⏪✨The Nexialist #0172

massive floods in brazil | consequences of negationism | natural disaster? | voting green | music makes the people come together | localizing done right | reclaiming green and yellow | sticking around

May 09, 2024

welcome to your weekly batch of brainsparking links, the nexialist

hey, you! i hope this e-mail finds you safe. this week has been an example of what happens when emotional plurality (tn#15) and context collapse (tn#25) go together. my feed and messengers have been dominated by the tragic news of the floods in the south of brazil, where my parents live, and the joy of madonna’s greatest concert in rio. so today’s nexialist is a bit different, as i’m focusing on these two events, with ideas that sparked from them. let me know what you think. thank you 🫀✨

—Rodrigo Turra

Buy Me a Coffee? ☕️

🧉massive floods in southern brazil

more than 2/3 of the brazilian state of rio grande do sul, similar to the size of italy, is underwater after heavy rains. my parents live in one of the more than 300 affected cities. now, at least 85 people are dead, more than 100 missing, more than 121 thousand people had to flee their homes and 1.4 million people are estimated to have been affected. the images and the numbers seem to be taken from a dystopic climate movie, but it’s the sad and nerve-racking reality.

the situation is dire, and lots of thoughts have been in my head (and the internet) about it. i’m clearly not in loco and lots of contents are being shared, so i can only imagine things are worse than i what i see.

before i start, here as some trustworthy links if you’re not from brazil: “please consider donating to Brazil Foundation in this link, this link or this GoFundMe link, which are doing commendable work in distributing the resources and providing relief and support to the affected populations.”

🤷‍♂️consequences of negationism

the intercept showed how an extensive report from 2015 called ‘brasil 2040: scenarios and adaptation alternatives for climate change, warning about extreme weather events in the future, such as excessive rain and floods in the south and droughts in other regions, along with its impacts and possible mitigation measures. the report cost 600k euros, and was archived (then ignored) because it was considered alarmist. in less than one year, this is the fourth heavy rain that hits the southern state, and last year the amazon had a historic drought. the climate tragedy movies always start with people dismissing the scientists.

🌪️natural disaster?

terminology is important: extreme weather events don’t have to become tragedies or disasters. there are mitigation measures in infrastructure and warning systems that can be put in place. there is even a movement to stop using the phrase ‘natural disaster’, as it absolves governments, corporations and communities of their responsibility.

Disasters are not natural occurrences. If the same cyclone or earthquake hits two different regions of the world, the effects would look very different. A cyclone is a “hazard” – defined as a potential source of harm – but it depends on many factors before that cyclone becomes a “disaster.” A hazard cannot become a disaster until it harms a community.
When the damage and loss caused by a disaster is declared “natural” or "act of God," communities and governments are absolved of their responsibility. The word natural takes away the social, political, environmental, and economic context of disasters and fails to recognize the social injustices that exist.

🗳️voting green

the current governor of the state, eduardo leite, dismantled the local climate legislation in 2019 when he came into power. by changing or crossing out 480 points, him and his government favoured businesses and the said economic growth. when questioned about this, he said it’s not the time to find who is guilty but to work on saving people and then rebuilding the state.

Among the main changes are: the relaxation of requirements and the granting of self-licensing in certain cases, in an evident attempt to favor business interests.

meanwhile, the mayor of porto alegre invested nothing on flood prevention in 2023. these were deliberate decisions. these are not cautionary tales, but a real-world impact of how our votes impact our reality. it’s a warning on how we need to vote for candidates who are actively considering the environment, as these events impact reach all other layers.

brainsparks: code red for humanity (tn#32)

🪩music makes the people come together

“music, mix the bourgeoisie and the rebel.” in rio, madonna closed her celebration tour in a historical record-breaking, free concert, the biggest of her career, for 1.6 million people at the copacabana beach. i watched the streaming the next day and my eyes were full of tears and my heart filled with so much joy (and fomo). madonna is the face of the campaign of latin america’s largest bank, itaú and this was supported by itaú.

here are some thought that have been around my head (and the internet):

🧠localizing done right

madonna and her team did their homework. starting with the special guests, anitta and pabllo vittar, our two biggest stars, they found the perfect guests align with madonna’s brand. also, the personality photos projected on the screen were spot-on. erika hilton, marielle franco and paulo freire were some faces i remember. the images of the bright minds lost in the aids pandemic also had brazilian victims like cazuza on the screen during the ‘live to tell” moment. and they had eyes and ears on the streets: her iconic corselet was adapted to the brazilian colors, based in an artist’s mural.

what is also beautiful is what a free concert of this magnitude means for the city and for the people living there. people feel they are part of something bigger (which rio does very well in carnaval and new years), since the announcement until the days after. also, the event also generated more than 50million euros for the city, which is quite impressive.

🇧🇷reclaiming green and yellow

the inhospitable previous government appropriated the green and yellow jerseys for far-right protests causing many brazilians to cringe at the sight of the the country’s colors. seeing madonna with these colors, dancing with pabllo vittar and the samba version of music with paraíso do tuiuti, has overwritten the green/yellow reference in a lot of people’s mind.

🫀sticking around

“the most controversial thing I've ever done is to stick around.” even in university i remember teachers using madonna as a case study: she knows how to be on top of the zeitgeist. it’s impressive that she managed to break the internet and people are still on a high about her show (even politicians that call her satanist were seen dancing at the event.) 40 years later and she is still making the conservatives and moralists fume, which is so revealing. have we moved backwards or what? it just proves that we need madonna and figures like her.

brainsparks: the right to party (tn#7), queer the future (tn#5)

see you next week, virgins🫦✨

🫀✨thank you for reading The Nexialist. This post is public, so feel free to share these brainsparks 🧠✨

🔎If you want to see what I’ve already posted, visit the archive and use the search engine. Even I do that a lot.

💌I want to know what you think/who you are! Your feedback is highly appreciated; you can e-mail me or fill in this short survey. Thank you! 🙏🏻

🔌Let’s Collab?

I truly believe innovation comes from bringing improbable areas together, and that’s why I called this project The Nexialist. Some sectors are known to be self-referencing and hermetic. Sometimes, teams are on autopilot mode, focused on the daily grind, which hinders innovation. As a Nexialist, I like to burst these bubbles, bringing references from different areas, and maintaining teams inspired and connected to the Zeitgeist.

I offer inspiration sessions called Brainsparks, creative desk research (Zeitgeist Boost), Plug’n’Play deals for workshops and sprints, and other bespoke formats. If you want to know more about this, send me an e-mail with your challenge(s) and we can figure something out together. Check out my website and some work I’ve done below:

thenexialist.xyz

The Nexialist