Would YOU be willing to do without the latest iPhone or iPad in order to send a message? Add your thoughts in the comments below.

Read an excerpt of Thomson’s recent blog post on Apple:

“… it’s become increasingly clear that the Apple empire is built on the backs of inhumane and even deadly conditions for thousands of workers, not to mention their mediocre (if improving) environmental record. How should the millions of consumers who’ve flocked to Apple’s devices in recent years respond to this reality?

One option being proposed is a boycott—stop buying the company’s products until it cleans up its supply chain. 
It’s an honorable idea, perhaps, but boycotts rarely generate momentum (think Exxon) and even more rarely affect corporate behavior—especially when a company’s products are seen as being irreplaceable, which is what the cult of Apple is all about.

And even if consumers were willing to switch to other products, are Apple’s competitors any better? Some more than others, perhaps, depending on what you’re looking at, but in general, not so much.

So to really take a stand on these issues, consumers would have to boycott not just Apple but all the makers of the devices that define our digital age. And of course this industry is no different than just about any other these days in its relentless global pursuit of low costs and high profits. It’s what the 21st century economy is largely built on. Can we boycott an entire economy?

And, some ask, should we? …” >>read more:

President Barack Obama and Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev said Jobs had changed the world.

The advertising barrage for Apple products on the African continent may not be comparable to what western consumers are used to but the influence of Apple is present there, too.

Calestous Juma is a professor of International Development at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Tributes for Steve Jobs

See what people around the world are saying about Steve Jobs

An iPod can also help you share the music you download with others. You can travel the world and bring your music library.

The World’s Alex Gallafent is on a reporting trip in Swaziland and yes, he has his iPod.

Just the other day he played some of his favorite music to a Swazi youth organizer he was traveling with. Gallafent tells anchor Marco Werman some of the tunes he played on his iPod.

Check out a Spotify playlist featuring some of the songs in Alex’s iPod

• Evangelizing in Swaziland

More of our coverage following the death of Steve Jobs:

• Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs Dies Aged 56
• Remembering Steve Jobs – Apple’s Impact in Africa
• E-Trash and what Apple Gadgets Mean for the Environment

• Global Hit Podcast on iTunes
• Global Hit Podcast via RSS
• Global Hit Archive (prior to June 2009)
• Global Hit on Facebook
• Marco Werman on Twitter

Alex Gallafent is reporting from Swaziland with assistance from the International Reporting Project (IRP).

Rare is the song or tune allowed to run its course when I’m in this particular mode: perhaps I’m too excited at the prospect of sharing this stuff that I forget it’d often be better simply to let the things play and let my friends listen.

Now you know the sin. Here’s the miraculous redemption, the moment when my bad habit produced a pattern of aural ecstasy:

I’m in a car with Sizwe, a Swazi youth organizer based in the administrative center, Manzini. We’re heading out of the city to hunt for interviews, in particular with young people living in countryside homesteads. I want to ask them about religion and HIV/AIDS; the desperate state of Swaziland’s economy; politics; and about their own bleak prospects for employment. We head south to a nearby township, Matsapha.

As usual, the radio’s heaving with Swazi gospel music. We arrive. I talk with an 18-year-old community activist. Good stuff. Back in the car.

Now east to the Lubombo region near the border with Mozambique, past Vikisijula towards Siphofaneni. And then Sizwe mentions in passing that sometimes he drives while listening to a colleague’s iPod. An iPod—I have an iPod, deep in my bag. (I’d taken it out with me for the first time today to keep my brain calm during the morning sardine ride to Manzini aboard a daredevil ‘combi’ van.)

As you, faithful listener PRI’s The World or visitor to theworld.org will know, the ‘what’s on your iPod?’ game is often something of a winner. We’ve had the likes of Angelique Kidjo sharing her favorite tunes on air.

And now—blessed be the makers of iPod-to-car radio cables—it’s my turn. So, before reaching into my bag I venture a question: Sizwe, you like jazz? Jazz is my first love. Sizwe says he’s a huge fan too but hasn’t heard much.

And so we begin, kicking off with a selection a little out of left field. (But one that packs a punch. You gotta start well.)

Buddy Rich, Swingin’ New Big Band: ‘Readymix’, ‘Sister Sadie’, ‘Chicago’

That’s gotten the juices flowing. Sizwe is all over this stuff—picking up the riffs lightning fast, singin’ and swingin’ with the stabbing horns of the incomparably tight BR band.

I don’t yet know my audient (as British club owner Ronnie Scott used to say), so another unusual choice follows: John Patitucci, a bass player once reviled for his mid-80s fusion encounters with Chick Corea, but now regarded as one of the top players in jazz. (Incidentally, I learned to play drums playing along to all that fusion stuff; it’s a fluorescent indulgence I still can’t bring myself to forsake.)

Patitucci’s turned out a number of great albums down the years, including one that plays off rhythms from Ivory Coast.

John Patitucci, Another World, ‘Ivory Coast, Part II’, ‘The Griot’, ‘Showtime’

I begin to play another track from the album but cut it off soon after. It’s not doing the business for us. Besides, I’ve just asked Sizwe if he’s ever heard of Stevie Wonder. And he hasn’t.

Stevie Wonder, various albums, ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours’, ‘Superstition’, ‘Living For The City’, ‘Golden Lady’, ‘Boogie on Reggae Woman’…

(We break for an interview)

…‘Sir Duke’, ‘As’, ‘Do I Do’, ‘I Wish’, ‘Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing’

Sizwe is in raptures. He says it usually takes him a while to get to like a new style of music. But this Stevie Wonder? ‘The name is right’, he marvels.

For those of us who love Stevie Wonder and have loved his music for years and years, it’s almost impossible to imagine not knowing these and other songs. And to be there at the moment Stevie works his magic on Sizwe for the first time—it’s a huge thrill.

We’re driving north now, past Mpisi and Luve and Croydon (those romantic British imperials, eh?) on our way to an area called Nkambeni. The Swazi sky is breathing deeply, exhaling a heavy fog across our path.

Quincy Jones, ‘Summer In The City’

Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde, ‘Visions of Johanna’

‘This is much better than being in the office,’ whispers Sizwe.

Booker Little, Booker Little And Friend, ‘Forward Flight’ (This one gets cut early—it’s a masterpiece, but it doesn’t roll with the road in the way we’re looking for.)

The Rolling Stones, ‘Brown Sugar’

(We break for an interview)

Paul Simon? Heard of him? OK then:

Paul Simon, Graceland, ‘Graceland’

Paul Simon, Graceland, ‘You Can Call Me Al’

Paul Simon, Graceland, ‘Homel’—I didn’t mean to play this one, but Sizwe’s already singing along. ‘Black Mambazo’, he smiles.

And so the day, which becomes the evening, which becomes the night, continues. We don’t listen in silence—there’s too much to talk about, too much I want to learn from Sizwe.

But some music conquers you so completely there’s no space for anything else. Miles? No? OK then:

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, ‘Freddie Freeloader’, ‘Blue In Green’, ‘All Blues’

The above is an incomplete list. We cycled through Janelle Monae, Stan Getz, The Band, Ray Charles, a touch of Bowie, an encounter with Ella, Mariza and more.

And there was one track that, on reflection, fit peculiarly well in Swaziland, a country struggling to emerge from an ongoing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Young people here are bombarded with messages from NGOs advocating abstinence. And so:

Jimi Hendrix, ‘Wait Til Tomorrow’

Jimi doesn’t want to wait, and neither do young Swazis in their early twenties. Go figure.

Alex Gallafent is a correspondent for PRI’s The World. He’s currently reporting from Swaziland on a Fellowship from the International Reporting Project (IRP).

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For BBC Radio Four, David Owen Norris brings Jenkyns together with scholars Deirdre Le Faye and Samantha Carrasco at Jane Austen’s house in Chawton, Hampshire, in the South of England. The result is a rare insight into the family life of Jane Austen through her favourite songs, as performed by a specially selected group of musicians.

Download MP3

Some of the songs included are:

A romantic song by Robert Burns, to which she changed the words, so that the final words referred to herself -”the charms of your Jane.”

A tragic French song, “Les Hirondelles”, which ends with imprisonment and death. Jane’s sister in law Eliza had lived in France, and her first husband was guillotined in the Terror.

“The Ploughboy” – a popular song of the time, witty, and with a politically subversive message about corrupt politicians who are only interested in money, and manage to buy their way into power.

“Goosey Goosey Gander” – Jane had a lot of nursery rhymes, and was constantly surrounded by boisterous nephews and nieces.

This program was produced for the BBC’s domestic British audience, and broadcast on its UK news and speech network Radio Four.

• Jane Austen’s iPod, BBC Radio Four program page

Staff Sergeant Treen. Photo: Jake Warga

Staff Sergeant Adam Treen

Artist: Barbra Streisand
Song: Send in the Clowns
Listen:

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“We are in [Pemad Ahmed, Mohammed] in the middle of the Saladdin district in a mud hut town. And our LT is currently talking to one of the locals trying to hook him up with a micro grant to improve his farm. My name is Staff Sergeant Adam Treen. I’m from Pittsburg, PA. Currently have a house, wife and family in Junction City, KS outside Fort Riley. I was working for the airlines, furloughed because of 9/11. Doing little odd jobs, recycling centers, car washers, whatever I could get, but it wasn’t paying the bills. No one deploys to Iraq because I want to go! No, they want to stay at home. You get extra money because you are deployed. I’d rather be home and broke with my family than be here making extra money. I thought Send in the Clowns would be an appropriate song for our current deployment. We are a special troop battalion that are doing things for active units not support units. We put the special back in special troops. So, ‘Send in the Clowns’ fits. I think they were fine before we came. We’re trying to rebuild an entire country. An entire infrastructure set up the way it is in the States, it doesn’t work that way here. The way their religion is such a predominate part of every day life, they need a strong leadership, they’re not really geared towards it – democrat or republic society. I’m not saying they need a dictator, or need a king. They need someone who is strong enough, who can keep them banded together with a single focus. Biggest issue will be trying to keep Iran and Syria from moving into the power vacuum when we leave.”

Specialist Kriegshauser. Photo Jake Warga

Specialist Kriegshauser

Artist: DJ Alex K
Song: Raindrops (techno)
Album: Alex. K Volume 1
Listen:

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“Raindrops by Alex K. I love techno. Anything with a beat just gets your heart pumping, and you’re ready to go for anything. I’m Specialist Kriegshauser – “Warhouse”. Soldiers love their music. I’m sure 9 out of 10 soldiers have an iPod or someway to listen to music. You come off a really long day and it will calm you down and you can sleep that night. Music is a great de-stresser as well as great motivator. I think the country will definitely survive. They’re a thriving, caring, generous people. The stigma that America gives to them is unjust and unfair in most instances. ”

PFC Michael Dalere. Photo: Jake Warga

PFC Michael Dalere

Artist: Hollywood Undead
Song: Undead
Album: Swan Song
Listen:

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“Private First Class Michael Dalere. 22. 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas. I listen to pretty much anything that’s heavy metal. But this is one of the biggest songs I listen to when I am out there. It’s by a group called Hollywood Undead. It’s called Undead. It gets me pumped. I’ll always remember my buddy who got killed, you know what I’m saying. I still think about it all the time, you know. Just how young he was. You know, he had kids and stuff like that. You never think someone who know until it happens. People say you get over it, but I don’t think you get over it. You never get over having a friend getting killed while trying to better another country. I don’t think you get over it. Every time I listen to it, I’ll probably go into PTSD shock or something like that. A little epileptic seizure of Iraq. My wife will have to call mental health on me, send me away for a couple days.”

Specialist Lawrence. Photo: Jake Warga

Specialist Lawrence “Laser”

Artist: Disturbed
Song: Indestructible
Album: Indestructible
Listen:

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“I’m Specialist Lawrence. Everybody calls me Laser. I’m from Springfield, Missouri. Currently stationed at Ft. Riley. The song is called “Indestructible” it’s from Disturbed. It talks about how nothing in life can stop him. That he is going to overcome. It makes he seem larger than life. It makes me feel like I’m indestructible. It really does. Like extra piece of equipment the Army didn’t issue you: that self confidence. That you have to develop on your own. As a route clearance, we go down the road every day trying to find bombs that will go “boom.” It is actually combat and you’ve got a job to do and it gets you focused. Whenever you get to the point where you start getting complacent, that’s when people get hurt. Back in ’06, it was lot different war. Now you got to show people that soldiers are just war fighters, they’re peacekeepers, just as much as anything else. We’re all fathers, sons, brothers, uncles… and around here we’re all brothers, so we’re looking out for our family…”

Specialist Bowers. Photo: Jake Warga

Specialist Bowers

Artist: Rhett Akins
Song: Kiss My Country Ass
Album: Other Songs
Listen:

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“Specialist Bowers and I’m from Pennsylvania and I’m 20 years old. This song is basically the story of my life and half our company. Half of our company is split up between the West Virgina country boys and then Pittsburgh city kids. It’s called “Kiss My Country Ass” – Rhett Akins. This song basically describes the country-side everyone. Everyone who likes to hunt, drink beer, and drive big trucks and go mudding and stuff. I listen to song everyday. You know, if I am in a bad mood, I just put this song on. It’s definitely the soundtrack for this deployment. There is a specific part in this song that says, “I’m not scared to grab my gun and fight for my homeland.” The Army’s standard is suppose to be that females are soldiers too, but we’re, ah, a lot of times we get treated as females, you know, we’re treated differently. Iraqi culture and American culture are two totally different things. It’s total culture shock here. We don’t get to see a lot of females or work with them or anything, unless they are children. I’m blonde and I have blue eyes, so the Iraqi’s love that and I will get mauled if I step outside the vehicle. My Platoon Sergeant had to pull them off of me, so we could leave, because they wouldn’t let me go, like all the paparazzi taking pictures and so … [laughs] … I like to stay in the vehicle a lot.

Sergeant Crystal Halbert

Artist: Blake Shelton
Song: Home
Listen:

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“Sergeant Crystal Halbert from Manhattan, Kansas. I’m 26 years old. “Home” by Blake Shelton, I can relate too it because it talks about being surround by so many people but you just want to go home because you still feel all alone. Home is sitting at my Mom’s, waiting for her to finish cooking dinner, all the family is starting to come over, my kids are running around. I joined in 2001. The last time I was here was 07-08. Things here are a lot different. Things have gotten a lot quieter. A bit more of peaceful place to be.”

Staff Sergeant Ike Richardson

Singing gospel song by Douglas Miller
Listen:

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“Alright, here’s a song by Douglas Miller … [sings]… I’m Staff Sergeant Ike Richardson originally from Alabama … [sings]… I’ve been in the Army some 18 years … [sings]… I’m a traditional guy from the south, so I like traditional gospel music … [sings]… I grew up singing. At about the age of 8 years old, I was the lead singer for a quartet group … [sings]… Ah, this is my third deployment. biblical traditions, and things we read about happen right here in this country. We aren’t too far from where Daniel was in the Lion’s Den … [sings]… A lot of guys on the extremist’s side want to say there is a holy war and stuff like that. I wouldn’t say that. I think we are in spiritual warfare all the time. Most religions are the same – they teach about love, they teach about peace, and those are the basis of the religion. So, the extremists are totally opposites to that … [sings]… Amen.”

Major James Lockridge

Bohemian Rapsody by Queen
Listen:

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“I’m James Lockridge. It’s new to me; this is my first iPod I’ve ever owned. I’ve downloaded a few songs over the past few days. I’ve got Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. What I really love about this thing is the podcast. So I’ve got a bunch of programs from NPR, two Talk of the Nations, the 7:00 a.m. news, Car Talk, which I’m still working through and the last two this American life’s. It’s so different than the last two rotations, but yet you’re still in Iraq and it’s over so many years. It just seems like it’s more of story now than a song. The United States Army can go anywhere, at any time, at any place and face anybody. I learned that during the first war and with overwhelming firepower. I would never want to be anybody that had to face the United States. I mean after OIF one everybody really thought the war was over. I didn’t foresee this insurgent campaign coming on. But now we’re back, but again, I think I’m done again. I mean they got it. Could we stay her another 20 years or more? Absolutely. Do you have violence? Absolutely. Do you have corruption? Absolutely. Can the Iraqis do it on their own? Yes. That’s really the prognosis for here. It’s time to wrap this thing up, get the elections done and head on home and let the Iraqis do it. They want to do it.”

• Jake Warga on embedding with the armed forces
• Veterans’ stories on The World
• 4th Brigade Combat Team “Dragon Brigade”

Many of the most popular high-tech gadgets you can get these days involve easy-to-use touch screens. They’re fun to use, but making those touch screens isn’t as fun as using them. Kathleen McLaughlin is a reporter with Global Post based in China. She’s found that in at least one Chinese factory that produces touch screens, workers were exposed to a toxic solvent that violated local codes and was used without proper safety equipment.Host Jeb Sharp speaks with Kathleen McLaughlin. Download MP3 (Photo: Mikael Häggström)

• Global Post: Kathleen McLaughlin’s series “Silicon Sweatshops”
• Photo Gallery: Silicon Sweatshops
• The World: Lead recycling in Senegal
• The World’s Technology Podcast

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

JEB SHARP:  I’m Jeb Sharp and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.  Our lives today depend so much on high tech gadgets that we seldom give their manufacturing much thought.  When we do dig a little deeper, the findings can be disturbing.  Kathleen McLaughlin is a reporter with Global Post dot com.  She’s based in China and she investigated a factor there owned by a Taiwanese company named Wintek.  The factor makes touch screens for smart phones.  Dozens of workers at this factor became ill from exposure to a toxic solvent that violated local codes and was used without proper safety equipment.  Kathleen, what happened to the workers who used this solvent, N-Hexane?

KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN:  Well Jeb, the workers, after a few months of working with N-Hexane started to develop really strange symptoms.  They were getting light headed, people were fainting on the factory lines and then their hands and feet started to numb.  Over the course of several weeks they began to have trouble walking.  They started having trouble using their hands at all.  A couple of the workers said they thought they were just tired from working 12 hours shifts seven days a week.  But what was happening was inhaling the hexane chemical was actually destroying their peripheral nerves.  Sixty-two workers, the company has now confirmed, have peripheral neuropathy, nerve damage, in basically their arms and legs.  If it isn’t treated, and they weren’t removed from the toxic exposure, they could have been paralyzed.  They are recovering now, but it has been eight months since most of them went to the hospital, so it’s a pretty extreme case of worker abuse, particularly since the company didn’t have approval to use the chemical in the factor.

SHARP: Why was the factory using the chemical in the first place?  What’s it for?

MCLAUGHLIN: It’s a solvent, to it’s used to clean the touch screens in the production process.  Now normally the factory was using regular alcohol, which is a kind of standard low risk chemical, right?  Hexane dries much more quickly than alcohol and so each worker, they told me, they were expected to clean 1,000 touch screens per day, per worker.  So you can imagine that just a couple of seconds saved by a more quickly drying chemical is going to shave a lot of time off the production process.  So the company believed, and the company has said this, that managers believed that they could make the process more efficient by using this chemical rather than alcohol.

SHARP: Have there been consequences for the factory for using this practice, for using this chemical?

MCLAUGHLIN: Well they were sanctioned by the local government and Wintek in Taiwan; the corporate office is in Taiwan, has fired the local factory manager.  As far as I know, there haven’t been sanctions from the companies that buy the products from Wintek.  Apple hasn’t responded to any of this.

SHARP: So they were supplying, is this specifically for iPhones?

MCLAUGHLIN: According to all the workers I interviewed, they were making touch screens for iPhones and iTouch products, those two products.  What they say, and these were all independently verified through different interviews and of course, I can’t say for sure because Apple won’t confirm anything.  But that the hexane was used on the second floor of the factory.  The second floor of the factory was a workshop exclusively for Apple touch screens, specifically the iPhone and the iTouch.  Because Apple won’t comment on any of this, we don’t know if there have been any repercussions from them related to the factory.  Now Nokia, which also buys products from Wintek and uses this factory to make some of its products, has said it did an independent investigation and hexane was not used on its products.

SHARP: Presumably there are iPhones out there that were made in this factory.  If I wanted to find out where the components of my iPhone came from, could I do that?

MCLAUGHLIN: I don’t think you could.  The supply chain is fractured.  There are no clear lines.  So, for example, let’s take an iPhone, the screen might be made by one company in – -, the inside of the phone might be made by a completely different company in southern China, the assembly of the phone might take place in a third factory.  So because the supply chain is so split up into these different parts, it’s impossible to place responsibility with the company that’s ordering the gadgets.  They can always say well this was the fault of the supplier factory; we don’t have responsibility for this.  There just seems to be an overall lack of responsibility with the companies that are selling these products and making the profit off of them.

SHARP: Kathleen McLaughlin has been reporting on supply chains for our favorite electronic gadgets for Global Post.  Thanks so much Kathleen.

MCLAUGHLIN: Thank you very much.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.

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October 16, 2009
Listen to Clark Boyd’s follow up to “What on your iPod?”

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Here are the artists and tracks Clark chose:

Featured artists and tracks:

1) Jarabedepalo — “La Flaca,” both the original and the new version from the album Orquesta Reciclando

2) O’funk’illo — Fiesta/Siesta from the album En El Planeta Aseituna

3) Los Delinquentes — Cicatrizando from the album Bienvenidos a la Epoca Iconoclasta

What’s on your ipod – let us know…

More Global Hits

Earlier this week, we asked British rock icon Marianne Faithfull what’s on her iPod. We’d also like to know what’s on your iPod. And in a few minutes, we’ll tell you how to tell us.

That question — “what’s on your iPod?” — is simply another way of asking what you’re listening to.

This small portable-on-demand hard drive just makes life easier: you don’t have to carry around a bunch of tapes or CDs anymore and a device to play them on.

Music listening is more convenient these days. But for many, the sound of these compressed mp3 files isn’t necessarily better. And I’m not referring just to baby-boomers who believe that vinyl is superior to any sounds buried on a hard drive.

Enter Argentine recording artist Gustavo Cerati.

Cerati: “One of my ideas for this album is to release it in vinyl.”

That album is Cerati’s latest effort, “Fuerza Natural.” Through the 80s and most of the 90s, Cerati was the frontman of trio Soda Stereo. You may not know them.

But Soda Stereo was the latin rock band that towered above all others, selling 10 million albums in their 15 years together. They were the Police of the Spanish-speaking world, before Rock en Espanol even had a name. In 1997, though, they disbanded.

Gustavo Cerati has continued to make music as a solo artist. He’s also been a devoted audiophile. And it’s been in the ten years since Soda Stereo broke up that so many changes have occurred in how people listen to music. Cerati says he’s not a fan of this brave new world.

Cerati: “The mp3 and the telephone music doesn’t sound good for me. And I spend a lot of time and money to give my songs a good sound for me. And it’s horrible the music that’s going around.”

And that’s why Cerati released Fuerza Natural on CD and vinyl. It’s just come out. His label Sony has also offered it in a downloadable format. But Cerati is betting his preferred medium, vinyl, will provide listeners a better sense of what he does as an artist.

So what is on your iPod? Or — what are you listening to on CD, cassette, or vinyl? We’d love to hear about any music from any parts of the world that you’ve recently discovered that you can’t get enough of.

Click here and let us know what music you’re listening to…