Lack of regional cooperation or outright collaboration has been a decades-long hobby horse of mine: I never understood why meager resources are not being pooled.
It's a bizarre item about Turkish basketball stars being ordered to attend a classical concert in Istanbul, there exposed to music that was putting them to sleep until the orchestra struck up a well-known pop song, and there was a flash-mob scene, the entire audience singing, waving team flags, and shouting their support for Anadolu Efes, their team.