Every day 30,000 people die from poverty. Fact. Ever seen The Beach? Remember the bit where they take the fella whose leg has been bitten by the shark and go and put him in a tent away from the camp on his own, and then carry on the party, Somewhere where they couldn’t hear the screams.

For over 20 years, since Band Aid, we’ve been ignoring those screams, most of us, We can hear them OK…but we choose on a daily basis to ignore them

Occasionally we might try, I suppose. The charity box comes round, or the petition, we sign, we drop our coin, we might even sign up for a monthly standing order. Or a disaster like the Tsunami happens and we all enter a frenzy of giving and then sit back, job done.

The said fact is that we are part of this atrocity. Not just by doing nothing about it, but by actively buying into it. That’s the price of milk on your cornflakes. Most of our cattle fodder is imported, and it’s the developing countries that grow it for us, often to be paid in arms, one way or another. Meanwhile the local people starve.

Or the people with the least are paying back huge interest on loans to those with the most or being ripped off by unfair trade conditions. Now most of us know this, but still, we choose daily to do either little or nothing at all. Somehow, for most os us, there’s just a whole heap of other things that come to the top of the pile that makes up our busy lives.

2005 represents the best chance ever that we have to make a change to this situation. For the first time ever, the conditions are favourable. The UK heads both the G8 (who meet in Scotland in July) and also the EU. And we have a leadership in this country in the form of Blair and Brown, who are genuinely sympathetic and committed to making poverty history. We have also 60 major charities and organisations in coaliton to make a difference. We have Band Aid 20 at the top of the chars, and we have Bono and Geldof.

We have the hearts and souls of millions and millions of people across the globe, who all passionately long for the chance to make poverty history.

Well now we have it. Our call. Do we waste this mother of all opportunities, or do we nod cynically, and ignore, once again, the plight of millions. We have the answers, but do we have the will? Do we have the belief? Do we have the balls to change the most disgraceful situation imaginable?

2005 is our chance to go down in history for what we did do, rather than what we didn’t. Bono U2

“If everyone who wants to see an end to poverty, hunger, and suffering speaks out, then the noise will be deafening. Politicians will have to listen” Desmond Tutu.

If you haven’t already, please add your voice. It counts for once.

www.makepovertyhistory.org