Rest is resistance.
Sipping warm tea before bed in the dark.
Morning! Happy Friday!
This week, I have been listening to the audiobook version of Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey, the founder of The Nap Ministry. Her mantra is “This is about more than naps,” instead, she views rest as a necessity (not a luxury) that is about a deep unraveling from white supremacy and capitalism. The book details her journey to understand that rest is a form of political defiance in a culture obsessed with productivity and exploitation. While hustle culture glorifies overwork and equates productivity with self-worth, rest rejects this mindset (which she sees as a tool of oppression) and enables us to embrace slowness and intentionality as a way to prioritize mental, physical, and spiritual health.
“What if we simply saw our birth, living, breathing and connection with ourselves and our families as enough. This deep knowing of our divinity without doing another thing.”
I’m halfway through so far and finding it very interesting. I have taken lots of notes and am sharing with you the 20 examples she provides of ways that you can rest (although she emphasizes that it will look different for everyone and you must know your body):
Closing your eyes for 10 minutes
Taking a longer shower in silence
Meditating on the couch for 20 minutes
Daydreaming by staring out the window
Sipping warm tea before bed in the dark
Slow dancing with yourself to slow music
Experiencing a sound bath or other sound healing
A sun salutation
A 20-minute timed nap
Praying
Crafting a small altar for your home
A long, warm bath
Taking regular breaks from social media
Not immediately responding to texts and emails
Deep listening to a full music album
A meditative walk in nature
Knitting, crocheting, sewing and quilting
Playing a musical instrument
Deep eye contact
Laughing intensely
One of my greatest joys is taking a long shower in silence, as is sipping warm tea, which is exactly what I am doing now. Except I am also writing this newsletter and am not in bed and not in the dark…baby steps.
EV News
Now that I am an EV owner, I’m becoming quite the interested researcher in the global market. Shrug.
China’s EVs are coming for the world. One of the things we noticed while in Mexico City was the number of Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads. For one of our Uber rides, a BYD (Build Your Dreams…cute) EV pulled up, offering us our first opportunity to be a passenger in one of these cars. While it may not be the first EV company that comes to mind, if you include plug-in hybrid vehicles, it is the world’s best-selling EV company, backed by investor Warren Buffett. BYD dominates the domestic Chinese market, accounts for more than three-quarters of Thailand’s EV sales, and is now trying to replicate that success in other parts of the world. BYD cars have superior battery technology, which allows the company to keep prices much lower than the competition (like $11,500) while maintaining—and often improving—performance. You are highly unlikely to see them in the US, though. Earlier this year, Biden announced a 100% tariff on Chinese-made EVs, and even before that, Chinese makers were selling almost zero in the US.
Meanwhile, Mercedes is working on a coating that would charge your EV from the sun. A solar-paneled car, if you will.
In Norway, EVs account for more than 94 percent of new car registrations, a staggering number and something to celebrate while also being mindful that its decarbonisation is built on the profits of oil and gas extraction, 90 percent of which is sold abroad.
While the number of electric passenger cars is growing, the global fleet of electric scooters and three-wheelers is really powering the EV revolution. Last year, 274.7 million were on the road.
Everything Else
South Korean protesters are using K-pop light sticks and dancing to protest against President Yoon Suk Yeol. Apparently, they are also changing the lyrics to Christmas songs to demand presidential impeachment, and food trucks are churning out delicious Korean food. Meanwhile, North Korea has NOT used this opportunity to launch a missile, which is very out of character.
Temu has arrived in Nigeria. Ugh. Local businesses are worried (as they should be).
Do we think King Charles is going to respond to the letter from Māori tribes?
Vogue Business’s Senior Sustainability editor is leaving. Rachel Cernansky (whose reporting work I have long admired) announced on LinkedIn that she is departing and that “the world needs bigger and faster change.”
Bags and charms made in Lebanon by Syrian artisans experiencing refugeehood. Personally, I love this one.
Fashion brands can no longer say, “Our products don’t end up in Ghana’s waterways,” because the labels are proof. The quantity (and quality) of garments is so bad that they are colloquially referred to as obroni wawu—or “dead white man’s clothes.”
The US and UK sanctioned gold smuggler and Kenyan-British businessman Kamlesh Pattni. He allegedly bribed officials in Zimbabwe to earn illicit profits from the country’s gold and diamond trade and then moved dirty money around the world. Last year, Al-Jazeera conducted a four-part investigation into criminal gangs that control gold exports in Southern Africa (it is called Gold Mafia, and you can watch it on YouTube), and he was prominently featured in it. I’m just curious how these people wake up each morning and do not think they will get caught…
Kirsha Kaechele (the artist) and a male butler. Courtesy of Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania Ladies Lounge is back in action. The women-only exhibition is a luxe parlor where men exist only to serve the needs of women as they lounge, snack on canapés, and sip champagne, all as commentary on a long history of discrimination in the other direction. A MAN filed a discrimination complaint about it (of course he did), but ultimately a Tasmanian Supreme Court Judge decided in favor of the artist, writing in his judgement that the work gave women “a rare glimpse of what it is like to be advantaged.” Who wants to do a trip to Tasmania??!
A Ukrainian DJ plays a set with all Ukrainian music. Airmail profiled her here, and she said, “We’re going to keep going. If we were tired, there would be no Ukraine.”
Chicago has a new Michelin-starred restaurant, Cariño, in Uptown. The chef and owner, Norman Fenton, calls it “a love letter to Mexico.” Reservations are going fast, but I *think* I have one for the end of January.
Illinois is racing to become the “global quantum capital.” The state and City of Chicago are putting themselves at the forefront of quantum computing with the ginormous Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park planned for South Chicago. This project has been in the works for a while, and on Wednesday, the City Council gave it the final go-ahead. A day later (yesterday), IBM announced that it would be joining the campus.
“We’re making Illinois the global quantum capital and the center for job growth in the quantum industry — a true center of innovation with the power to solve the world’s most pressing and complex challenges and create jobs and investment for our state,” Governor Pritzker said in a statement.
I hope you have something fun or restful - or maybe both - planned for this evening!
Talk to you in the comments,
Jennifer
xxx