Did you buy the "Band Aid 20" single? Did you watch the Vicar of Dibley on New Years Day? Then you might know about the "Make Poverty History" campaign.

If you don't, well, you can click on the white band over there <--- or you can click on the link up there ^

But please do one or the other.

Third world debt is a subject I've followed for almost half my life. Poor countries are being made poorer - far poorer - because of repayments our Governments demand from them. We don't need the money, we mostly don't get the money and when we originally gave the money, it went into the pockets of corrupt, even warmongering politicians.

What we've needed to see for years now is the abolishment of third world debt. We're making the poorest countries in the world far poorer by demanding they repay the money they were lent decades ago.

And because of that debt, thousands of people die every day for no other reason that they just don't have enough. Of anything.

I remember Michael Burke's news report from Ethiopia in 1984. I remember how it affected me. I can bring to mind everything I've read since about how the situation in Ethiopia and other places in Africa came about and it devastates me. I feel shame that I can't do more, but I also need to put food in my children's mouths and because of this, I can do very little.

Something I can do is spread the word about campaigns and organisations that CAN make a difference, or that have more of a chance of being heard.

I've talked before about how America has a duty of care to the rest of the world as it's the most powerful country. Well, it's not just America. We all have a duty of care to those who are worse off, and that duty becomes more important as the people become less well off.

I've been down. By god, I've been low. We've had days where everything looked lost, where our home, our lives looked to be at risk, but we pulled through. We coped and we came out the other side of the crisis. Thousands of people every day don't pull through.

Every day, thousands of men, women, children, babies have nothing left to do but lie down in the dust and die because their Governments and our Governments value money and power over basic human compassion.

So what I'm going to do now is steel myself, take my burden of shame and grief that I live in a country that contributes to the deaths of tens of thousands of people on a daily basis and I'm going to walk out among people who would rant at me and hurl abuse at me because I'm not patriotic, because I don't feel proud to live here.

I'm going to let my knowledge guide me through my life and focus me into doing my best to get into a position where I can make a difference. One day, and it might take another thirty years, I'll get there.

Until then, I'll watch and weep with everyone else.