Because I am safe, well fed and in good health, I can TRY to demonstrate against a system in which half the people in this world of plenty are not safe, do not eat enough, and are in poor health…So much so that 30,000 of them die every day of avoidable causes.

Because political and economic decisions affecting people everywhere in the world are taken in a small mountain resort called Davos in Switzerland. Here leaders of multinational corporations dictate to our "elected leaders" mostly behind closed doors. For example, the UK (represented by British Petroleum) and the Netherlands (represented by Shell) decide how to dispose of Nigeria's oil reserves. Meanwhile Nigerians live (and die) in poverty.

Yesterday, on the 25th of January 2003, I tried with thousands of others to demonstrate for democracy, peace and social justice. At Landqart and Berne, we were gassed, hosed, sprayed with rubber bullets, herded into enclosures, made to stand for hours in the cold, marched along rail tracks to reach our destination, put on and off trains, chased up and down streets, running, frightened, outraged.

BUT we had the luxury of transport home in a warm, comfortable train where we ate snacks, looked after our headaches and stinging eyes, and thought about what went wrong. That luxury is the right of every human being on earth. Next week, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families may be attacked; they have been bombed senseless since 1991. They will also be on the move but without food, water or aspirins. If this happens, many of them will die.

That is why we go to Davos.

* A letter reposted from PHA-Exchange