How Saudi Arabia is trying to create the next Coachella
... and other curiosities from Brazil, Japan, and beyond.
Welcome back to another edition of The Detour. In it, a deep dive into Saudi Arabia’s emerging music scene 🎹, the curious friendship between dolphins and fishermen in Brazil 🐬, and the psychological term for immaculate vibes 😎.
But first, here’s a taste of what’s happened in the world in the last week or so:
100 meters — The range of Japan’s target zone when its spacecraft landed on the moon Saturday. It’s the most accurate soft-land in spacecraft history. Three cheers for the spacecraft SLIM, which touched down in Shioli crater, just south of the lunar equator.
40% — The percentage of jobs that will be affected by AI worldwide, according to an analysis released this month by the IMF. The international lender has implored countries to begin building safety nets for industries that will be impacted most by the technology.
170 million tonnes — The amount of mining waste the Norwegian mining company Nordic Mining will be allowed to dump into the Førde Fjord following a court ruling earlier this month. Although the mine could provide hundreds of jobs, environmentalists say the waste will impact spawning grounds for cod and salmon, and will damage the limited sites where whales and porpoises congregate.
500,000 — The approximate number of Afghan refugees that has been forced to return to Afghanistan in the last four months, following massive crackdowns on foreigners in Pakistan. Pakistan’s new policy, instituted on September 15, may eventually impact the estimated 1.3 million Afghan refugees who have relocated to the South Asian country. Meanwhile, global agencies are in panic mode: The World Food program called for $26.3 million USD to provide emergency food assistance to these and future returnees.
43 — The number of countries that are now malaria-free, according to the World Health Organization. Earlier this month, Cape Verde became the first sub-Saharan African country in 50 years to be officially declared malaria-free by the global health body.
Now onto the main course: Less than a decade ago, music was banned across Saudi Arabia: Drivers couldn’t play the radio in their cars. Live music gatherings, even small ones among friends, were clandestine. And musical artists carved out a completely underground network to hone their craft.
Then came a striking royal decree in 2016 by Crown Prince Mohamad bin Salman. It dismantled the power of local authorities to crack down on music and paved the way for a $64 billion USD investment into the music industry by 2030.
Today, the country’s music industry is booming. But what is the Kingdom’s sudden motivation? Journalist Zinya Salfiti explains that it’s all part of a larger plan the Kingdom claims will detach Saudi Arabia from its economic reliance on oil while dominating key global industries from sports to live entertainment. Critics say the Kingdom is boosting its cultural and musical capital to distract from its human rights abuses.
Honorable mention: 2023 was the year of the girl. Journalist Isabella Grullón Paz unpacks how the Barbenheimer craze, Taylor Swift and Beyonce’s record-breaking tours, and viral internet trends like Girl Dinner and Girl Math created a perfect storm for the hyper-femme to take hold. Paz speaks to sociology experts and social media marketing connoisseurs to understand this cultural flashpoint — and what it says about Gen Z’s hold on the internet today. Read it here.
According to a 2022 poll by Statista, Americans are reading less books. So if you haven’t chiseled away at your New Years’ resolution to clock in more pages, don’t worry. This week, we’ll publish an excerpt from the journalist Liz Flock’s latest work, The Furies, and we think it’s one to jump on asap. The correct answer to this and last week’s quiz is at the bottom of the newsletter.
The fishermen of the tiny beach town of Laguna, Brazil, have a curious partnership with the local dolphins. In an exchange that has been forged over a century, Laguna locals wade in the lagoons expectantly, waiting for a long-studied signal from the dolphins to cast their nets. Meanwhile, the dolphins shepherd clouds of mullet fish toward the fishermen. This bond has allowed locals to net exponentially more fish, and the dolphins then clean up what the fishermen don’t catch. With the ever-compounding impacts of climate change destroying ecosystems and threatening precious equilibrium among species, perhaps more reciprocal friendships of these are in order. (My sister’s dog Elsa single-handedly upholds my mental well-being in the winter. And in turn, she gets treats and belly rubs. Does that count?)
All this week — Monarch butterflies gather in Mexico after migrating around 2,500 miles from the U.S. and Canada. They can be observed in abundance at Piedra Herrada Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary near Valle de Bravo, a three or so hour drive from Mexico City. Monarch butterflies then migrate northward again in March.
On Sunday, January 25 — The U.N.-led Global Forum on Migration ends This week-long gathering has placed special emphasis on countering the impact of climate change on migrants. So far, climate change has triggered unprecedented increases in refugees worldwide: In 2022, the U.N. counted 32.6 million displaced persons due to climate crises — a cohort just under the entire population of Peru.
"While conflict has long been the biggest driver of protracted internal displacement, disasters have caused more new displacements in recent years. We must act now to prevent them becoming protracted,” the IOM Director General Amy Pope said at the forum.
On Tuesday, January 27 — Finland has its federal elections. The country is the latest to join the international military alliance, NATO, amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Nine candidates are in the running, but experts say two former foreign ministers, Alex Stubb of the right-wing National Coalition Party and Pekka Haavistohas of the Green Party, have the highest hopes of victory.
Wednesday, January 28 - The Sundance Film Festival closes. On this day, awards are given to top films and filmmakers. Among the favorites are the films Didi, Freaky Tales, and Love Me. And one that our founder and CEO Ben loved when he was here this weekend was Exhibiting Forgiveness. It’s about a painter and his father and is absolutely stunning.
Do you know that feeling when you’re at a concert and you become in-synch with everyone in the crowd, as if you’re all intuitively connected? It can come with a euphoria, and a sense that you are part of something bigger.
This is a phenomenon that the French sociologist Emile Durkheim called collective effervescence. He defined it as a moment in social life when a group of people come together and experience the same thought or perform the same action in unison. He has some cool ideas on how common venues of collective effervescence like concerts or religious services can help define community identity.
Fun fact: The musician Maggie Rogers explored collective effervescence in her 2022 Master’s thesis at the Harvard Divinity School, titled: “Surrender: Cultural Consciousness, the Spirituality of Public Gatherings, and Ethics of Power in Pop Culture”.
— Ben
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Until next week,
Kelly at Frame