I am optimistic that we can do this, but I talk to skeptics who claim there is no hope. They say: “Inequity has been with us since the beginning, and will be with us till the end – because people just … don’t … care.” I completely disagree.
我始終保持樂(lè)觀。但也聽(tīng)到過(guò)消極的言論。他們認(rèn)為:“這種不平等現(xiàn)象會(huì)伴隨我們一生,因?yàn)槿藗兡曔@一切。”但我不茍同。
I believe we have more caring than we know what to do with. All of us here in this Yard, at one time or another, have seen human tragedies that broke our hearts, and yet we did nothing, not because we didn’t care, but because we didn’t know what to do. If we had known how to help, we would have acted.
雖然我們不知道該如何幫助他們,但我們絕對(duì)有這份心。我們都有過(guò)這樣的經(jīng)歷,看到令人心碎的悲劇,卻沒(méi)有伸出援手。不是因?yàn)槔淠?而是我們不知道該怎么做。如果我們知道如何去幫,就一定會(huì)采取行動(dòng)。
The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity. To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps.
阻礙援助步伐的并非冷漠,而是世界太復(fù)雜。要把愛(ài)心轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)樾袆?dòng),我們首先要發(fā)掘問(wèn)題,然后尋找解決方案,并且監(jiān)測(cè)效果。然而世界的復(fù)雜性阻礙著這些步驟的實(shí)施。
Even with the advent of the Internet and 24-hour news, it is still a complex enterprise to get people to truly see the problems. When an airplane crashes, officials immediately call a press conference. They promise to investigate, determine the cause, and prevent similar crashes in the future.
即使有了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和24小時(shí)不間斷的新聞,人們?nèi)匀缓茈y看到真正的問(wèn)題。一架飛機(jī)發(fā)生墜毀事故,官員們會(huì)立刻召開(kāi)新聞發(fā)布會(huì),承諾調(diào)查起因,以避免今后發(fā)生類(lèi)似的事故。
But if the officials were brutally honest, they would say: “Of all the people in the world who died today from preventable causes, one half of one percent of them were on this plane. We’re determined to do everything possible to solve the problem that took the lives of the one half of one percent.” The bigger problem is not the plane crash, but the millions of preventable deaths.
但如果那些官員敢講真話(huà),他們會(huì)說(shuō):“全世界每天會(huì)有好多人含恨而終,這起空難只是冰山一角。我們會(huì)不惜一切代價(jià)解決削平這一角冰山,此外的問(wèn)題我們無(wú)力解決?!?可是與空難相比,那些奪走數(shù)百萬(wàn)生命的問(wèn)題則更為嚴(yán)重。
We don’t read much about these deaths. The media covers what’s new – and millions of people dying is nothing new. So it stays in the background, where it’s easier to ignore. But even when we do see it or read about it, it’s difficult to keep our eyes on the problem. It’s hard to look at suffering if the situation is so complex that we don’t know how to help. And so we look away.
事實(shí)上那些人的死輕如鴻毛,司空見(jiàn)慣,連媒體都不屑于報(bào)道。更無(wú)法吸引我們的注意。即使我們知道了 它也很難刺痛我們的神經(jīng)。世間最痛苦的事莫過(guò)于看著他人經(jīng)受苦難的卻無(wú)能為力,于是我們選擇了逃避。
If we can really see a problem, which is the first step, we come to the second step: cutting through the complexity to find a solution.
發(fā)現(xiàn)問(wèn)題,只是邁出了第一步,接下來(lái)我們還要:尋找解決方案。
Finding solutions is essential if we want to make the most of our caring. If we have clear and proven answers anytime an organization or individual asks “How can I help?,” then we can get action – and we can make sure that none of the caring in the world is wasted. But complexity makes it hard to mark a path of action for everyone who cares — and that makes it hard for their caring to matter.
如果不想讓愛(ài)心變成空談,就必須找到問(wèn)題的解決方案。如果有清晰可靠的方案,那么政府或個(gè)人組織就能立刻采取行動(dòng),將愛(ài)心落實(shí)。但是世界的復(fù)雜性使找尋方案的過(guò)程無(wú)比艱難 于是愛(ài)心才淪為空談。
Cutting through complexity to find a solution runs through four predictable stages: determine a goal, find the highest-
leverage approach, discover the ideal technology for that approach, and in the meantime, make the smartest application of the technology that you already have whether it’s something sophisticated, like a drug, or something simpler, like a bednet.
打破復(fù)雜性需要四個(gè)步驟:確定目標(biāo)、找到最有效的途徑、尋找最理想的技術(shù),并合理利用現(xiàn)有技術(shù)。無(wú)論是制作復(fù)雜的藥物,還是利用簡(jiǎn)單的蚊帳,都行。
The AIDS epidemic offers an example. The broad goal, of course, is to end the disease. The highest-leverage approach is prevention. The ideal technology would be a vaccine that gives lifetime immunity with a single dose. So governments, drug companies, and foundations fund vaccine research. But their work is likely to take more than a decade, so in the meantime, we have to work with what we have in hand – and the best prevention approach we have now is getting people to avoid risky behavior.
以艾滋病為例。我們的目標(biāo)是消滅它。最有效的途徑是預(yù)防,最理想的技術(shù)是注射一劑疫苗實(shí)現(xiàn)終身免疫。所以現(xiàn)在政府、制藥公司、基金會(huì)都在資助疫苗的研究。但可能要十幾年才能研究出來(lái),所以目前的最好的預(yù)防措施就是避開(kāi)那些可能傳播艾滋病的行為。