Cancer survivor

# Cancer survivor

## Abstract

A cancer survivor is a person with cancer of any type who is still living. Whether a person becomes a survivor at the time of diagnosis or after completing treatment, whether people who are actively dying are considered survivors, and whether healthy friends and family members of the cancer patient are also considered survivors, varies from group to group. Some people who have been diagnosed with cancer reject the term survivor or disagree with some definitions of it.

How many people are cancer survivors depends on the definition used. Nearly 65% of adults diagnosed with cancer in the developed world are expected to live at least five years after the cancer is discovered. In the U.S. for example, about 17 million Americans alive today—one in 20 people–are either currently undergoing treatment for cancer or have done so in the past (up from 11 million, or one in thirty people, in 2009). Globally, about 45 million people, mostly from wealthier countries, have survived cancer for at least five years.

For many people, surviving cancer can be highly traumatic and it is not uncommon for people to experience psychological distress such as post-traumatic stress-disorder or symptoms of post-traumatic-stress. Some cancer survivors describe the process of living with and beating cancer as a life-changing experience and some people who survive cancer may use the experience as opportunities for creative self-transformation into a "better person" or as motivation to meet goals of great personal importance, such as climbing a mountain or reconciling with an estranged family member. This process of post-traumatic growth is called benefit finding. Cancer survivors often have specific medical and non-medical needs related to their cancer experience.

## Definitions and alternatives

Macmillan Cancer Support in the UK defines a cancer survivor as someone who is "living with or beyond cancer", namely someone who:

- has completed initial cancer management and has no apparent evidence of active disease;

- is living with progressive disease and may be receiving cancer treatment, but is not in the terminal phases of illness;

- or has had cancer in the past.

The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) pioneered the definition of survivor as being any person diagnosed with cancer, from the time of initial diagnosis until his or her death. This definition of survivor includes people who are dying from untreatable cancer. NCCS later expanded the definition of survivor even further to include family, friends and voluntary caregivers who are "impacted by the survivorship experience" in any way. Part of the goal in promoting survivorship was to stop using the older, more discouraging label cancer victim.

The US National Cancer Institute 's Office of Cancer Survivorship uses a definition that focuses on identifying people with a medical history that includes any form of cancer, regardless of their self-identification with the word survivor.

The word survivor is a loaded term. Within the breast cancer culture, survivorship is conferred upon women and men who are perceived as having had emotional or physical trauma, even if their breast cancer was a non-life-threatening pre-cancerous condition like LCIS or DCIS. The term tends to erase and degrade people who are dying of incurable cancer. This idea of survivorship emphasizes and values longevity of life after diagnosis, while overlooking issues of quality of life.

Some people reject the term survivor as being a narrow conceptualization of highly variable human experiences. Alternatives include alivers and thrivers, which put emphasis on living as well as possible, despite limitations and disability. A third term, the diers, is used by some terminally ill patients who reject the claim that dying is part of survivorship or should be covered up with inappropriately optimistic language.

The term previvor has been used to describe unaffected carriers. Unaffected carriers, or previvors, are those who have not been diagnosed with cancer, but who know that they are likely to develop cancer due to certain genetic mutations that form a known cancer syndrome. They have sur vived the pre disposition, or higher risk, of cancer. As such, this is the first generation in human history who, armed with information about a predisposition to a cancer after opting into DNA testing, can make informed choices prior to cancer diagnosis. The typical previvor has tested positive for a BRCA mutation, learned that she is at high risk for developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer, and is attempting to manage that risk through a combination of increased surveillance through mammograms, breast MRIs, pelvic ultrasounds, oophorectomy, bilateral mastectomy, and other medical procedures. There has been controversy over the term previvor, because the name compares these healthy women to people who have already been diagnosed with cancer.

## Needs of cancer survivors

People who have finished cancer treatment often have psychological and physical medical challenges. These effects can vary from person to person, change over time, and range in intensity from mild and intermittent to fully disabling. Different cancers and different treatments cause different long-term side effects. Problems commonly include fatigue, pain, sleep problems, physical side effects like lymphoedema, weight gain, anxiety and depression, fear of cancer recurrence, and impaired quality of life.

### Psychosocial

#### Returning to life

If the treatment is lengthy and disruptive, many patients experience some difficulty in returning to normal daily life. The energy needed to cope with a rigorous treatment program may have caused them to disconnect from previous daily patterns, such as working, normal self-care, and housekeeping. Some survivors become dependent on the attention and sympathy that they received during their treatment and feel neglected when life returns to normal. There are tremendous implications that cancer has on the relationships that survivors have with their loved ones (particularly their partners) once their cancer has been treated, and social support plays a critical role in their long-term emotional adjustment.

Cancer survivors tend to be more resilient than the general population.

#### Ongoing effects

Some survivors have to adjust to the idea that they will never be cured.

Some survivors, even if the cancer has been permanently cured, struggle emotionally from the trauma of having experienced a life-threatening disease. Cancer survivors experience more psychological distress than those who have never had cancer (5.6% compared to 3.0%). Serious psychological distress was seen 40% more among cancer survivors of five years or more than in those who have never had cancer. About 10% develop major depressive disorder; others experience an adjustment disorder. In young adult cancer survivors, one small study found that 20% of participants met the full clinical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and 45% to 95% displayed at least one symptom of PTSD. The NCCN has developed a distress thermometer scale for measuring overall distress in cancer survivors.

Survivors of adult cancer are at an increased risk of suicidal ideation (having thoughts about suicide), while as many as 13% of childhood cancer survivors experience suicidal ideation. Issues of pain and physical ailments have been hypothesized as major contributing factors in cancer survivors experiencing this suicidal ideation.

#### Fear of cancer recurrence

People whose cancer is in remission may still have to cope with the uncertainty that at any time their cancer could return without warning. After the initial treatment has ended, anxiety is more common among cancer survivors than among other people. This anxiety regarding the cancer's return is referred to as fear of cancer recurrence. Many patients are anxious that any minor symptom indicates that the cancer has returned, with as many as 9 in 10 patients fearful that their cancer will recur or spread. In addition to the appearance of any new aches and pains, common triggers for a fear that the cancer may return include hearing that someone else has been diagnosed with cancer, annual medical exams to determine whether the cancer recurred, and news stories about cancer. This anxiety leads to more medical check ups, which can be measured even after a period of up to ten years. This fear can have a significant effect on individuals' lives, resulting in difficulties in their daily life such as work and socialising, and difficulties planning for the future. Overall, fear of cancer recurrence is related to a reduced quality of life in cancer survivors.

This fear is not unwarranted, as both pediatric and adult survivors have a higher than average risk of another cancer (a new cancer, sometimes called a second primary), in addition to the possibility that the original cancer could recur. These new cancers may have been caused by genetic predisposition, by the treatment for the first cancer, or by ordinary risk factors for cancer. Some risk factors, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, overeating, and lack of physical activity, may be things the cancer survivor can modify, with a consequent reduction in the chance of a second cancer.

While fear of cancer recurrence can be adaptive at low levels (e.g., by prompting the person to get appropriate screening tests done), high levels of fear require psychological treatment. As of 2012, there are no psychometrically sound measures of this fear, which makes research into the effectiveness of treatment protocols difficult to interpret. Treatments that are being investigated include: cognitive-behavioural therapy, meta-cognitive therapy, cognitive-existential group therapy, mindfulness-based interventions, and physical exercise.

#### Financial effects

Cancer survivors and their families have often incurred significant expenses or had to forego the opportunity to work regularly during treatment and recovery. When treatment ends, they may be partially or fully disabled, either temporarily or permanently. They may have ongoing costs, such as expensive medications to prevent recurrence or address side effects. As a result, they may experience financial distress. Adult survivors of childhood cancer are twice as likely to be unemployed than healthy controls. The risk of unemployment depends on cancer diagnosis, with survivors of CNS and brain tumors being nearly 5 times more likely to be unemployed, whereas the risk for survivors of blood or bone cancer was found to be elevated but not significantly higher.

#### Survivorship

The cultural ideal of a survivor may add to individual patients' distress if the patient is unable or unwilling to live up to the ideal. As described by Gayle Sulik in her book Pink Ribbon Blues: How Breast Cancer Culture Undermines Women's Health, the ideal survivor is bravely committed to mainstream medicine and optimistic or even certain of a physical cure. She is open about diagnosis and treatment and become an educated, empowered medical consumer. The ideal survivor, like a superwoman who simultaneously manages her home, family, and career, struggles valiantly to prevent cancer from affecting loved ones by appearing, behaving, and working as much as possible. Once the immediate crisis is past, the person may feel strongly pressured to donate time, money, and energy to cancer-related organizations. Above all, the ideal survivor does not die of cancer. People who publicly conform to this ideal are given social status and respect.

### Physical

In terms of medical challenges, some survivors experience cancer-related fatigue, may have long-term side effects from cancer and its treatment, and may need extensive rehabilitation for mobility and function if aggressive surgery was required to remove the cancer. They may experience temporary or persistent post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment. Some young survivors lose their ability to have children.

### Medical monitoring

Cancer survivors frequently need medical monitoring, and some treatments for unrelated diseases in the future may be contraindicated. For example, a patient who has had a significant amount of radiation therapy may not be a good candidate for more radiation treatments in the future. To assist with these needs, survivor care plans have been promoted. These are personalized documents that describe the person's diagnosis and treatment in detail, list common known side effects, and specifically outline the steps that the survivor should take in the future, ranging from maintaining a healthy weight to receiving specific medical tests on a stated schedule. However, these are not widely used, as they have been expensive and complicated to produce.

Medical tests to determine whether the cancer has returned commonly provoke fears. Informally, this is called scanxiety, a portmanteau of scan and anxiety. A desire to avoid feeling this fear can prompt survivors to postpone or refuse tests. This may be able to be helped by the follow-up of people who have had cancer post-treatment being undertaken via self-reported patient-related outcome measures rather than follow-up visits, but there is not enough controlled research looking into this.

Different health systems use different approaches to long-term medical monitoring. In the UK, the risk-stratified shared care model predominates. This means that cancer survivors at low risk of future problems will be monitored mainly by the primary care provider, according to medical guidelines. Those at medium risk might be seen by the primary care provider one year, and then the oncologist the next year. Those at high risk are followed by the oncologist alone. Specialty centers may use a nurse-led model, in which survivors are followed by a nurse, often one who specializes in a particular type of cancer. Large centers may have a multi-disciplinary model, in which a team made up of providers in different specialties work together to meet all of the cancer survivor's needs in the same clinic. Another model, for cancer survivors with high health literacy, is self management, in which the cancer survivor knows what to do, which symptoms require medical advice, and how to obtain help when it is needed.

## Pediatric survivors

Survivors of childhood cancer have a life expectancy up to 28% shorter than people in the general population. Therefore, there is a need to closely monitor these patients for much longer than usual. The Children's Oncology Group recommends that monitoring should include periodic follow-up and screening by a clinician familiar with these patients' risks. Improving these patients' longevity requires recognition and treatment of illnesses associated with late effects in the decades after therapy for childhood cancer. For example, survivors of childhood cancer may have more difficulty than typical with breastfeeding and require more support to undertake this health-promoting activity. Childhood cancer survivors are also at risk for developing kidney diseases. Others experience various forms of heart disease, particularly those exposed to anthracyclines or chest radiotherapy.

One challenge to achieving this goal is that childhood cancer survivors are both very adaptable and accustomed to denying difficulties; as a result, they tend to minimize their symptoms. Therefore, internists may not give them all the attention they need and thus the actual help they may need. Symptom management, health promotion, specific attention to psychosocial needs, and surveillance for recurrence and specific late effects of treatment are helpful. Health behaviour interventions may be able to reduce the impact of some of the chronic issues cancer survivors face by improving their dietary intake. Likewise, physical exercise training interventions may have positive effects on physical fitness, including cardio-respiratory fitness, muscle strength and health-related quality of life.

## Adolescent and young adult survivors

Adolescent and young adult (AYA) survivors, often defined as being between the ages of 15 and 39, have seen advancements in technology and modern medicine causing a dramatic increase in the number of AYA survivors. Prior to 1970, childhood cancer was considered a universally fatal disease. From 1995 to 2000, however, the 5-year survival rate for children diagnosed with cancer was 80%. Significant progress has been built in the last 25 years as there are now approximately 270,000 survivors of pediatric cancer in the U.S., which translates to approximately 1 in every 640 young adults being a survivor of childhood cancer. However, as studies have shown, as patient needs increase, the likelihood of having an unmet need also increases. For the AYA population, 2 out of 3 childhood cancer survivors will develop a complication due to the therapy they received, and 1 out of 3 will develop serious or life-threatening complications, meaning they will need treatment and follow-up care. In addition, AYAs may experience greater difficulties adhering to treatment, which may negatively impact future outcomes.

An AYA survivor faces a variety of issues as a result of their cancer diagnosis and treatment that are unique to their particular age group which differentiate their survivor population from the adult survivor population. For example, AYA survivors report that their education, employment, sexual functioning, marriage, fertility, and other life values are impacted by their cancer. Compared to adult survivors, AYA survivors have a much greater risk of getting a second primary malignancy as a side effect of the treatment for their original diagnosis. It is believed that AYAs have a much higher relative risk of developing a second primary cancer because the intensity of the treatment for their original diagnosis, typically including any combination of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy, is much higher than the level of intensity given to patients over 40. Furthermore, since AYA survivors are diagnosed and treated at such a young age, their length of time as a survivor is much longer than their adult counterparts, making it more likely they will face a second primary cancer in their lifetime.

### Barriers to quality long-term follow-up care

Childhood cancer survivors, in particular, need comprehensive long-term follow-up care to thrive. One way this can be accomplished is through continuous follow-up care with a primary care physician who is trained to identify possible late effects from previous treatments and therapies.

The Children's Oncology Group (COG) has designed a set of survivorship guidelines that hope to aid both health care professionals and survivors themselves, in both the intricacies and basics of long-term follow-up care. The COG recommends that patients or their families put together their own treatment summary, so they can have their treatment history with them when they visit any health care provider. The COG suggests that all survivors include the following in their treatment summaries:

- Name of disease, date of diagnosis, stage of disease, contact information of all clinics and hospitals where care was received

- Names and doses of any chemotherapy received

- Names and doses of any radiation received, and the area of the body that was radiated

- Names and dates of all surgeries

- For people receiving a transplant, the type of transplant, where it was received, and whether chronic graft-versus-host disease developed

- Names and dates of any significant complications and treatment received for those complications

With the treatment summary, experts hope that survivors will be better equipped to maintain quality follow-up care long after their original treatment. This is especially important for the AYA population, in particular, because they are typically facing major social changes regarding their relationship status, employment or education status, their insurance coverage, and even their place of residence, etc. Typically, most of these factors are stable for most older adults, and when they experience any changes, it would usually occur in one or two aspects of their life at a time. However, with people under the age of 40 is when most people undergo the most change. This reality underscores the importance of a smooth transition from child-centered to adult-focused health care services through which they are consistently managed.

### Impact of Affordable Care Act on the AYA survivor population

The US Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 makes it illegal for health insurance providers to deny coverage for a pre-existing condition, such as previously having survived cancer. Young adults are required to have health insurance coverage and, with a few exceptions, will be able to be covered under their parent's coverage until the age of 26 as a dependent in their parent's plan.

## Care

Studies among endometrial cancer survivors show that satisfaction with information provided about the disease and treatment increases the quality of life, lowers depression and results in less anxiety. People who receive information on paper, compared to oral, indicate that they receive more information and are more satisfied about the information provided. The US Institute of Medicine and the Dutch Health Council recommend the use of a written "survivorship care plan", which is a summary of a patient's course of treatment, with recommendations for subsequent surveillance, management of late effects, and strategies for health promotion.

Cancer survivors are encouraged to meet the same guidelines for physical activity as the rest of the population. However, less than one-third of US cancer survivors met the Physical Activity Guideline for Americans. Increased physical activity reduces both all-cause and cancer-specific mortality in breast and colorectal cancer survivors as well as all cancer survivors. In addition, sedentary behaviors, particularly prolonged sitting, were associated with worse survival outcomes. Physical activity improves quality of life among a range of cancer survivors and may also assist with cancer-related fatigue and common co-morbidities.

Diet can also impact long-term mortality, with evidence across various cancer types.

However, adherence to diet and exercise recommendations among cancer survivors is often poor.

Digital behaviour change interventions can be successful at increasing physical activity and may also help with diet in cancer survivors.

In breast cancer survivors, home-based multidimensional survivorship programmes have short-term beneficial impacts on quality of life and can reduce anxiety, fatigue and insomnia. Mindfulness-based survivorship programs may be an effective way to improve the mental health of cancer survivors.

## Family members

Family members can be significantly affected by the cancer experience of their loved ones. They may need to be assessed and treated as a result of the emotional and mental strain. For parents of children with cancer, finishing treatment can be a particularly vulnerable time. In the post-treatment period, some parents may experience increases in anxiety, depression and feelings of helplessness. A sub-group of parents report post-traumatic stress symptoms up to years after treatment completion. Evidence-based psychological interventions tailored to the needs of parents of childhood cancer survivors may assist parents in resuming their normal lives after their child has finished treatment.

Spouses of cancer survivors are more likely than other people to experience anxiety in the years after their partner's successful treatment. Being married reduces the cancer survivor's risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder or other psychological difficulties, but it increases the risk of the spouse developing mental health symptoms.

## Epidemiology

As of 2019, about 17 million people living in the US have previously been diagnosed with cancer. By 2030, that number is expected to increase to 22 million.

Globally, about 45 million people have survived cancer for at least five years. Most of these cancer survivors are from wealthier countries. In the US, about 70% of people survive cancer for at least five years after diagnosis, and almost half will live for ten or more years. About 20% of cancer survivors have lived 20 or more years past their diagnosis.

Because cancer is much more common in older adults, most cancer survivors are older adults. Within the US, about 35% of cancer survivors are children, teenagers, or working-age adults. About 45% of cancer survivors are between the ages of 65 and 80, and about 20% are older than that.

Cancer survivors are more likely to be women. In the US, overall, there is survival difference of about six percentage points between white and Black cancer survivors, though this varies significantly according to the type of cancer.

## History

The idea of cancer survivorship being part of cancer-related care can be traced back to two events. One was the gradual realization that survivors of childhood cancer had some specific, long-term care needs. The other was a 1985 essay written by a physician who was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 32, in which he described his experiences as belonging to three phases, which he called acute survival (active treatment), extended survival (recovering from cancer and its treatment), and eventually permanent survival (the long-term social, psychological, and physical effects on the cancer survivor and their loved ones). The partnership that grew out of that publication became the National Coalition of Cancer Survivorship. The National Cancer Institute's Office of Cancer Survivorship was created in 1995.


2024 Copa Perú

# 2024 Copa Perú

## Abstract

The 2024 Peru Cup season (Spanish: Copa Perú 2024), the largest amateur tournament of Peruvian football. The District Stage (Spanish: Ligas Distritales) started in February - March, and the National Stage (Spanish: Etapa Nacional) started in November. The winner and runner-up will be promoted to the Liga 2 and the 24 Departmental champions will be promoted to Liga 3.

## Departmental stage

Departmental Stage: 2024 Ligas Departamentales del Perú

The following list shows the teams that qualified for the National Stage.

## National Stage

In 2024 the National Stage has grown to 50 teams, and the new National Stage, designed by matchVision, is played under Regional using the POT System, with all the Regions of Peru represented. The National Stage starts in the second week of October.

This phase features the 50 teams that qualified from the Departmental Stage. Each team plays 3 games at home and 3 games away, for a total of 6 games against 3 different geographical rivals. The departmental stage winners only play against departmental runners-up, and vice versa. All the teams are positioned in one general table. After 6 matches, the team in places 1 to 32 are qualified directly to the Round of 32. The teams in places 33 to 50 are eliminated.

The winner and runner-up of the National Stage will be promoted to the Liga 2.

### League table

## Final Rounds

### Quarterfinals

### Semifinals

### Final


List of films with post-credits scenes

# List of films with post-credits scenes

## Abstract

Many films since the 1980s and earlier have featured mid- and post-credits scenes, also known as credit cookies. Such scenes often include comedic gags, plot revelations, outtakes, and/or hints about sequels.


Dušan Mihajlović (footballer)

# Dušan Mihajlović (footballer)

## Abstract

Dušan Mihajlović (Serbian Cyrillic: Душан Михајловић; born 30 June 1985) is a Serbian former football player who played as a midfielder.

He played for Proleter Zrenjanin in 2001, then moved to OFK Belgrade in 2003 before moving to FK Bežanija in 2006. He joined FK Čukarički in January 2009.

Mihajlović moved to several more clubs throughout his career, including GFK Sloboda Uzice (2010), Banat Zrenjanin (2011), FK Backa (2012), FK Bezanija (2016), Vrsac (2017), Partizan Uljma (2018) and Radnicki (2020). He finished his career at Bilecanin in 2022.

He was part of the FR Yugoslavia U-17 team at the 2002 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship.

Mihajlović retired from professional football in July 2022.


Optomotor response

# Optomotor response

## Abstract

In behavioral biology, the optomotor response is an innate, orienting behavior evoked by whole-field visual motion and is common to fish and insects during locomotion, such as swimming, walking and flying. The optomotor response has algorithmic properties such that the direction of the whole-field coherent motion dictates the direction of the behavioral output (e.g., leftward visual stimuli lead to turning left, and rightward visual stimuli lead to turning right). For instance, when zebrafish larvae are presented with a sinusoidal black and white grating pattern, the larvae will turn and swim in the direction of the perceived motion.

## Purpose

The optomotor response is essential for animals to correct unplanned course perturbations while navigating through their environment, such as current shifts around a swimming fish or air gusts around flying insects. The response is rapid and instinctual, with pure delay times of just 20-40ms for fruit flies in flight.

The optomotor response is a central feature of a fly's flight control system: flies subject to unplanned apparent self-motion move to minimize the resultant optic flow (retinal movement patterns) and correct involuntary deviations from course. In their natural environments, full-field optic flow patterns are elicited by distinct flight maneuvers; for instance, rotational optic flow is generated by body rotation during hovering, whereas expansion optic flow is elicited by body translation during straight flight. As such, flies respond to panoramic retinal patterns of visual expansion with robust steering maneuvers away from the expansion point (mimicking an approaching object) to avoid collisions and maintain upwind flight postures.

## Research Applications

The optomotor response is frequently used as a behavioral assay. In zebrafish, the optomotor response is frequently used as a metric of visual performance as it can be reliably evoked from 7 days post fertilization throughout adulthood. The contrast and wavelength (color) of the stripes can be manipulated to assess the specific properties of their visual system, such as testing the contribution of color to motion detection. In flies, the optomotor response is used to understand the functional properties of neural circuits in the context of a specific behavior and examine the sensorimotor transformations underlying that behavior. To describe the physiological or behavioral properties of the optomotor response, researchers typically vary the spatial period of projected visual patterns and their velocity. The stimulus regime is often composed of periods of open-loop large-field rotation or expansion stimuli alternating with periods of closed-loop stripe fixation in which the animal has control of the position of a single vertical bar.

## Characteristics

Both behavioral and physiological optomotor responses have distinct tuning curves for the temporal, spatial and contrast structure of moving images. The magnitude and time-course of the optomotor response to optic flow depends on the temporal frequency of image motion, the spatial period of the display pattern, the periodic contrast and the spatial organization of the stimulus, e.g. rotation or expansion. Typically, low spatial-period patterns (i.e. narrow stripes) produce weaker steering responses than high spatial-period patterns (i.e. wide stripes). The strength of the optomotor response to different temporal frequencies for are state-dependent: stationary flies have a peak temporal frequency optima around 1 Hz, while walking flies have a peak behavior response to optic flow between 1–4 Hz and the optimal frequency during flight is much faster, between 3–12 Hz


2024 Copa Perú


Cargo cult

# Cargo cult

## Abstract

Cargo cult is a term used to denote various spiritual and political movements that arose among indigenous Melanesians following Western colonisation of the region in the late 19th century. Although the term "cargo cult" has been used by anthropologists to "label almost any sort of organised, village-based social movement with religious and political aspirations", features common to most cargo cult groups include the presence of charismatic prophet figures foretelling an imminent cataclysm and/or a coming utopia for followers—a worldview known as millenarianism. Claims made by these prophets varied greatly from movement to movement, with some predicting the return of the dead or an abundance of food. Some movements sought to appease "ancestral spirits or other powerful beings" by either reviving ancestral traditions or adopting new rituals, such as ecstatic dancing or imitating the actions of colonists and military personnel. Some groups foretold the coming of a bounty of Western goods or money as part of their prophecy, although this was not a universal feature of such movements, with other prophets telling their followers to abandon Western goods. Anthropologists have described cargo cults as rooted in pre-existing aspects of Melanesian society, as a reaction to colonial oppression and inequality disrupting traditional village life, or both.

Groups labeled as cargo cults were subject to a considerable number of anthropological publications throughout the 1960s. After Melanesian countries gained political independence, few new groups matching the term have emerged since the 1970s, with some surviving "cargo cult" groups transitioning into indigenous churches and political movements. The term has largely fallen out of favour and is now seldom used among anthropologists, though its use as a metaphor (often based on ideas of "cargo cults" as engaging in ritual action to obtain material goods) is widespread outside of anthropology in popular commentary and critique, based on stereotypes of cargo cultists as "primitive and confused people who use irrational means to pursue rational ends". Recent scholarship on "cargo cults" has challenged the suitability of the term for the movements associated with it, with recent anthropological sources arguing that the term is born of colonialism and prejudice and does not accurately convey the diversity or nature of the movements within the label, though some anthropologists continue to see the term as having some descriptive value, despite the "heterogeneous, uncertain, and confusing ethnographic reality".

## Origin of the term and definitions

The term "cargo cult" first appeared in print in the November 1945 issue of Pacific Islands Monthly, in an entry written by Norris Mervyn Bird, an ‘old Territories resident’, who expressed concern regarding the effects of World War II, the teachings of Christian missionaries and the increasing liberalisation of colonial authorities in Melanesia would have on local islanders.

Stemming directly from religious teaching of equality, and its resulting sense of injustice, is what is generally known as ‘Vailala Madness’, or ‘Cargo Cult’.... A native, infected with the disorder, states that a great number of ships loaded with ‘cargo’ had been sent by the ancestor of the native for the benefit of the natives of a particular village or area. But the white man, being very cunning, knows how to intercept these ships and takes the ‘cargo’ for his own use... By his very nature the New Guinea native is peculiarly susceptible to these ‘cults’

Previous similar phenomena, first documented in the late 19th century, had been labelled with the term " Vailala Madness ", to which the term "cargo cult" was then retroactively applied. Bird took the term from derogatory descriptions used by planters and businessmen in the Australian Territory of Papua. From this issue, the term became used in anthropology following the publications of Australian anthropologists Lucy Mair and H. Ian Hogbin in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Peter Worsley defined cargo cults as follows in his 1957 book The Trumpet Shall Sound:

strange religious movements in the South Pacific during the last few decades. In these movements, a prophet announces the imminence of the end of the world in a cataclysm which will destroy everything. Then the ancestors will return, or God, or some other liberating power, will appear, bringing all the goods the people desire, and ushering in a reign of eternal bliss. The people therefore prepare themselves for the Day by setting up cult organizations, and by building storehouses, jetties, and so on to receive the goods, known as ‘cargo’ in the local pidgin English. Often, also, they abandon their gardens, kill off their livestock, eat all their food, and throw away their money.

In 1964, Peter Lawrence described the term as follows: "Cargo ritual was any religious activity designed to produce goods in this way and assumed to have been taught the leader by the deity".

Anthropologist Lamont Lindstrom has written that some anthropologists consider the term to be a "false category" because it "bundles together diverse and particular uprisings, disturbances, and movements that may have little in common". Lindstrom also writes that "anthropologists and journalists borrowed the term to label almost any sort of organised, village-based social movement with religious and political aspirations", and that their usage of the term "could encompass a variety of forms of social unrest that ethnographers elsewhere tagged millenarian, messianic, nativistic, vitalistic, revivalistic, or culture-contact or adjustment movements". Lindstrom writes that many anthropologists suggest that while "cargo" often signified literal material goods, it could also reflect desires for "moral salvation, existential respect, or proto-nationalistic, anti-colonial desire for political autonomy".

## Causes, beliefs, and practices

Elements that Ton Otto considered characteristic of many cargo cults include the synthesis of indigenous and foreign elements in the belief system, the expectation of help from the ancestors, the presence of charismatic leaders, and lastly, belief in the appearance of an abundance of goods. The indigenous societies of Melanesia were typically characterized by a " big man " political system in which individuals gained prestige through gift exchanges. The more wealth a man could distribute, the more people who were in his debt, and the greater his renown.

Many cargo cults existed in opposition to colonial rule, often linked to burdens placed on villagers by colonial authorities, such as head taxes.

Many cargo cult movements sought to revive ancestral traditions (often in the face of their suppression by missionaries or colonial authorities) such as kava drinking, and/or adopt new rituals such as ecstatic dancing or actions imitative of colonial practices, like flag-raising and marching.

Cargo cults often served to unite previously opposing groups. In some movements, the leaders engaged in authoritarian behaviour in order to uphold the new social order, with a particular focus on the issues of sorcery and sexual activity. In some movements sexual morality was relaxed, ignoring the pre-existing customs regarding exogamy and incest, while in other movements, strict celibacy policies were implemented.

Faced, through colonialism, with foreigners with a seemingly unending supply of goods for exchange, indigenous Melanesians experienced "value dominance". That is, they were dominated by others in terms of their own (not the foreign) value system. Many Melanesians found the concept of money incomprehensible, and many cargo cult movements ordered followers to abandon colonial money by either dumping it into the sea or spending it rapidly, with the prophets promising that it would be replaced by new money and they would be freed from their debts.

Since the modern manufacturing process was largely unknown to them, members, leaders, and prophets of the cults often maintained that the manufactured goods of the non-native culture had been created by spiritual means, such as through their deities and ancestors, or that an ancestor had learned how to manufacture the goods. These leaders claimed that the goods were intended for the local indigenous people, but the foreigners had unfairly gained control of these objects through malice or mistake. Thus, a characteristic feature of cargo cults was the belief that spiritual agents would, at some future time, give much valuable cargo and desirable manufactured products to the cult members.

## Examples

### First occurrences

Discussions of cargo cults usually begin with a series of movements that occurred in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The earliest recorded movement that has been described as a "cargo cult" was the Tuka Movement that began in Fiji in 1885 at the height of the colonial era's plantation -style economy. The movement began with a promised return to a golden age of ancestral potency. Minor alterations to priestly practices were undertaken to update them and attempt to recover some kind of ancestral efficacy. Colonial authorities saw the leader of the movement, Tuka, as a troublemaker, and he was exiled, although their attempts to stop him returning proved fruitless.

Cargo cults occurred periodically in many parts of the island of New Guinea, including the Taro Cult in northern Papua New Guinea and the Vailala Madness that arose from 1919 to 1922. The last was documented by Francis Edgar Williams, one of the first anthropologists to conduct fieldwork in Papua New Guinea. Less dramatic cargo cults have appeared in western New Guinea as well, including the Asmat and Dani areas.

### Pacific cults of World War II

The most widely known period of cargo cult activity occurred among the Melanesian islanders in the years during and after World War II. A small population of indigenous peoples observed, often directly in front of their dwellings, the largest war ever fought by technologically advanced nations. The Japanese distributed goods and used the beliefs of the Melanesians to attempt to gain their compliance. Later the Allied forces arrived in the islands and did this as well.

The vast amounts of military equipment and supplies that both sides airdropped (or airlifted to airstrips) to troops on these islands meant drastic changes to the lifestyle of the islanders, many of whom had never seen outsiders before. Manufactured clothing, medicine, canned food, tents, weapons and other goods arrived in vast quantities for the soldiers, who often shared some of it with the islanders who were their guides and hosts. This was true of the Japanese Army as well, at least initially before relations deteriorated in most regions.

In the late 1930s, the John Frum movement emerged on Tanna in Vanuatu. This tradition urged islanders to resume dancing and kava drinking (which had been suppressed by missionaries) and to maintain historic traditions. The movement predicted American assistance, which as foretold arrived in 1942. The movements rituals were influenced by Christianity, and also included similar elements to other cargo cults like "marching and drilling, flags and poles, and flowers". The John Frum movement has come to be described as the "archetypal" cargo cult.

### Postwar developments

With the end of the war, the military abandoned the airbases and stopped dropping cargo. In response, charismatic individuals developed cults among remote Melanesian populations that promised to bestow on their followers deliveries of food, arms, Jeeps, etc. The cult leaders explained that the cargo would be gifts from their own ancestors, or other sources, as had occurred with the outsider armies.

In attempts to get cargo to fall by parachute or land in planes or ships again, islanders imitated the same practices they had seen the military personnel use. Cult behaviors usually involved mimicking the day-to-day activities and dress styles of US soldiers, such as performing parade ground drills with wooden or salvaged rifles. The islanders carved headphones from wood and wore them while sitting in fabricated control towers. They waved the landing signals while standing on the runways. They lit signal fires and torches to light up runways and lighthouses.

In a form of sympathetic magic, many built life-size replicas of airplanes out of straw and cut new military-style landing strips out of the jungle, hoping to attract more airplanes. The cult members thought that the foreigners had some special connection to the deities and ancestors of the natives, who were the only beings powerful enough to produce such riches.

Cargo cults were typically created by individual leaders, or big men in the Melanesian culture. The leaders typically held cult rituals well away from established towns and colonial authorities, thus making reliable information about these practices very difficult to acquire.

Classification of groups as cargo cults was sometimes controversial. For example, the separatist Hahalis Welfare Society on Buka Island was classed by Australian authorities as a cargo cult, but this was denied by its leaders Francis Hagai and John Teosin.

## Current status

Some cargo cults are still active. These include:

- The John Frum cult on Tanna Island (Vanuatu)

- The Tom Navy cult on Tanna Island (Vanuatu)

- The Prince Philip Movement on the island of Tanna, which worships Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

- The Turaga movement based on Pentecost island (Vanuatu)

- Yali's cargo cult on Papua New Guinea (Madang region)

- The Paliau movement on Papua New Guinea (Manus Island)

- The Peli association on Papua New Guinea

- The Pomio Kivung on Papua New Guinea

However, as of 1993, Lamont Lindstrom reports that "many" Melanesian political movements "must take care" to "explicitly" deny any connection with the cults.

## Theoretical explanations

Anthropologist Anthony F. C. Wallace conceptualized the "Tuka movement" as a revitalization movement. Peter Worsley 's analysis of cargo cults placed the emphasis on the economic and political causes of these popular movements. He viewed them as "proto-national" movements by indigenous peoples seeking to resist colonial interventions. He observed a general trend away from millenarianism towards secular political organization through political parties and cooperatives.

Theodore Schwartz was the first to emphasize that both Melanesians and Europeans place great value on the demonstration of wealth. "The two cultures met on the common ground of materialistic competitive striving for prestige through entrepreneurial achievement of wealth." Melanesians felt "relative deprivation" in their standard of living, and thus came to focus on cargo as an essential expression of their personhood and agency.

Peter Lawrence was able to add greater historical depth to the study of cargo cults, and observed the striking continuity in the indigenous value systems from pre-cult times to the time of his study. Kenelm Burridge, in contrast, placed more emphasis on cultural change, and on the use of memories of myths to comprehend new realities, including the "secret" of European material possessions. His emphasis on cultural change follows from Worsley's argument on the effects of capitalism; Burridge points out these movements were more common in coastal areas which faced greater intrusions from European colonizers.

Cargo cults often develop during a combination of crises. Under conditions of social stress, such a movement may form under the leadership of a charismatic figure. This leader may have a " vision " (or "myth-dream") of the future, often linked to an ancestral efficacy (" mana ") thought to be recoverable by a return to traditional morality. This leader may characterize the present state as a dismantling of the old social order, meaning that social hierarchy and ego boundaries have been broken down.

Contact with colonizing groups brought about a considerable transformation in the way indigenous peoples of Melanesia have thought about other societies. Early theories of cargo cults began from the assumption that practitioners simply failed to understand technology, colonization, or capitalist reform; in this model, cargo cults are a misunderstanding of the systems involved in resource distribution, and an attempt to acquire such goods in the wake of interrupted trade. However, many of these practitioners actually focus on the importance of sustaining and creating new social relationships, with material relations being secondary.

Since the late twentieth century, alternative theories have arisen. For example, some scholars, such as Kaplan and Lindstrom, focus on Europeans' characterization of these movements as a fascination with manufactured goods and what such a focus says about consumerism. Others point to the need to see each movement as reflecting a particularized historical context, even eschewing the term "cargo cult" for them unless there is an attempt to elicit an exchange relationship from Europeans.

### Discourse on cargo cults

More recent work has debated the suitability of the term cargo cult arguing that it does not refer to an identifiable empirical reality, and that the emphasis on "cargo" says more about Western ideological bias than it does about the movements concerned. Nancy McDowell argues that the focus on cargo cult isolates the phenomenon from the wider social and cultural field (such as politics and economics) that gives it meaning. She states that people experience change as dramatic and complete, rather than as gradual and evolutionary. This sense of a dramatic break is expressed through cargo cult ideology.

Lamont Lindstrom takes this analysis one step further through his examination of "cargoism", the discourse of the West about cargo cults. His analysis is concerned with Western fascination with the phenomenon in both academic and popular writing. In his opinion, the name "cargo cult" is deeply problematic because of its pejorative connotation of backwardness, since it imputes a goal (cargo) obtained through the wrong means (cult); the actual goal is not so much obtaining material goods as creating and renewing social relationships under threat. Martha Kaplan thus argues in favor of erasing the term altogether, though other writers like Ton Otto have argued the term remains useful.

## As a metaphor

The term "cargo cult" is widely used negatively as a metaphor outside anthropology. Usage often relates to the ideas of desire (particularly for wealth and material goods) and relatedly consumerism and capitalism, ritual action and the expectation of rational results from irrational means, though the term has been used as a general pejorative for "almost anything that some critic depreciates".

## Works

- God Is American – 2007 film by Richard Martin-Jordan

- The Gods Must Be Crazy – 1980 film by Jamie Uys

- Island of the Sequined Love Nun – Novel by Christopher Moore

- Meet the Natives: USA – television series

## Filmography

- God is American, feature documentary (2007, 52 min), by Richard Martin-Jordan, on John Frum 's cult at Tanna.


Statue of Cecil Rhodes, Bulawayo

# Statue of Cecil Rhodes, Bulawayo

## Abstract

The Statue of Cecil John Rhodes in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe is a bronze sculpture of a British colonialist, businessman and politician who was the founder of British South Africa Company through which he founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia.

The statue was sculpted by a Scottish sculptor John Tweed and was erected in Bulawayo city centre in 1904. In February 1981 after Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, the statue was removed from the city center to the centenary park at the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe.


Matt Lauer

# Matt Lauer

## Abstract

Matthew Todd Lauer (/ l aʊər /; born December 30, 1957) is an American former television news personality, best known for his work with WWOR on 9 Broadcast Plaza (the show that would become The Richard Bey Show) and Cinemax in the with Beyond the Screen, which promoted many big name movies coming out in the late 80s to early 90s, and NBC News. After serving as a local news personality in New York City on WNBC, his first national exposure was as the news anchor for The Today Show from 1994 to 1997. In 1997, Lauer was moved from the news desk to the host's chair, and served as the co-host of NBC 's Today show from 1997 to 2017. He was also a frequent contributor for the evening news magazine Dateline NBC. With NBC, Lauer hosted the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and co-hosted the opening ceremonies of several Olympic Games.

In November 2017, Lauer's contract was terminated by NBC after NBC reported receiving "a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace" and added that NBC had "reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident."

## Early life

Lauer was born in New York City, the son of Marilyn Lauer, a boutique owner, and Jay Robert Lauer, a bicycle-company executive.

Lauer's father was of Romanian Jewish ancestry, as seen on the Today Show ' s Finding Our Roots. Lauer said, "My dad was Jewish. My mom is not. So I was not raised anything. I do feel a desire now to find something spiritual. Getting married and wanting to have kids has something to do with that."

## Education and early career

Lauer earned his undergraduate degree from Ohio University at age 39 in 1997; he had studied at the school's Scripps College of Communication, School of Media Arts and Studies. Lauer had dropped out of the same institution in the spring of 1979 to begin his television career, after he was hired as a producer of the noon newscast for WOWK-TV in Huntington, West Virginia. By 1980, Lauer had become an on-air reporter for the station's 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts.

Lauer then started to move around the East Coast, hosting a number of daily information and talk programs. He was a co-host of PM Magazine in several cities, beginning in Richmond (1980–1981), then Providence (1981–1984), and then New York City (1984–1986). After the New York edition of PM Magazine was canceled by WNYW in 1986, Lauer and co-host Jill Rappaport worked on a new show for the station, Made in New York, which ran for fifteen weeks. This was followed by Lauer gaining his first national television exposure, as he joined Robin Leach in co-hosting ABC 's short-lived daytime series Fame, Fortune and Romance, a spin-off of the syndicated Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Lauer then returned to local television, hosting programs in Philadelphia and Boston for a two-year period between 1987 and 1989, during which time he reported for ESPN and anchored entertainment news segments for HBO.

In September 1989, Lauer returned to New York City, this time to WWOR, and built his career and fame, where he hosted 9 Broadcast Plaza, a three-hour live interview program. Lauer departed that series as it took a turn in booking "tabloid" guests and topics, and for what he relayed as a refusal to live-read ads on the show for Dial-a-Mattress. WWOR-TV replaced Lauer with various guest hosts Buzz Luttrell Robb Weller, Robin Leach, Steve Edwards (talk show host), Weird Al Yankovic, Howard Stern, Richard Bey, and 9 Broadcast Plaza eventually morphed into The Richard Bey Show.

At this time, Lauer was also the original primary host of a popular Cinemax interstitial show, called Beyond the Screen (1988 - 1997; it was interstitial because the show aired on interstitial breaks between programs), which was very popular on Cinemax, causing them to topple HBO in the ratings. In this show, Matt, and many other hosts, would interview many celebrities such as Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Nicole Kidman, Talia Shire, Selma Blair, Jerry Seinfeld, Annabella Sciorra, Kirsten Dunst, EPMD, Tupac, John Singleton, Samuel L. Jackson, Sean Nelson, and many others, for their upcoming movies. The Godfather Part III, GoodFellas, Juice, and Fresh, were among the movies that had their behind-the-scenes featurette premieres on Cinemax, via this show.

In 1990, Lauer was hired by the Kushner-Locke Company to host a pilot called Day in Court, executive-produced by veteran producer David Sams, who helped to launch The Oprah Winfrey Show into national syndication. The program was retitled Trial Watch when it went to series, and ran on the NBC network for two seasons. NBC hired Robb Weller as host over Lauer when the program was picked up as a daily series. That same year, Lauer filmed a pilot for the World Wrestling Federation 's bodybuilding spinoff, the World Bodybuilding Federation for USA Network known as WBF BodyStars, though WWF owner/chairman Vince McMahon later decided to host the program himself. In 1991, Lauer appeared as the co-host (along with Willow Bay) of Etc., Etc., a show on the Travel Channel.

## Career at NBC News

Lauer joined NBC in 1992, when he became co-anchor of the early weekday news show Today in New York on the network's New York flagship station WNBC. The following year, Lauer filled the role of Live at Five co-anchor with Sue Simmons, eventually taking the role permanently and giving up the morning shift by 1994; he was replaced on Today in New York by Maurice DuBois. Lauer remained on Live at Five until 1996.

Lauer's on-camera presence would soon provide him many opportunities with NBC News. Lauer filled in as the newsreader on The Today Show for Margaret Larson when needed from 1992 to 1993. This "audition" period allowed him to join The Today Show full-time in January 1994 as news anchor, while still co-anchoring Today in New York and Live at Five.

Lauer stepped in for Scott Simon, Mike Schneider, Jack Ford and David Bloom as the co-host of Weekend Today, and for Ann Curry as anchor of the former NBC News program NBC News at Sunrise from 1992 to 1997. He had also filled in for Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News. As the Today Show news anchor, Lauer also substituted for Bryant Gumbel on the Today Show before being named the official co-anchor on January 6, 1997, after Gumbel stepped down. On top of Lauer's duties on The Today Show, Lauer also hosted programming on Discovery Channel and MSNBC.

From 1998 until 2011, Lauer embarked on what was generally an annual five-day, globe-spanning adventure called Where in the World is Matt Lauer? on the Today Show during TV sweeps. The segment was named after the PBS game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? from which it borrowed the theme song. This segment sent Lauer to various locations around the world, from where he reported on the importance of each location. Lauer broadcast from locations including Bhutan, Easter Island, the Panama Canal, Iran, Hong Kong, Croatia, and the Great Wall of China. In 2011, NBC News postponed the segment in consideration of the stagnant, unstable U.S. economy.

On some occasions, Lauer conducted interviews that escalated into tense exchanges. During a June 2005 interview with Tom Cruise, Lauer argued with Cruise about psychiatry and postpartum depression, and Cruise called Lauer "glib." In December 2008, Cruise said he regretted the exchange.

On June 19, 2007, Lauer interviewed Prince William and Prince Harry on the tenth anniversary of the death of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

Between 1998 and 2017, Lauer co-hosted NBC's live coverage of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Lauer co-hosted the opening ceremonies of several Olympic Games, carrying on what his former co-host Katie Couric had done since the 2000 Summer Olympics. Lauer co-hosted the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2012 Summer Olympics, the 2014 Winter Olympics, and the 2016 Summer Olympics. His commentary on the 2012 opening ceremonies, along with that of co-hosts Meredith Vieira and Bob Costas, came under fierce criticism, being described as "ignorant" and "banal".

On April 5, 2012, Lauer announced that he had signed a new contract with NBC News through 2017. Forbes estimated that the contract paid Lauer $25 million a year.

It has been widely reported that Lauer had influenced co-anchor Ann Curry 's departure from The Today Show, executed by its executive producer Jim Bell under the name called "Operation Bambi."

During the 2014 Winter Olympics, Lauer replaced prime-time host Bob Costas from February 11–14, after Costas suffered a major eye infection.

In November 2015, Lauer hosted an interview with Charlie Sheen, during which Sheen revealed that he was HIV-positive.

On September 8, 2016, Lauer conducted separate 30-minute interviews with presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, both of which were met with much criticism. Lauer devoted much of the Clinton interview to questions about her e-mail server, and according to critics, appeared to rush through audience-led topics such as domestic terror attacks and veterans' affairs, implying that there was not enough time to cover these in detail. Many also felt that Lauer failed to challenge Trump on alleged inaccuracies, such as his statement that he was "totally against the war in Iraq," which other sources called "lies." CNN reported that the short amount of time for the interviews, the short notice with which they were conducted, and the small amount of audience questions were a major reason for the poor reviews.

On November 30, 2016, it was revealed that Lauer had signed a new contract up to 2018. Variety reported that his salary was $20 million per year. On January 6, 2017, Lauer celebrated his 20th anniversary on The Today Show with a look back at some of his most memorable moments on the show.

## Sexual misconduct allegations

On November 29, 2017, NBC News announced that Lauer's employment had been terminated after an unidentified female NBC employee reported that Lauer had sexually harassed her during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and that the harassment continued after they returned to New York. Andrew Lack, chairman of NBC News, sent a memorandum to his staff that said, in part, "On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer.... While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he's been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident." A network executive said Lauer would not receive any form of monetary settlement because he was fired " for cause ". Lauer's last day on air was November 28, 2017. His contract had been scheduled to run through the end of 2018.

NBC News management said it had been aware that The New York Times and Variety had been conducting independent investigations of Lauer's behavior, but that management had been unaware of previous allegations against Lauer. Later reporting disputed this; Linda Vester, a former NBC News correspondent, said that management had to have known and that "everybody knew" that Lauer was dangerous. In the 2019 book Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, Ronan Farrow cited multiple sources who stated that NBC News was not only aware of Lauer's misconduct beforehand, but that Harvey Weinstein used this knowledge to pressure the program into killing a story that would have outed his own sexual assaults. Variety reported allegations by at least ten of Lauer's current and former colleagues. Additional accusations went public in the ensuing days. NBC acknowledged three additional cases from 2000 to 2007.

In Catch and Kill, Farrow reveals one of the alleged victims as Brooke Nevils, who says Lauer anally raped her in his hotel room while the two were in Sochi covering the 2014 Winter Olympics for NBC. Farrow also writes in his book that Nevils had additional sexual encounters with Lauer after the initial incident, but she characterized those encounters as "transactional", and consented only out of fear that Lauer had control over her career.

In a statement made after his firing, Lauer apologized for his actions, saying, "Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed." Following Nevils' allegation of sexual assault that was published in Farrow's book, Lauer issued an open letter confirming that he had a consensual sexual relationship with Nevils and that the relationship started in 2014 in Sochi, but denying that the initial encounter was non-consensual.

Two weeks after Lauer's firing, Addie Zinone, a former Today production assistant, made an additional accusation, saying that she had a consensual sexual relationship with Lauer in June 2000. Zinone claimed that the relationship was an "abuse of power" on Lauer's part because Zinone said that she felt that turning down Lauer's advances would have hurt her career.

According to Farrow, Today show booker Melissa Lonner claims that Lauer exposed himself to her in 2010 at an NBC cocktail party. He denies this claim and through his lawyer said, "he will not take part in the marketing circus of this book."

In 2008, Lauer was the subject of a roast by the New York Friars Club where several of his colleagues made jokes about his reputation for having relationships with his staff.

## Other work

Lauer made a guest appearance as himself on a live episode of Will & Grace in early 2006.

In November 2006, Lauer and his daughter, Romy, hosted the Sesame Street direct-to-DVD show Sesame Beginnings: Exploring Together. Lauer hosted The Greatest American on the Discovery Channel, which used internet and telephone voting by viewers to select the winner. Lauer was critical of his own program, since it tended to favor well-known figures over others who had less influence in pop culture.

Lauer served as the 2009 Class Day speaker at Harvard University 's undergraduate commencement ceremonies on June 3, 2009.

Lauer has appeared as himself in the 2009 film Land of the Lost, the 2011 film The Beaver and voiced reporter Hark Hanson in the direct–to–DVD animated sequel Curious George 2: Follow That Monkey! Lauer also made appearances in the 2011 films Drew Peterson: Untouchable and Tower Heist; archival footage of Lauer is shown in the 2015 film Straight Outta Compton and the 2017 films Lady Bird and I, Tonya. He also appeared as himself in the TV movies Sharknado 2: The Second One and Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!

## Career timeline

- 1979–1980: News producer and reporter, WOWK-TV, Huntington, West Virginia

- 1980–1981: Co-host, PM Magazine, WXEX-TV, Richmond, Virginia

- 1981–1984: Co-host, PM Magazine, WJAR -TV, Providence, Rhode Island

- 1984–1986: Co-host, PM Magazine, WNEW-TV, New York City

- 1986: Co-host, Made in New York, WNYW, New York City

- 1986–1987: Co-host, Fame, Fortune and Romance, ABC

- 1987–1988: Host, Live on City Line, WCAU -TV, Philadelphia

- 1988–1989: Host, Talk of the Town, WNEV-TV, Boston

- 1989–1991: Co-host, 9 Broadcast Plaza, WWOR-TV, Secaucus, New Jersey

- 1992–1996: Various positions at WNBC-TV, New York City September 1992 – September 1994: Today in New York co-anchor August 1993 – September 1996: early evening newscast Live at Five co-anchor

- September 1992 – September 1994: Today in New York co-anchor

- August 1993 – September 1996: early evening newscast Live at Five co-anchor

- 1992–2017: Various positions at NBC News, New York City 1992–1997: fill-in anchor on Weekend Today and NBC News at Sunrise 1993–1994: Today fill-in news anchor June 13, 1994 – January 3, 1997: Today news anchor January 6, 1997 – November 28, 2017: Today co-anchor 1997–2017: Dateline NBC contributing anchor 1998–2016: Christmas in Rockefeller Center host 1998–2017: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade host 2011–2013: Rock Center with Brian Williams correspondent

- 1992–1997: fill-in anchor on Weekend Today and NBC News at Sunrise

- 1993–1994: Today fill-in news anchor

- June 13, 1994 – January 3, 1997: Today news anchor

- January 6, 1997 – November 28, 2017: Today co-anchor

- 1997–2017: Dateline NBC contributing anchor

- 1998–2016: Christmas in Rockefeller Center host

- 1998–2017: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade host

- 2011–2013: Rock Center with Brian Williams correspondent

## Personal life

Lauer is a grandson of singer Art Gentry. Lauer was married to television producer Nancy Alspaugh from 1982 to 1989. They had no children. He later married Dutch model Annette Roque, whom he met on a blind date in July 1997. Lauer proposed to Roque after five months of dating, and the two wed in Bridgehampton, New York on October 3, 1998. They have three children together.

In 2006, while pregnant, Roque filed for divorce due to "mental abuse, extreme mental and emotional distress, humiliation, torment, and anxiety" by Lauer. They reconciled weeks later. On September 7, 2019, Lauer and Roque officially divorced, following nearly two years of separation in the wake of his 2017 sexual harassment allegations.

Since his firing, Lauer has been living on his farm in New Zealand.