Make Poverty History

[starsgoblue]

(this was sent to me and now I'm forwarding it here....check it out and get involved if you feel led to! )

Hello,

Next year could be one of the most important ever in the fight against poverty.

A series of landmark meetings are taking place where world leaders could finally end the kind of extreme poverty that claims 30,000 lives every single day - that's about 40 needless deaths by the time you have finished reading this email.

To make sure the politicians don't miss this golden opportunity, we need to let them know that enough is enough - that we want them to use the power they have to end poverty for good.

And the more of us that say it, the more chance we have of being heard.

So please forward this mail right now to everyone you know. This is our chance to change the world, and it's for real.

We'll be back in touch in January to tell you more about how you can help Make Poverty History, until then, thank you for your interest.


Seasons Greetings,
The Make Poverty History team








Did someone forward this email to you?
Change the world... visit
www.makepovertyhistory.org
and get involved!

 

[angel_of_L.A.]

Thank you.

 

[U2democrat]

thanks for posting this stars.

 

[verte76]

Thanks for posting this, it's very cool.

 

[BostonAnne]

 

[starsgoblue]

all

A special to BostonAnne...I was looking at those pics you sent me a while back today, they brought me a badly needed smile. Thank you.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

 

[Jamila]

thanks, stars, for posting this.

I was gone all day and found this same message in my inbox too and was going to post it here - but you did just fine.

Suffice to say that 2005 will be an important year to make poverty history with Great Britain taking over the chair of the EU. Both PM Tony Blair and Gordon Brown (Exchequer) wholeheartedly support Europe's greater involvement in anti-poverty programs, the fight against the AIDS pandemic and greater debt cancellation for these countries.

With their leadership, the EU can really take the forefront internationally to MAKE POVERTY HISTORY!

But it's up to each ONE of us to make this happen - GET INVOLVED!

http://www.makepovertyhistory.org

 

[BostonAnne]

all

A special to BostonAnne...I was looking at those pics you sent me a while back today, they brought me a badly needed smile. Thank you.

If I badly need to smile I look at them too.

 

[BostonAnne]

But it's up to each ONE of us to make this happen - GET INVOLVED!

http://www.makepovertyhistory.org

 

[Scarletwine]

Thanks for the link

 

[starsgoblue]

If I badly need to smile I look at them too.

Big

 

[Jamila]

An update on the "Make Poverty History" campaign:

December 26, 2004

Bono in new year poverty crusade





BONO and Scarlett Johansson are to launch a worldwide anti-poverty campaign at new year parties in London and Edinburgh. The lead singer of U2 and the Hollywood actress will appear in a three-minute video to be screened at festivities in Trafalgar Square and Princes Street, Edinburgh, shortly after midnight.

The Make Poverty History campaign, the brainchild of Richard Curtis, the screenwriter, and Sir Bob Geldof, the Band Aid impresario, has the backing of hundreds of charities, trade unions and campaign groups.

They are already expecting to raise £20m (€30m) for famine relief in Africa through sales of the re-released Band Aid single, Do They Know It’s Christmas?, in Britain with a further £6m (€9m) donated by Tom Hunter, the Scottish businessman. The aim of the campaign is to encourage the leaders of developed countries to increase aid and trade and to cancel Third World debt.

A series of events is planned next year, culminating in a 100,000-strong demonstration in Edinburgh in July before the G8 summit at Gleneagles.

The video, which will immediately follow Auld Lang Syne in the two cities, will feature a montage of world leaders making promises about ending global poverty and images of children picking over a waste site in the Philippines.

It will highlight the fact that every day 30,000 children die from starvation and malnutrition. Bono will say: “We’re the first generation that can end extreme poverty. By that I mean the kind of stupid poverty that allows a child to die of hunger in a world of plenty.”

Johansson, the actress who starred in Lost in Translation, will say: “To make it the most powerful movement the world has ever known, we need all citizens around the world to stand up and be counted.”

Angela O’Hagan, a spokeswoman for the campaign, said: “2005 is the year when the most powerful politicians in the world will come to Scotland and when we will be calling on them to take the necessary action to make poverty history. That’s why it’s very appropriate that only minutes into the new year, revellers in Edinburgh and London will see this film about the campaign.”

-------------------

All I can add is : THANK YOU, BONO!

 

[BostonAnne]

:applause:

 

[starsgoblue]

Thank you so much for sharing that Jamila. That is absolutley wonderful what he is doing....I am really looking forward to the unique oppurtunities this year presents.


If not our generation - who? If not in 2005 - when?

 

[coemgen]

What a great site, thanks stars!

 

[Jamila]

and everyone else

 

[Jamila]

A new article on the Make Poverty History Campaign:



Celebs unite to tackle poverty
News Headlines: Entertainment



Published: 31-Dec-2004; 09:24
By: ITN




A host of celebrities are launching a year-long campaign to put pressure on governments to eradicate world poverty.

Bono, Claudia Schiffer, Scarlett Johansson, Jamelia, Fran Healey from Travis, Busted, the Sugarbabes, Graham Norton and Stephen Fry are among those who have signed up to the Make Poverty History campaign.

The campaign, supported by more than 100 charities, unions and faith groups, is calling on Tony Blair and other world leaders to deliver trade justice, debt cancellation and better aid provision for the world's poor.

Travis's Fran Healey, who recently returned from a trip to Africa with Save the Children, said: "No-one can be oblivious or ignorant to the plight of the poor, nor to the responsibility our governments have as architects of their poverty.

"We must take this opportunity in 2005 to make poverty history once and for all," he said.

The campaign is timed to coincide with Britain's chairing of the G8 and, later this year, the presidency of the European Union.

The Make Poverty History coalition this week issued a challenge to the Prime Minister to address the problems of trade, aid and debt.

Campaigner Bob Geldof said: "This is about firing the starting pistol to the year of 2005 when Britain is the chair of the G8 and the president of the EU.

And U2 frontman Bono said: "We can make extreme poverty history, I really believe that.

"The kind of stupid poverty where kids are dying for the lack of an immunisation that costs 20 cents, or for lack of food in a world of plenty. Don't we want to be the generation that says no to that?"

The Make Poverty History coalition has also launched a white band, which they hope celebrities and the public will be wearing this year to show solidarity with their cause.



Let's all unite to MAKE POVERTY HISTORY.

2005 is the BEST time to begin....

 

[starsgoblue]

Thanks Jamila!

 

[Scarletwine]

A link I think is appropriate for the MPH campaign

http://i.euniverse.com/funpages/cms_content/2529/4candles.swf

 

[Jamila]

Scarletwine -

That is TOTALLY appropriate to the MPH campaign - amd a link that I will be passing on to some very influential friends today.

Something like this is what we all need to keep our positive energies flowing!

And you were the conduit this time through which it came - I bow to the Goodness in you.

Great way to start out 2005.

 

[BostonAnne]

Thanks for the inspiration Scarletwine. Does anyone else well up in tears when the candles blow out?

Jamila is right - great way to start out 2005.

 

[starsgoblue]

 

[Scarletwine]

This is meant as no disrespect to the Tsunami victims.
They need our help urgently.
It is only proposed as a wakeup for us all. I'm concentrating on the African problems not hte war please.

http://207.44.245.159/article7617.htm
01/04/05 "The Guardian" -- There has never been a moment like it on British television. The Vicar of Dibley, one of our gentler sitcoms, was bouncing along with its usual bonhomie on New Year's Day when it suddenly hit us with a scene from another world. Two young African children were sobbing and trying to comfort each other after their mother had died of Aids. How on earth, I wondered, would the show make us laugh after that? It made no attempt to do so. One by one the characters, famous for their parochial boorishness, stood in front of the camera wearing the white armbands which signalled their support for the Make Poverty History campaign. You would have to have been hewn from stone not to cry.

The timing was perfect. In my local Oxfam shop last week, people were queueing to the door to pledge money for the tsunami fund. A pub on the other side of town raised £1,000 on Saturday night. In the pot on the counter of the local newsagent's there must be nearly £100. The woman who runs the bakery told me about the homeless man she had seen, who emptied his pockets in the bank, saying "I just want to do my bit", while the whole queue tried not to cry.

Over the past few months, reviewing the complete lack of public interest in what is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the failure, in the west, to mobilise effective protests against the continuing atrocities in Iraq, I had begun to wonder whether we had lost our ability to stand in other people's shoes. I have now stopped wondering. The response to the tsunami shows that, however we might seek to suppress it, we cannot destroy our capacity for empathy.

But one obvious question recurs. Why must the relief of suffering, in this unprecedentedly prosperous world, rely on the whims of citizens and the appeals of pop stars and comedians? Why, when extreme poverty could be made history with a minor redeployment of public finances, must the poor world still wait for homeless people in the rich world to empty their pockets?
...
You can join the campaign against global poverty at: www.makepovertyhistory.org - www.monbiot.com

Copyrighjt: The Guardian.

 

[Jamila]

thank you, Scarletwine, for the article.

Like Gordon Brown said, the developed world needs two responses to extreme poverty: 1) funds for emergencies like the tsunami to get the area affected over the immediate crisis and back on the road to recovery and 2) funds for the LONGTERM and SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT of countries that have experienced historical underdevelopment by exploitation by the developed world - like the African subcontinent.

This is the only sensible way to approach extreme poverty in the world. So while money should go to help the tsunami-affected peopel start their recovery from this disaster. monies from Global AIDS and other programs to help bring Africa out of her historical underdevelopment SHOULD NOT SUFFER.

Thanks as always for your wonderful input to this discussion.

 

[starsgoblue]

Well I have good news and bad news....the wristbands for the Make Poverty History campaign are now available. Either in cotton, silicone or a wrap like the one Bono wore...
http://www.makepovertyhistory.com/getaband.html

The bad news is all the stores that are supplying the band are for UK orders only. Which means anyone else is screwed.

 

[Jamila]

that's OK, stars, it's not if you wear a white wristband around your arm, it's whether you work on social justice issues all year 'round!

I'm sure down the road we might get the chance to have one.

 

[Katey]

I'm just recently back form hearing Stephen Lewis United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa

and the most common question asked of him was how he felt about funding for the Tsunami vs what the response to Africa has been

" It's not a question of either or, there is enough to support and respond to both these. We can spend billions on conflict, and yet we can not find the money to repair the human condition and we will pay dearly for this, I believe that".

It's not good to hear a country like Italy cancelling the 100 million euros they promised to the Global Fund that is a huge blow.

 

[digsy]

Well I have good news and bad news....the wristbands for the Make Poverty History campaign are now available. Either in cotton, silicone or a wrap like the one Bono wore...
http://www.makepovertyhistory.com/getaband.html

The bad news is all the stores that are supplying the band are for UK orders only. Which means anyone else is screwed.

dont worry stars, i'll get you one!

 

[starsgoblue]

dont worry stars, i'll get you one!

Oh Digsy, you made my day!! If you can track me down one of the silicone ones I would love you forever!

By the way, I am really sorry it's taking so long for me to send you those two mags...I'm still in Pennsylvannia and I have been dead broke but they will be out this week...promise.