Cockroach makes surprise appearance on Turkmenistani newscast
Recently, during a Vatan, a popular newscast on Turkmenistan’s state TV station, a cockroach (Figure 1) appeared on the news desk. This little fellow jammed around, unnoticed by the anchors, for enough time to make “lap” around the desk before disappearing. The newscast was first aired at 9 PM and rebroadcast at 11 PM. The roach was not noticed until the morning [1].
Figure 1
Turkmenistan’s president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (Figure 2), has, for some time, been trying to bring his once-Soviet nation into the modern world [2]. One of his efforts was to order his minister of culture, Gulmurat Muradov, to fix their aging TV station. Muradov appointed a committee which monitored the station daily from 9 AM – 6 PM. Three hours after the committee members left for the day, the cockroach made his debut on live TV. In response, an irate Berdymukhamedov fired 30 of the stations employees [2].
Figure 2
I would give ANYTHING to see this footage. Seriously, if anybody knows where to find a clip of this, tell me.
[1] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19289547
I read a post by someone claiming to be a foreigner in Turkmenistan, and he said that although he watches this show, he never saw the roach, and nobody he talked with had seen it either. He also pointed out that the government did not provide an exact date for the relevant broadcast. Does anyone have a video clip or even a photo of this alleged roach incident? If so, please show it. Otherwise, it looks as if the government just cut this story from whole cloth as an excuse to get rid of some pesky TV journalists. Why else fire thirty people over a cockroach, instead of just the ones (e.g. janitors, maybe the station manager) in charge of keeping the place clean?