Juno News - January 17, 2023


Booted from the Saudi Pavilion at the WEF


Episode Stats

Length

1 minute

Words per Minute

219.66527

Word Count

350

Sentence Count

19


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.080 I'm joining you from Davos, Switzerland. I've just been thrown out of the Youth Malchus,
00:00:05.120 which is a pavilion here on the main stretch in Davos, hosted by the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation.
00:00:10.800 Now, this is a Saudi Arabia foundation that is a partner of the World Economic Forum,
00:00:16.460 and their mandate, according to the World Economic Forum website,
00:00:20.220 is to discover, develop, and empower Saudi youth to become active participants in the future economy.
00:00:25.980 We walked in off the street. We're checking out all the buildings here, and we were invited on a little tour,
00:00:30.620 my videographer and I. I went along just listening. I didn't even ask any questions.
00:00:35.060 And as we neared the end of the tour, which my videographer had been filming just because we're covering everything in Davos,
00:00:41.000 we were approached by someone who told us we couldn't film.
00:00:43.960 And she actually demanded to see the footage that we had taken of just walking around,
00:00:48.700 seeing the tour that they were providing to get the word out about the work they were doing.
00:00:52.660 I'm not sure why they're here if they don't want people to understand what we're doing.
00:00:56.680 Now, needless to say, we didn't turn over any footage, which we were under no obligation to do.
00:01:01.180 We just politely left. But it's a little bit of an odd thing.
00:01:04.100 Why would you be here to try to get your message out and not actually want people who can bring that message to a larger audience to do it?
00:01:11.040 Now, one thing I would point out is that the building behind me, where the foundation is headquartered,
00:01:15.660 at last year's annual meeting was actually by the Saudi government itself.
00:01:19.380 It was the Saudi Cafe, but now it's got the slightly more palatable sounding Mohammed bin Salman Foundation branding.
00:01:25.640 Now, it wasn't a complete loss, though. I didn't leave without getting a free glass of Saudi hot chocolate.
00:01:30.040 So even when you get thrown out of a place, there still is some nice Saudi hospitality for you.
00:01:33.600 From Davos for True North, I'm Andrew Lutton.