Let's shop to stop AIDS! Product (RED) just launched in America, opening a new front in the war against AIDS.

Bono was on Oprah yesterday to launch his red campaign. P.S. -- In case you don't know this, Oprah and I share a birthday, January 29th. We're aquarians, and this, my dear fellow Americans is the age of Aquarius. This is the time we can show the world why we have amassed all this wealth and power. We can change the world.

5,500 Africans die every day of AIDS, a preventable, treatable disease. That's two twin towers per day; or one tsunami per month. A lot of people.

But it costs money to prevent death from AIDS. It costs 40 cents a day to take 2 pills to stay alive. Do you know why Americans are no longer dying like we were in the 80s? AIDS didn't go away. We got medication for it AND we can afford 40 cents per day to stay alive.

The extreme poor can't afford it. Although, Bill Clinton is certainly doing his part to change that. But many need money. Let's please give up half a donut a day to help keep these people stay alive. This is an emergency!

Enter Product (RED). Red is a new idea Bono and Bobby Shriver are launching to work alongside the growing ONE Campaign to Make Poverty History.

Bono explains:

"Where ONE takes on the bigger, longer-term beast of changing policy and influencing government, (RED) is, I guess, about a more instant kind of gratification. If you buy a (RED) product from GAP, Motorola, Armani, Converse or Apple, they will give up to 50% of their profit to buy AIDS drugs for mothers and children in Africa. (RED) is the consumer battalion gathering in the shopping malls. You buy the jeans, phones, iPods, shoes, sunglasses, and someone - somebody's mother, father, daughter or son - will live instead of dying in the poorest part of the world. It’s a different kind of fashion statement.

You might think (RED) sounds too simple. But AIDS is no longer a death sentence. Just two pills a day will bring someone who is at death's door back to full health, back to a full life. Doctors call it 'the Lazarus effect'. I’ve seen it myself and I have to say that it’s nothing short of a miracle. These pills are available at any corner drugstore. They cost less than a dollar a day, but the poorest people in Africa earn less than a dollar a day. They can’t afford them, and so they die. It's unnecessary. It's insane.

You might think it’s too difficult to get these drugs to the people who most need them. A couple of years ago when DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) lobbied President Bush, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac to do more on AIDS we went to experts about this. From Bill and Melinda Gates, to Dr Paul Farmer working in the poorest places on the earth, to Dr Coutinho in his AIDS clinic in Uganda. Is it easy? No. Is it impossible? No. Can we do it? Absolutely. In 2001, there were 50,000 Africans taking ARVs. Now there are over one million people getting these life saving drugs thanks to President Bush's AIDS initiative, and thanks to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.

There are though still 4.3 million Africans without drugs, which is why 100% of (RED) money is going directly to the Global Fund to support the work they are doing. (RED) uses the power in your pocket to keep people alive. ONE uses the power of your voice to create a more just world where people can earn their own way out of poverty. This means tackling more than AIDS. It means fighting corruption. Insisting on good governance. Getting kids in school. Changing trade rules. Getting businesses to invest in Africa. Myself and Ali started a company called Edun – a fashion line that makes clothes in Africa – because so many Africans we met said what they wanted more than anything was a job.

All of this is ganging up on the same problem – the greatest health crisis in human history and the extreme poverty in which it thrives. The Number 1 question we get asked is, what can I do to help? From today, you can do one more thing than you could do yesterday. Shop (RED). And if you haven’t already, join the One campaign at one.org.

As I said, this is an emergency. And in these dangerous times, how we in the West respond is an opportunity to show what we stand for, as well as what we stand against. If we're successful, we will not only transform millions of people's lives, we'll transform the way these people see us ... and in turn, the world in which we live."

This is Julia again. Bono is a real patriot. Not everyone understands what that means. Not Americans. Not Canadians, for fecking sure. But Bono does. Right now I'm watching him on Larry King. He said this: America is not just a country. It's an idea. And that idea is bound up in a quality. It's in our declaration. Men faced treason to pledge their lives, fortunes and sacred honor for the idea of equality. Bono just said it, and I agree: I am offended when i hear that people don't like America.

I, Julia Silka, will never apologize for being American. Because I am a true patriot. I love this country and the ideal of equality for all. I will never as long as I live lose that....

If I do anything in my life, I hope to inspire others to rise up and BE AMERICAN, the ideal which we were born and destined to be. America does not mean Republican. USA does not mean Republican. But it could. It's your choice. This is, afterall, America.

God Bless America. God Bless the World.