🖕🏻✨The Nexialist #0102

2022, in 7 minutes | year in search | HAHA | what do i do with my hands? | the other vibe shift | how Europe stole Africa | new Zealand reparations | ministry of indigenous affairs | boys alone

Jan 05, 2023

welcome to another batch of sparkful links for your brain, the nexialist

hello, folks! i hope this e-mail finds you ~~well~~ craving for some inspiration. i’m still taking it in the fact that the nexialist reached three digits, wow. this week we start with some retrospective (and a feeling of acceleration), some sarcasm and humour as art and critique, and some inspiring decolonial content. i hope you enjoy this as much as I did while putting it together🫀

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😭2022, in 7 minutes

at this point, it has become a nexialist tradition to open the year with vox’s yearly retrospective. it is quite US centered, but still it is nice to see in 7 minutes some of the most important moments of the year. i realized now how this gives me a sense of acceleration when looking back but also for the year ahead. let me take a deep breath, because i want to slow down.

🔎year in search

it is quite meaningful that 2022’s theme is for this year in search video is change. watching it to start the next year gives us a boost and lights a fire for us to keep changing in 2023.

🤣HAHA

Topical Dancer is an album that should have been in my 2022 list of albums that gave me goosebumps, so here it is. Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul are from Belgium, so we even get to hear a bit of french and dutch in their lyrics. this video appeared on my feed and it is such a joy to watch them perform such a zany track live. it immediately reminded me of the WGSN’s concept that would overwhelm 2023: emotional plurality (TN#15). it starts with happiness, then some sadness, some despair and insanity and the euphoria of such a nice track. the album is so good, the lyrics are so witty and sarcastic, talking about colonialism and sexism with some touch of humour. it’s such a joy, so give it a listen again if you haven’t. the original video is quite cool, and there is a longer performance with a nice interview for KEXP live.

🖕🏻what do i do with my hands?

maybe i’ve shared this before, but shuffle mode brought it back to me this week, and i have to connect it with Charlotte’s HAHA song. i just love this story of making fun of people who take themselves too seriously, and the relatable and awkward feeling of WHAT DO I DO WITH MY HANDS? i just love that in the second and third spoken verses, Sophie teaches us simple etiquette rules of a vernissage while the “i feel love” synthesizer plays.

Always remember to compliment people
(Sincerely, I'm at a party)
Always laugh at people's jokes
(But not too much, I'm at a party)
Smile with your eyes
An interested person is an interesting person
(What do I do with my hands?)
The DJ has a nice beat
(Beat, beat, beat, beat, beat)
I love what you've done with your look
(Look, look, look, look, look)
Tell me what you think about God
(God, God, God, God, God)
Luxurious vagina multi-brand boutique, mm

🃏the other vibe shift

i was feeling this vibe of making fun of the super rich in what i have watched lately: triangle of sadness, the white lotus and even the menu. then comes Ana Andjelic’s short and powerful analysis about this vibe shift at The Sociology of Business. I’m always impressed at her ability to translate the zeitgeist into words. read the whole thing here.

For the longest time, aspiration meant having what the rich have and behaving like the rich behave. With the increasing wealth inequality, the number of people can no longer emulate the rich. Instead, they reject them as a way of regaining identity and control. If the wealthy are so out-of-touch, morally corrupt and repulsive as the social satire represents them, who wants to be like them?

🇪🇺how Europe stole Africa

this week off gave me some time to catch up on content that i was missing online. if you have time, this Johnny Harris series on how europe stole the world is quite powerful and worth investing your time.

🇳🇿new Zealand reparations

When the British colonized New Zealand, they left the country’s indigenous Māori population with nearly no land; war and new diseases they introduced to the islands nearly killed off all Māori. Nevertheless, Māori managed to survive — and for decades they protested against the British crown’s pillaging. By the 1970s, the crown could no longer ignore Māori’s mass uprisings rallying for justice; it was forced to respond and established a tribunal to investigate how it violated Māori sovereignty over New Zealand.
Since 1995, the British crown has been engaged in a process of land settlements with Māori — giving the tribes back land and cash, and offering apologies for their historical and modern-day thefts. By putting billions of dollars into this reparations program since the mid-1990s, New Zealand is leading the world with this kind of atonement and redress.
In this special episode of Missing Chapter, Vox reporter Fabiola Cineas traveled across New Zealand to explore how Māori are using the compensation to build a new future for themselves — and to investigate what the US can learn about reparations from their story.

i always love the videos from this Vox series and this one brought some history from Maori land, which I was not so familiar with. it is also worth investing some time in understanding this kind of reparatory policies and all of its complexities.

⛰️ministry of indigenous affairs

New Amauta @AmautaNew

On his 1st day as president, Lula da Silva has already made massive changes to Indigenous policy by placing Indigenous peoples as leaders. A Thread 🧵 1/

I have to say that i cried during Lula’s presidential ceremony. in the absence of bolsonaro to pass on the presidential sash (spotted at KFC in Florida), people representing Brazilian minorities walked up the Alvorada’s Palace ramp. for the first time i can thank bolsonaro for something: not showing up gave us a beautiful image to give us hope.

i found this twitter thread explaining some of the first steps that the Lula administration is implementing as they put indigenous women and men in power. maybe you think i’m naïve and too hopeful, but you know what… still living in this moment of an imagination crisis and hatred politics, i will allow myself some of that, while keep him and his office accountable for what is coming.

👦boys alone

impact

A post shared by Impact (@impact)

talking about women in power, this impact post on Instagram caught my attention for many reasons. an experiment where kids were left alone in a house was conducted in the early 2000s and recently it went viral, on how boys and girls acted differently. it is quite interesting how it turned out, and i was excited reading this kind of “crowd-analysis.” and how impact was able to synthesize some of that. i want more of that.

see you next week, brainsparks 🧠✨

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