In all, over a million people signed the action, on the web, in RL and through SL. GCAAP (Global Call to Action Against Poverty - the coalition group who organised the campaign, and who include many union organisations under their umbrella) presented the wishes to world leaders, and also took out an advert in the International Financial Times to make sure they knew people knew about it. You can see the advert on the whiteband.org blog here.

GCAAP also have a news release here about the lacklustre results of the summit, where although the commitment to their 2015 poverty targets was reiterated, there was little in the way of concrete funding or action to actually meet them.

This year the festival of Tanabata coincides with Japan hosting the G8, so this tree is a campaign action. As more people sign the Global Call to Action Against Poverty’s wish petition, their wishes will be beamed by the magic of XML (scripted by QA Computing’s prodigiously talented David Boelke) onto your Tanabata tree.

Please take one from Union Island (you can’t miss it - under the giant Tanabata we have), and stick it in your own home. If you know anyone or any groups that would like one too, it’s free, so please feel free to circulate as much as you like, and help spread the message of the campaign, so we get a great result to send to the Japanese Prime Minister at the start of the G8 summit.

Unions around the world will be taking actions on Monday, in support of Wellington and Lovemore. Come to Union Island at 3pm GMT (4pm CET, 7am SLT) to meet campaigners and find out what you can do to help. We’ll also be unveiling a giant mural of Lovemore and Wellington in Second Life, made up from 2,000 photos of unionists from around the world.

Also for our Japanese readers, here’s an article on our Tanabata action from Japanese SL news service The Second Times.

Tanabata is an old Japanese custom practiced on 7 July each year. You think of your wishes for the coming year, and tie them to a bamboo, sharing them with everyone else. This year Tanabata time coincides with the G8 Summit in Japan, and Global Call for Action Against Poverty (the campaign formerly known as Make Poverty History) is inviting people to submit their wishes for the G8, to be formed into a petition to the Japanese Prime Minister, as the summit opens. You can now take part in Second Life™ too. We’ve put a Tanabata tree on Union Island, and just so you don’t miss it, we’ve made it a BIG one.
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A great evening last night thanks to science fiction author Terrance Dicks, who came by Union Island to launch his new book “Revenge of the Judoon”. It’s an original Doctor Who novel, in the union-backed Quick Reads series, aimed at helping more people in the UK to start to enjoy reading for pleasure. (more…)