Research Area: (Topic released at tournament)

Music, Culture and Politics

Suggested Readings:

'Very cool': The 70s Afro-rock genre enjoying a surprising rebirth: When devising her third studio album, Sampa the Great looked to the niche, brief musical movement that ignited her birth country more than 50 years ago.
Zamrock Before Zamrock: A Guide to the Early Sounds of Zambia’s Copperbelt: In 1970s Zambia, young bands armed with fuzzy, distorted guitars and flared bellbottoms built their own rock revolution in the Copperbelt. “Zamrock,” as it was later named, emerged from a moment when music became a vehicle for liberation and modern identity.
Ireland’s basic income for artists changed my life. Other people deserve the same luck: A pilot scheme offering some artists €300-plus a week for three years is being made permanent. But should something so fundamental be run like a lottery?
Did the SABC ‘change tack’ on local music quotas?: The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has commended the SABC on its decision to raise the quota for South African music played on its stations to 90%. But in one of its own documents, published in the Government Gazette in March, it quotes the SABC saying a suggested 70% quota was too high and could lead to loss of audiences.
How The South Korean Government Made K-Pop A Thing: In the late '90s, when Asia went through a huge financial crisis, South Korea's leaders decided to use music to improve its image and build its cultural influence. So the country's government poured millions of dollars into forming a Ministry of Culture with a specific department devoted to K-pop.

Pre-released Motion:

Zambia should encourage the construction of new data centers in the country

Suggested Readings:

Huge data centres rise at 'China speed' to power its AI ambitions: In the expansive grasslands of Inner Mongolia, farmers are picking plump potatoes alongside new neighbours: huge, rectangular blocks that will fuel China's AI platforms.
What Is A Data Center And Why Are They Suddenly Everywhere?: Data centers reliably store and process vast amounts of data. Many businesses have relied on them for decades, but what's changed is that data centers are now being built to train and run AI, which needs more power and specialized hardware.
SA’s data centre boom exposes a dangerous digital governance paradox: Cape Town’s authorisation of two colossal data-centre complexes has ignited the predictable chorus of public alarm. The arithmetic alone is staggering: an annual electricity demand of 174 megawatts and billions of litres of water in a country already struggling with energy instability and chronic water stress.