Make music – followthethings.com

“The Luckiest Nut In The World“
An animated film written, produced & Directed by Emily James for Fulcrum TV, broadcast in the UK on Channel 4’s Alt-TV series.
Film embedded in full above. Search online for shorter versions and versions with subtitles here.

Who better to explain the rules of international trade than a commodity that has seen it all? An American peanut who wears a stetson hat, plays the guitar, and sings songs about the rules of world trade that work in his favour. Along the way he enlists help from experts and from public information films. Yes, he’s the ‘luckiest nut in the world’ and, as he learns about other less lucky nuts around the world (groundnuts in Senegal, cashew nuts in Mozambique, and brazil nuts in Bolivia), he finds out that it doesn’t have to be this way. All of the world’s nuts – and the people and economies that could benefit from growing and selling them – could be just as lucky is the rules governing world trade weren’t stacked against them. Filmmaker Emily James uses animation to do the impossible: to make these rules, and the inequalities they help to create, not only understandable but entertaining. The film becomes a hit with school teachers. Some of their students say they’re bored with its content, but others say they can’t help humming the songs, mouthing their WTO lyrics. It’s a catchy way to learn some pretty boring but important information about hope the world works (and years before Horrible Histories began). This is an early example of animated film doing what and academic cook or a documentary films cannot. In this case, making abstract content accessible, making the hidden visible, and explaining trade injustice to wider publics in an engaging – funny, weird, you name it – way. ‘What would commodities tell us about their lives if they could talk?’ is an intriguing question that’s answered in some of the earliest follow the thing ‘it-narrative’ writing [see our page on a 1760 travel novel written by a coin here]. ‘What would a commodity sing about its life if it could … um … sing?’ is a question answered, in our experience, only by this film. Thank you Emily.

Page reference: Ian Cook et al (2011) The Luckiest Nut In The World. followthethings.com/the-luckiest-nut-in-the-world.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 19 minutes.

Posted on October 14, 2024January 5, 2025 by Ian Cook

Dow Vs Bhopal: A Toxic Rap Battle

followthethings.com
Home & Auto

SHOW CAPITALIST EVILS

CHANGE CITIZEN BEHAVIOUR

CHANGE GOVERNMENT BEHAVIOUR

CHANGE CORPORATE BEHAVIOUR

START SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT

“Dow Vs Bhopal: A Toxic Rap Battle“
A music video by Sofia Ashraf published on YouTube.
Embedded in full above.

Chennai rap musician Sofia Ashraf’s Nicki Minaj-sampling protest song ‘Kodakainal Won’t’ goes viral on YouTube in 2015, drawing attention to a Unilever factory in India dumping mercury into the environment. A year later, she releases this video to draw attention to the most notorious industrial disaster in Indian history: an explosion at the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal in 1984 which released poisonous gas that killed more than 15,000 people and sickened over half a million more. A campaign has been running ever since for the victims to be compensated and the toxic legacy of the explosion to be cleaned up, even after Union Carbide was bought by Dow Chemical. Ashraf revived a rap written and performed in 2008 to support an NGO petition to the US Government’s Department of Justice to hold Dow Chemical to account. If the petition reaches 125,000 signatures, the DoJ is obliged to respond. In the video, Ashraf performs both sides of the argument as she sees it: the Indian activist side calling Dow Chemical to account, and the US government’s disdainful approach to those demanding compensation. The video encourages people to sign the petition. The 125,000 goal is reached. But what does this unlock? What can protest music do for trade justice activism?

Page reference: Nicole Sparks, Ginny Childs, Allie Short, Kat Cook, Lauren Warner & Sophie Wolf (2016) Dow Vs Bhopal: A Toxic Rap Battle (taster). followthethings.com/dow-vs-bhopal-a-toxic-rap-battle.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes.

Posted on September 20, 2024January 5, 2025 by Ian Cook

Diamonds Are From Sierra Leone

followthethings.com
Gifts & Seasonal

2005

UNBRANDED

DIAMONDS

MINED IN SIERRA LEONE

BOUGHT IN THE USA

MUSIC VIDEO

CHANGE CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER

INCLUDE SUFFERING KIDS

MAKE THE HIDDEN VISIBLE

FIND LOST RELATIONS

ADD TO THE MIX

ENCOURAGE A BUYCOTT

“Diamonds Are From Sierra Leone“
A music video starring Kanye West & Jay-Z, directed by Hype Williams, music by Kanye West, Jon Brion & Devo Springstein, for Roc-A-Fella Records.
Embedded above.

Kanye West is writing and recording a new song commemorating the rebirth of his label Roc-A-Fella Records, including conflicts within the organisation and its hand-signal which is the shape of a diamond. Q-Tip, a former member of A Tribe Called Quest, then alerts him to the ‘blood diamond’ scandal in Sierra Leone. So West changes the title of the track to ‘Diamonds are from Sierra Leone’. And makes a powerful black and white music video about the supply chain linking the country’s child diamond miners to wealthy white diamond consumers shopping in high end jewellery stores in the USA. A small, black, child’s hand appears from beneath the counter to hand these consumers the precious blood diamond they crave. The video ends with a converted luxury car ramming the store and a screen with a plea: ‘please buy conflict free diamonds’. The video wants to raise awareness of the issue. But audiences point out how a diamond-encrusted mask that West wears on stage, and the bling culture he brags about, makes this plea a bit hypocritical. His core fans are also not impressed by the song’s sample of Shirley Bassey’s ‘Diamonds Are Forever ‘ (plus some harpsichord sampling) on the album where this track appears. So he returns to recording more traditional Crack Music that his fans want to hear. Nevertheless, the message of ‘Diamonds Are From Sierra Leone’ gets through. Audience members are questioning the origins of their diamonds. So is this a successful example of trade justice activism despite – kind of – not being trade justice activism?

Page reference: Hector Neil-Mee, Hannah Willard, James Kemp, Harvey Dunshire, Maddy Morgan & Luke Jarvis (2024) Diamonds Are From Sierra Leone (taster). followthethings.com/diamonds-are-from-sierra-leone.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes.

Posted on September 20, 2024January 26, 2025 by Ian Cook

Tackle The Shackles

followthethings.com
Security

END VOILENCE & EXPLOITATION

CHANGE GOVERNMENT BEHAVIOUR

START WITH A PARADOX

TARGET THE RIGHT BRAND

SHOW THE VIOLENCE

BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER

MAKE MUSIC

EMBODY EXPLOITATION

PLACE THINGS CAREFULLY

DISRUPT THE SUPPLY

PUT YOUR BODIES IN THE WAY

HOLD ‘EM ACCOUNTABLE

“Tackle The Shackles“
Two protests organised by Reprieve, Amnesty International, Save Omar Campaign & the Birmingham Guantanamo Campaign at Hiatt & Co, 111-115 Baltimore Road, Birmingham, UK (see map) on 8 September 2005 & 11 January 2007.
Selected photographs above. Featured in a scene from the documentary film ‘Taking Liberties since 1997’ (check streaming availability here and start at 1hr 20 minutes).

British citizens and residents are detained in the USA’s Guantanamo Bay detention centre, but none are charged with a crime. They notice the Hiatt & Co. leg irons restraining them are ‘Made in England’, or ‘Made in Birmingham’, just like them. When some go on hunger strike in 2005, and when the 5th anniversary of the camp’s opening takes place in 2007, musicians, doctors, lawyers, comedians and activists protest outside the Birmingham, UK factory where they are made. They dress as Guantanamo inmates and dance the ‘shackle shuffle’ to a live band performing on a flatbed truck. Former detainees, their family members, lawyers, celebrities and activists carry photos of detainees and give speeches. People chain themselves to railings and deliver a cake to the factory. Historically, protestors say, leg irons and other restraints were made in Birmingham to chain enslaved African people in the days of the British Empire. Their use at Guantanamo, they argue, is unethical and illegal. Does the export of these leg irons comply with the UK Government’s obligations under International law? Especially as Hiatt is owned by the UK’s BAE Systems and because the New Labour Government of the time had been loudly trumpeting its ‘ethical’ foreign policy. One detainee’s lawyer says, ‘If an ethical foreign policy means anything, it means not profiting from the torment of our own people.’ The protestors want to make this paradox mainstream news, and they succeed. In this trade justice activism, the violence and exploitation is found not where the commodity of produced, but where it is ‘consumed’. Hiatt closes its Birmingham factory and moves production to the USA. So, does this trade justice activism count as a success?

Page reference: Diana Shifrina (2013) Tackle The Shackles. followthethings.com/tackletheshackles.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 54 minutes.

Posted on September 20, 2024January 5, 2025 by Ian Cook

The First Ever Pacemaker To Speak For Itself

followthethings.com
Health & Beauty

2014

UNBRANDED

HEART PACEMAKER

MINED IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO

REDESIGN THE COMMODITY

ENCOURAGE THANKFULNESS

“The First Ever Pacemaker To Speak For Itself“
Undergraduate coursework made and recorded by Jennifer Hart
Images of the pacemaker and packaging submitted is in the slideshow above, the song is embedded below.

The students’ first task in the ‘Geographies of Material Culture’ module at the University of Exeter is to make a personal connection between their lives and the lives of others elsewhere in the world who made the things they buy. These are the people who help you to be you, followthethings.com CEO Ian tells them. So choose a commodity that matters to you, that’s an important part of your identity, that you couldn’t do without. Think about its component parts, its materials, and what properties they give to that commodity and your experience of ‘consuming’ it. Student Jennifer Hart feels guilty about the conflict minerals in her mobile phone. Then she finds that the heart pacemaker her mum is having fitted also contains those minerals. It’s a lifesaving operation. How can she reconcile her mum’s suffering and that of these minerals’ miners? How best can she express her feelings about this technological object? By making a pacemaker that knows what she knows, feels what she feels, and can sing about it. A pacemaker that can express a huge thank you.

Page reference: Jennifer Hart, J. (2014) The First Ever Pacemaker To Speak For Itself. followthethings.com/pacemaker.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated listening & reading time: 10 minutes.

Posted on September 20, 2024January 5, 2025 by Ian Cook

Radi-Aid: Africa For Norway

followthethings.com
Home & Auto

DISTRIBUTED IN NORWAY

NGO CAMPAIGN

CHANGE ACTIVIST BEHAVIOUR

CROSS CULTURES

START SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT

FLIP THE SCRIPT

MAKE IT FAMILIAR

CHOOSE AN AUDIENCE

LIE TO TELL THE TRUTH

“Radi-aid: Africa For Norway“
NGO video campaign by and for The Norwegian Students’ & Academics International Assistance Fund (SAIH).
Video playlist embedded above. Campaign website here.

It’s unusual to find a humanitarian campaign where people in the Global South take pity on people in the Global North and send them aid in the hope that it will improve their miserable, pitiless lives. The kind citizens of many African countries, blessed with warmth that many take for granted, get together to help the people of Norway who are suffering terribly from freezing cold temperatures. What better to send them? Electric radiators. Charity workers collect and deliver them to grateful aid recipients. They even record a charity single and video to raise awareness and funds, like Band Aid’s ‘Do they know it’s Christmas?’ or USA for Africa’s ‘We are the world’. Their song is just as awful. Just as patronising. Just as one dimensional. Just an inaccurate. Just as tear-jerking. This is a campaign by a Norwegian development NGO that wants to challenge the ‘white saviour complex’ that so much European development NGO fundraising is based upon. What if the tables were turned? What if you were represented in the way that you represent others? What if you found that offensive, partial, ridiculous? Would that lead you to think differently about humanitarian aid, the way it is represented in charity ads, and the things that its NGOs send to people who it sees as needy? Like goats. This campaign, and particularly the video for its charity single ‘Africa for Norway’, went viral. This became a very public debate. Who could have imagined that a gift of radiators could have been so effective?

Page reference: Marie Conmee, Rebecca Jones, Frederic Montaner-Wills, Thomas Paulsen, James Pidding, Hannah Rusbridge & Joe Shrimpton (2016) Radi-Aid: Africa For Norway (taster). followthethings.com/radi-aid.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes.

Posted on August 28, 2024January 26, 2025 by Ian Cook

The Messenger Band

followthethings.com
Fashion

“The Messenger Band“
A protest girl band / labour rights NGO including Em [aka Saem] Vun, Leng Leakhana, Chrek Sopha, Nam Sophors, Kao Sochevika, Sothary Kun, Van Huon & others based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Band profile and selected music videos on YouTube embedded in playlist above. The Messenger Band YouTube channel here & facebook page here.

One of the most fascinating, inspiring examples of creative trade justice activism we have found. Made by garment workers, for garment (and other) workers. In 2005, a labour rights NGO based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia hold a talent concert for women working in the city’s garment factories. They want to form a girl band. Inspired by Bob Marley, it’s called ‘The Messenger Band’ because its songs and performances will carry a message to garment and other workers about their rights. They will write and perform in the style of contemporary Cambodian pop music. Sweet and beautiful songs with choreographed dance routines. But the lyrics will come from their community research with garment and other workers about their lives and struggles, and their knowledge of global trade and labour rights. They will record CDs and music videos to post online, and will perform at local concerts and during labour rights protests. Their audiences will learn the lyrics and sing along. The ‘MB’ wants to empower its audiences to claim their rights and to hold their employers to account. They sing in Khmer for Khmer-speaking audiences. They are not talking to overseas consumers, asking them to do anything to help their situation. They take advantage of the fact that women and performance are not taken seriously by the Cambodian authorities. But they are taken seriously by the working class audiences who love and learn from their music. What they do has a huge impact. Much more impact than a labour rights workshop! Labour rights organisations and NGOs outside Cambodia admire their work. They are an inspiration.

Page reference: Lily Bissell, Grace Hodges, Fran Ravel, Julia Sammut & Ellie Reynolds (2020) The Messenger Band. followthethings.com/the-messenger-band.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 62 minutes.

Posted on August 19, 2024January 5, 2025 by Ian Cook

Trein Maersk: A Report To The NATOarts Board Of Directors

followthethings.com
Ship my order

TEACH ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY

START SOMEWHERE DIFFERENT

LIE TO TELL THE TRUTH

“Trein Maersk: A Report To The NATOarts Board of Directors“
An electronic docupop album by Icebreaker International (Alexander Perls & Simon Break).
Free Spotify stream embedded above. Used vinyl & CD versions available on Discogs here.

NATO’s art division commissions electronic musicians Icebreaker International to create on board a container ship called the Trein Maersk as it travels between the ports of Yokohama in Japan to Halifax in Canada. NATO wants this to be a musical celebration of ‘free trade’. It’s a concept album that samples audio from its travels (including squawking seagulls) as well as ideological soundbites from champions of unregulated markets. Its tracks include ‘Port of Dubai’ and ‘The Third Way’ and they were written as the ship passed through these places, and as they reflected on these ideological arguments. The purpose of this work is educational. The CD booklet contains lots of information about world trade and a map of the ship’s journey. Online reviewers praise it as a masterpiece. This is a work of genius. Many are moved by the depth of feeling that this ‘electronic docupop’ has for the sea and for free trade. It’s the album Kraftwerk would have made if they weren’t so preoccupied with autobahns. So many of these reviews are so effusive in their praise that some think that something suspicious is happening here. Is this a genuine concept album or an elaborate prank? Does NATO even have an art division? Have these musicians ever travelled on a container ship? Are they really right wing musicians rebelling against activist representations of free trade? It could be true that that this music vividly evokes its logistics. Even if it does so sarcastically. Have a listen. See what you think. What role can a right wing (maybe) concept album play in trade justice activism? What can it do?

Page reference: Rachael Midlen (2013) Trein Maersk: A Report To The NATOarts Board of Directors. followthethings.com/treinmaersk.shtml (last accessed <insert date here>)

Estimated reading time: 31 minutes.