

In a recent letter to the journal, Science, three scientists, from Denmark, China and Malaysia, wrote: "It is urgent to monitor, restrict, and - where possible - ban mink production."

The WHO has called on all countries to step up surveillance and tighten biosecurity measures around mink farms.

Coronavirus: This is not the last pandemic


Coronavirus: The race to find the source in wildlife


Coronavirus: Calls to shut down 'dirty fur trade'.

#IRONY
A televangelist who referred to the coronavirus as a 'privilege' has died from it

Yelena Dzhanova, INSIDER•November 7, 2020

A nurse puts on her PPE before tending to a COVID-19 patient on October 21, 2020 in Essen, Germany. Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images

Irvin Baxter, a televangelist who once called the coronavirus a "privilege," died of complications from the disease on Tuesday, according to a press release.

Baxter previously said he believed Americans having sex before marriage brought on the coronavirus pandemic.

"God may be using this as a wake-up call," Baxter said, suggesting God was using the coronavirus to punish people for having premarital sex.  

(GOD IS A SERIAL KILLER LIKE MICHAEL FROM HALLOWEEN,JASON FRIDAY THE 13TH, ETC.)

A televangelist who once described the coronavirus pandemic as a "privilege" died from the disease Tuesday.

Irvin Baxter died in the hospital at 75, according to a press release from Endtime Ministries, which Baxter founded.

Baxter was a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and had suggested premarital sex was the reason the coronavirus exists.

During a March discussion on "The Jim Bakker Show," a national TV show centered around the end of time, Baxter preached about "the sin of fornication" outside marriage.

"I thought about fornication and I did a little research," he said. "I hope this research is not correct, but I got it straight from the encyclopedia. It says that 5% of new brides in America now are virgins. That means 95 percent have already committed fornication!"

He said millions of unmarried American couples were living together and having sex, which he called sinful and punishable in the eyes of God.

"God may be using this as a wake-up call," Baxter then said about the coronavirus.

"This coronavirus may be a privilege, because I'll tell you right now, there is a much bigger judgment coming. It's in the Bible."

Baxter denounced people who "think we can just ignore God and live a sinful lifestyle." 

KARMA IS A BITCH

The coronavirus has infected more than 9.7 million people nationwide, according to the latest data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Of that, more than 236,000 people have died from it.

Since his death, Endtime Ministries has received an outpouring of support for the organization and Baxter, the press release said.

Baxter was a Texas-based televangelist who hosted a biblical prophecy TV show, "End of the Age," which reached over 100 million people in North America, according to the release.

There will be a funeral service for Baxter on Monday.

Read the original article on Insider

As the pandemic's second wave digs in, Winnipeg's homeless shelters brace for a bleak winter

PRAIRIE WINTER STORM ALERT THIS WEEKEND 

 CBC Sat., November 7, 2020

Manitoba is struggling to contain a renewed surge of the COVID-19 pandemic by reimposing restrictions on businesses and public gatherings in Winnipeg and other parts of the province.

"We need to focus on going out for only essential reasons," said Manitoba's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin on Friday. "Protect yourself. Keep your distance from others."

But self-isolating is simply not an option for the homeless and many other members of vulnerable communities, or for the agencies that offer food and shelter to those who aren't always able to fend for themselves.

At 1JustCity, which runs three community drop-in centres in Winnipeg's downtown core, the pandemic has led to a growing number of people needing food, a shower or just a place to stay warm.

"We push out over 2,000 meals every week," the agency's executive director, Tessa Whitecloud, said in an interview airing Saturday on CBC's The House. "We're seeing a big increase in numbers. We're seeing more people being food insecure, of course, as layoffs and different things make it more difficult for them to feed themselves in the ways that they used to."

Kristi Beaune said the situation is much the same at the North End Women's Centre, which offers a wide range of supports for women in the community, including a drop-in space, parenting advice and transitional housing.

A pandemic compounded by poverty

"We are all experiencing this pandemic together, and the folks that access our services are facing that pandemic with those compounding factors of homelessness, the rising risk of overdose and those escalating situations of domestic violence and being trapped at home," Beaune, spokesperson for the centre, told The House.

"Those issues have not taken a back seat."

Manitoba considered imposing a curfew in Winnipeg after a spike in cases among young people linked to late-night gatherings and parties. Premier Brian Pallister has opted against the move for now, in favour of stricter enforcement of existing restrictions.

"There will be consequences for people when they put others in danger, when they put themselves in danger," Pallister told a briefing on Thursday.

The number of COVID-related deaths in Manitoba climbed to 96 on Friday. Health officials also announced another 243 new cases of the virus as the rate of positive tests reached more than 9 per cent.

Whitecloud said she understands stricter measures need to be taken to try to slow down the spread of COVID-19, but cautioned that a curfew could amount to criminalizing the homeless.

"So, you know, it's great if you want to make sure that I'm home by 10 o'clock. But if you don't have a home, it's not OK to then insist that people have to figure that out. Some shelters don't open until 11 p.m.," she said.

"So if the curfew is married with an initiative to make sure that everybody has somewhere to be that's safe COVID-wise, that's safe in terms of substance abuse or, you know, domestic violence ... then great. But if it isn't paired with the initiatives that are going to address the inequalities that a curfew would further exacerbate, then I think that's a problem about human rights."

Homelessness as a public health issue

It's clear across Canada that the pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on marginalized people.

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs raised similar concerns about a curfew, saying it would have a punishing effect on Indigenous people living in urban centres.

In Toronto, public health statistics show that 83 per cent of reported COVID-19 cases are among people of colour.

Beaune and Whitecloud noted the federal government's recently announced Rapid Housing Initiative — a $1 billion program to cover the cost of building modular housing and converting existing buildings like motels into affordable housing.

"I'm hoping that we see more of that grow because we need to recognize that one person's experience of homelessness is actually a public health issue for everybody in the city that that person resides in," Whitecloud said.

Austin Grabish/CBC

Winnipeg's share of the program is $12.5 million dollars.

"There's just not enough transitional housing in and around Winnipeg and that's something that we knew before," Beaune added.

"COVID certainly shone a light on it even further … I mean, we have eight beds of transitional housing here. If we were funded in that way, we could easily accommodate 25, 40 women just in our immediate area that could really benefit from stable housing."

The approach of winter makes the need to address homelessness and other challenges posed by the pandemic even more urgent.

The good news is that many private donors are stepping up in Winnipeg to provide masks, meals and other goods. One donor provided 50 pizzas a day to the North End Women's Centre throughout the first wave of the virus — a program Beaune and Whitecloud are working to set up again for the coming months.

"It's empowering because of the support of people rallying around us to do these things for the folks who need it," Whitecloud said. "But it's going to be a nerve-wracking winter."

This 80-year-old Toronto shelter resident thought she was losing her mind. Turns out, she had COVID-19 — with none of the typical symptoms

Victoria Gibson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Fri., November 6, 2020

Mary Moore never felt the typical symptoms of COVID-19.

The 80-year-old resident of Toronto’s shelter system never came down with a fever, never felt her chest tighten or a cough tickle her throat. Despite sharing a room at an Etobicoke women’s shelter with three others, and despite the risk of her age, she hadn’t been scared of contracting the virus — reasoning that her only real exposure to the outside world was walking regularly, about a mile away then back.

But then, last month, she got sick — and fast. At first, it was hard to pinpoint precisely what was wrong.

“You know when you feel there’s something just not right?” Moore said. She asked staff to help her get to a nearby hospital. Then things started to deteriorate.

“I can remember being in the ambulance outside, and vaguely remember being in the emergency room,” Moore recalled.

A test confirmed that she’d contracted COVID-19. But for the next few weeks, as she battled the virus in hospital, her primary symptom still wasn’t one that she recognized from warnings. She was hallucinating — imagining small animals in her hospital room, or that she’d been discharged, and was sitting down to a meal in Toronto’s Chinatown neighbourhood.

That kind of delirium is one of the atypical ways that COVID-19 can show up, particularly in older adults, said Toronto geriatrician Dr. Nathan Stall. But because it doesn’t look like a typical case, it’s also the kind of situation where the virus can go undetected.

In Stall’s view, Moore’s case is evidence that the bar for older adults to get tested for COVID-19 should be “extremely low” as cases have risen this fall.

The risks are particularly high in the shelter system as a congregate environment that caters to vulnerable populations, he said. Symptoms like Moore’s may end up incorrectly attributed to other causes that show up more regularly among shelter users — addictions, mental illness or even dementia, he added.

That Moore’s case could have slipped through the cracks isn’t lost on her. “If I hadn’t gone to the hospital that day, God knows how long I would have been walking around with it,” she said.

Unknown to her, one of her roommates would later test positive for the virus as well, without showing any symptoms — prompting a Toronto shelter worker at the time to call for broader-scale testing.

The most recent screening tool from Toronto’s Shelter, Support and Housing Administration asks staff to check if their adult clients have a fever; any new or worsening symptoms including a cough, difficulty breathing, sore throat, difficulty swallowing, runny nose, lost sense of taste or smell, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea; or fatigue, increased falls, chills or headaches.

The document includes a link to a longer list of symptoms from the province, which includes delirium unrelated to “known causes or conditions” including alcohol withdrawal or other substance uses. But Dr. Stefan Baral, a physician with Toronto’s Inner City Health Associates, said they’ve been trying to stress that any unexplained change in a person is worth flagging.

That’s where shelter workers’ familiarity with their clients can play a major role, Baral said — and where assessing unfamiliar clients can present a challenge.

Anyone with atypical symptoms would be connected to “clinical partners,” said shelter system director Gord Tanner.

But street nurse Cathy Crowe worries about the task being assigned to shelter staff: “We know that shelter workers are swamped, so how much attention can really be paid properly to screening?”

Back in the hospital, Moore struggled to come to terms with her diagnosis. It didn’t seem to sink in, because she didn’t feel physically ill.

“I kept saying ‘No, there’s nothing wrong, there’s nothing wrong,’” she said.

The worst part of the experience was feeling like she was losing her mind. She was scared, but said the hospital nurses were attentive, and gently pointed out when she veered into hallucinations.

“’Honey, there’s nobody there. You’re talking and getting your own answers,’” she recalls one saying.

She tried not to panic or consider the grimmest outcomes, fearing it would make things worse.

Stall, who didn’t treat Moore, said auditory or visual hallucinations are consistent with delirium. Earlier in the pandemic, he and his colleagues at Mount Sinai hospital wrote a case report about an 83-year-old, who arrived in the emergency department after a fall at home.

The woman’s only complaint was a vague sense of dizziness. She was deemed a low risk for COVID-19 at triage, but diagnostic tests later revealed she was infected.

Atypical presentation of illness is actually common in older adults, the doctors wrote — with symptoms like falls, functional decline or delirium. For that reason, like Baral, Stall stressed that any change from a person’s baseline health should be cause for alarm, especially with seniors.

After being discharged from hospital, Moore spent several days at an isolation site for people with no fixed address. While she was lonely — “you have nobody to talk to, maybe your own walker or your walls,” she said — she had a comfortable bed, a TV and her own washroom.

Now back at the shelter, she’s urging more understanding about the different ways a COVID-19 infection can show up.

“Don’t take something for granted. If you think you have a sick stomach, or something like that, get it looked after right away, because there are different ways of feeling it,” she said.

“To me, I didn’t feel right. And after that, everything is a blur.”

Victoria Gibson, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Toronto Star

'You're fired': Thousands taunt Trump with his own catchphrase after election loss


Joel Shannon, USA TODAY
Sat., November 7, 2020

In this Jan. 16, 2015 file photo, Donald Trump, then-host of the television series "The Celebrity Apprentice," mugs for photographers in Pasadena, Calif.

President Donald Trump faced a predictable taunt from thousands of social media users on Saturday after he lost his bid for reelection: You're Fired.

It's the catchphrase he used to kick off contestants when he hosted the reality show "The Apprentice" for years — a show that brought him pop-culture fame that helped boost his 2016 bid for president.

NBC cut ties with Trump in 2015 after he made "derogatory statements" about Mexican immigrants as he began his bid for president.

Media coverage of high turnover in his administration often invoked the phase, although, as the Associated Press noted in the year after Trump was elected, Trump often delegated the task of firing someone or publicly shamed those he wanted out, so they would simply quit.

As president in 2017, Trump invoked the catchphrase in a tweet saying football players who did not stand for the national Anthem should be told "YOU'RE FIRED."

While the catchphrase has faded in popularity in recent years, Trump's critics have not forgotten it:

                                 

 'You're fired': Thousands taunt Trump with 'Apprentice' catchphrase

UK TV/PBS
Obituary: Geoffrey Palmer


Fri., November 6, 2020

With his hangdog expression and lugubrious delivery, Geoffrey Palmer was one of the best-known actors of his generation.

He cut his teeth on the stage before launching a career as a character actor in a variety of roles in film and TV.

He was perhaps most famous for a series of TV sitcoms including Butterflies, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and As Time Goes By.

A reserved man, he usually remained out of the public gaze when not appearing on stage or screen, and rarely gave interviews.

Geoffrey Dyson Palmer was born in London on 4 June 1927, the son of a chartered accountant.

After attending Highgate School he did his National Service in the Royal Marines, where he became an instructor, taking recruits through field training and the intricacies of using small arms.

He qualified as an accountant, but he'd always had a hankering for the stage and his girlfriend persuaded him to sign up with a local dramatic society.

There was a job as assistant stage manager at the Grand Theatre in Croydon, before he set out on the traditional actor's apprenticeship, touring in rep.
World-weary demeanour

In 1958 he moved into television with roles in the ITV series The Army Game, a sitcom based on the lives of National Service soldiers that launched the careers of a number of famous actors and led to the first Carry On film.

There followed a variety of TV character parts in episodes of The Avengers, The Saint, Gideon's Way and The Baron.

He also appeared as a property agent in Ken Loach's hard-hitting BBC play, Cathy Come Home.

His world-weary demeanour made him instantly recognisable although it did not reflect his real character. "I'm not grumpy," he once said. "I just look this way."

Despite an increasing amount of TV and film work he continued to perform in the theatre, where he received critical acclaim for his role in John Osborne's play, West of Suez, appearing alongside Ralph Richardson.
Reserved and conservative

He went on to work with Paul Scofield and Laurence Olivier before being directed by John Gielgud in a production of Noel Coward's Private Lives.

In 1970 he played Masters in Doctor Who and the Silurians. It was the first of three appearances he would make in the franchise, returning in 1972 in Mutants and in 2007 in Voyage of the Damned.
He gained a wider audience in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

His world-weary expression made him perfect for the role of Ben in Butterflies

He came to the attention of a wider audience as Jimmy Anderson, the clueless brother-in law of Leonard Rossiter in the sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, which first aired on the BBC in 1976.

He followed this up with the part of the reserved and conservative dentist Ben in Carla Lane's bittersweet comedy, Butterflies.

Palmer's character sat gloomily at the end of the dinner table, unable to comprehend his adolescent sons or his wife's midlife crisis. His world-weary take on events acted as his defence against the mayhem happening around him.
Memorable appearance

He was still much in demand as a character actor. His film appearances included A Fish Called Wanda, The Madness of King George and Clockwise.

On the small screen he played Dr Price in the Fawlty Towers episode The Kipper and the Corpse, and appeared in The Professionals, The Goodies and Whoops Apocalypse.

His role as a doctor in The Madness of King George was one of many cinema performances

He also made a memorable appearance as Field Marshal Haig in Blackadder Goes Forth, casually sweeping model soldiers off a plan of the battlefield with a dustpan and brush.

In 1992 he began a role in the sitcom As Time Goes By, alongside his great friend, Judi Dench.

It followed the progress of former lovers who rekindled their relationship after a 38-year gap. It became one of the BBC's most popular comedies and was still being shown to appreciative audiences 25 years later.

Fly fisherman

Palmer also shared the billing with Dench in the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and as Sir Henry Ponsonby in Mrs Brown, the story of the relationship between Queen Victoria and her servant.

With a voice as distinctive as his appearance, Palmer was much in demand as a narrator. He was heard on the BBC series Grumpy Old Men and he recorded a number of audio books including a version of A Christmas Carol for Penguin.

As Time Goes By became one of the BBC's most popular sitcoms

He also voiced some notable adverts, urging people to "slam in the lamb", in a commercial for the Meat & Livestock Commission and he introduced a British audience to "Vorsprung durch Technik" in adverts for Audi cars.

Away from stage and screen he was a keen fly fisherman, once appearing in a DVD series, The Compleat Angler, in which he retraced Izaak Walton's classic 17th-Century book.

In 2011 he joined the campaign to try to halt plans for the HS2 railway line, the proposed route of which ran close to his home in Buckinghamshire.

He married Sally Green in 1963 and the couple had two children.

In 2000 the British Film Institute polled industry professionals to compile a list of what they felt were the greatest British TV programmes ever screened.

Palmer was the only actor to have appeared in all of the top three - Fawlty Towers, Cathy Come Home and Doctor Who.

Geoffrey Palmer had no formal training as an actor but his innate skills kept him in almost continuous work for more than six decades.

His policy was never to turn down a part. "I love working," he once said, "and, if I'm not working, I'm not earning."

UK Comedy Legends Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders Close Their Production Company After 28 Years

Jake Kanter
Fri., November 6, 2020


EXCLUSIVE: Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders are shuttering their production company, Saunders & French Productions, after it has been operating for more than 28 years.

The UK comedy heroes first set up their TV company in 1992 and it co-produced the iconic BBC series Absolutely Fabulous, which was adapted into a movie by BBC Films four years ago.

French and Saunders have filed for voluntary liquidation, and Mustafa Abdulali and Neil Dingley of insolvency company Moore, have been appointed to wind down the production outfit’s affairs.

According to a notice to creditors, the process is a solvent liquidation, meaning that people or businesses owed money by Saunders & French Productions are expected to be paid in full.

Saunders & French Productions’ latest earnings for the year ended July 2019 showed that it had £281,622 ($369,852) of cash at the bank and in hand. It owed creditors £2,461, according to the Companies House document.

French and Saunders’ agent Maureen Vincent, who also serves as a director at the production company, did not respond to Deadline’s repeated requests for comment at the time of publication.

There were signs of change at Saunders & French Productions when Jon Plowman, the prominent UK comedy producer who launched Absolutely Fabulous, stepped down as a non-executive director in August.

French and Saunders continue to collaborate and in 2017 made a special episode of their sketch show, 300 Years Of French And Saunders, for the BBC through BBC Studios. They both star in Kenneth Branagh’s upcoming Agatha Christie adaptation Death On The Nile.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Pope moves against secretariat of state amid finance scandal

Thu., November 5, 2020



ROME — Pope Francis is giving the Vatican secretariat of state three months to transfer all of its financial holdings to another Vatican office following its bungled management of hundreds of millions of euros in donations and investments that are now the subject of a corruption investigation.

Francis summoned the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, his deputy as well as the Vatican’s top finance officials for a meeting Wednesday and gave them a three-month deadline to complete the transfer, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

The Vatican released the letter that Francis wrote to Parolin on Aug. 25 in which he announced he was stripping the secretariat of state of its ability to independently manage the money.

Francis cited the “reputational risks” incurred by the department's investments in a London real estate venture and other speculative operations that have lost the Holy See tens of millions of euros, some of it money from the Peter's Pence donations from the faithful.

Francis’ decision was an embarrassing blow to the secretariat of state's standing as the most powerful Holy See office, reducing it to essentially any other department that must propose a budget and have it approved and monitored by others.

Its financial holdings are now to be held by the Vatican's treasury office, known as APSA and incorporated into the Holy See's consolidated budget, Francis wrote. The economy ministry will oversee spending.

The outcome is essentially that which was sought years ago by Cardinal George Pell, Francis’ first economy minister who clashed with the secretariat of state over his financial reforms and efforts to wrest control of the department's off-the-books funds. Pell famously boasted in 2014 that he had “discovered" hundreds of millions of euros that were “tucked away in particular sectional accounts and did not appear on the balance sheet" — a reference to the secretariat of state's in-house asset portfolio.

Pell had to abandon those reform efforts in 2017 to face trial for sexual abuse in his native Australia, but he was acquitted and returned triumphantly last month to Rome, where he was granted a well-publicized audience with Francis.

Francis moved against his own secretariat of state amid a year-long investigation by Vatican prosecutors into the office's 350-million-euro investment into a luxury residential building in London's Chelsea neighbourhood .

Prosecutors have accused several officials in the department of abusing their authority for their involvement in the deal, as well several Italian middlemen of allegedly fleecing the Vatican of tens of millions of euros in fees.

The scandal has exposed the incompetence of the Vatican's monsignors in managing money, since they signed away voting shares in the deal and agreed to pay exorbitant fees needlessly to Italians who were known in business circles for their shady dealings.

Just this week, a judge in Italy authorized financial police searches at the homes of one of the Vatican monsignors and two Italian businessmen implicated in the deal, as well as some of their relatives and three related businesses, according to a warrant seen by The Associated Press.

In his letter to Parolin announcing his decision, Francis cited the London venture as well as the secretariat of state’s investment in a Malta-based investment vehicle, Centurion Global Fund, headed by the Vatican’s longtime external money manager.

According to Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Centurion invested in such ventures as the “Rocketman” film on Elton John as well as a holding company headed by Lapo Elkann, one of the more flamboyant members of Italy’s Agnelli clan.

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press