meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
From Our Own Correspondent

The Mermaid of Madagascar

From Our Own Correspondent

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.41.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2015

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Storytelling, writing and looking beyond the news spotlight. Today: warm orangeade, a tot of rum and some chain-smoking - all part of daily life for the fishermen and women of Madagascar who've harnessed new conservation techniques to long-standing traditions. Also, a despatch from south-eastern Turkey, where renewed hostilities between government forces and Kurdish PKK militants have left efforts to establish a long-term peace in shreds; there's an examination of the reasons why Russia has chosen to step up its military activity in the Middle East; the Spanish bullfighting season's coming to an end and many now wonder if the same will soon be said of bullfighting itself. And why tonight's big rugby match at Twickenham might set off some wild, if lonely, rejoicing in a small hotel room in Japan.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello, this is the From Our Own Correspondent Office in London.

0:03.4

Thank you for downloading our latest programme.

0:05.7

It's introduced by Kate Aide.

0:07.4

Hello, today the barricades are going up again in Southeast Turkey

0:12.4

as the government resumes its fight against the Kurdish

0:15.2

PKK militants.

0:17.8

Russia intensifies its bombing campaign in Syria, but why has Moscow decided to get involved? We meet the Mermaid of Madagascar, who likes

0:27.3

a tot of rum and knows a thing or two about fishing, and the lucky Spanish bulls who've cheated death in the ring and landed a life of fresh air, good food and sex.

0:39.0

More than a hundred policemen and soldiers and hundreds of militants have been killed in Turkey since the

0:45.1

collapse of a ceasefire with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK in July.

0:51.6

The latest two soldiers to die were shot by suspected Kurdish

0:54.9

militants on Thursday as they made their way to work in Diyarbakir province.

0:59.5

There are concerns now that the country could be on the way back to the armed

1:03.7

conflict of the 1980s and 90s that killed 40,000 people. Turkish police this

1:09.7

week rounded up scores of men and women suspected of having links with the PKK.

1:15.3

And it's clear the renewed hostilities have left efforts to establish a long-term peace in Tatars,

1:21.4

as Mark Lowens been finding out in the southeast of the country.

1:25.3

He must have been about four years old.

1:28.1

We watched as he swept the rubble outside his home, a mixture of broken barricades and rubbish that had piled up during a curfew imposed by the authorities.

1:37.0

He spotted us and stopped. My colleague spoke to him gently in Turkish.

1:42.0

And then the little boy burst into tears and ran inside.

1:46.4

Puzzled we followed finding his mother he was hiding beneath her skirt.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.