Cynics rejoice - it's been a couple of weeks since the annual festival of "amore" around the 14th February and you've survived. But here's the bad news: there's a plan afoot that aims to make 2015 into a whole Year of Love. Groan on, for this year love is on the move - backed up by a plan of action.
Right now world leaders are finalising a set of visionary global goals, a compact for compassion and justice, whose ultimate aim is to eradicate extreme poverty and achieve an inclusive, environmentally sustainable growth path. These goals will be launched at the 69th United Nations General Assembly in September, and they have to be good. If they get it right, the goals would help dramatically reduce inequality, promote women's economic empowerment, hold corrupt elites accountable, beat back preventable treatable diseases and hunger, help the poorest and the rest of us fight climate change, and reduce the causes of instability in some of the world's most vulnerable regions and conflict hot spots.
Does this all sound like dismissible, wishful thinking; a bit too vague and lovey; just too good to be true?
Well here are some elements that aim to make this plan very real: firstly, in an unprecedented effort of consultation, it has been put together with the input of over 7 million people like you, from all around the world, through the UN's My World consultation. Secondly, specific, measurable, time-bound targets are being developed to track progress in the financing and implementation of these goals. And finally underpinning all these other goals is a promised data revolution; a step change in the provision of open, high quality information so that people like you can truly hold leaders to account for the delivery of these goals and targets.
And people like you must - or this plan will not be implemented, these goals will not be scored. Everything I've learned as an activist over more than two decades is that a politician's fine promises are best kept when people know the promise was made in the first place and then get organised to hold them accountable for its delivery into the future. The data revolution is a necessary condition for success, but alone it is not sufficient: in addition we need a love revolution to ensure the plan is delivered. And we have evidence to suggest this army of amorous revolutionaries does exist.
Much research has been undertaken by numerous organisations that shows there's a huge movement waiting to be mobilised, nearly 50 million across the USA, the UK and several other developed nations who want to take action. These people consider themselves "global citizens". Our aim is to connect them with a movement that is already on the move. A month ago, action/2015 organised over a thousand groups around the world to execute stunts in fifty countries and to hold meetings with world leaders to underline the historic importance of this year. A flurry of open letters from Malala, Archbishop Tutu, Melinda and Bill Gates and many others demanded that citizens take urgent action, Pope Francis is preaching for action from his pulpit, last week Coldplay's Chris Martin made a heroic long term commitment to recruit millions to Global Citizen, and that heroine Angelique Kidjo dedicated her Grammy award to urgent activism for the women of Africa.
This revolution goes way beyond the celebrities. Right now somewhere near you, in a college café, church basement, nightclub or town hall, people are meeting, rolling up sleeves and getting specific. ONE's six million members, Oxfam's millions of supporters, RED's 5m followers, Greenpeace, Live Earths and Avaaz's millions of members are all part of this growing movement of effective informed connected global citizens battling for a better, safer world. At this very moment they are campaigning for more money for lifesaving medications and health workers to fight AIDS, malaria and other child killing diseases, for legislation to fight corruption and tax evasion, for investments to promote girls education and much more- and all of these issues are at stake in the Global Goals which will be formally unveiled in September.
So join us in the hard-headed Love Revolution of 2015. It's easy. Become a ONE member, sign up to Avaaz, visit action/2015 and Global Citizen and find out more - or however you want to get involved. We need your voice, and trust me, it'll be a fun journey. What Bono once said of the Jubilee Year of 2000 is even truer of the Valentines Year of 2015: "As a rock-star I have two instincts.... I want to change the world, and I want to have some fun: this year we get to do both".