Twenty years ago, my family introduced a system called "Friday Democracy Meetings." Every Friday at 7pm, my family came together for an official meeting to discuss the current family affairs. These meetings were facilitated by one of my parents, and we even had a notetaker.
二十年前, 我的家庭推出一個叫 「民主禮拜五 」的機制 每週五晚上 7 點 我們會一起開會 正式討論當前的家庭事務。 會議由我的父親或母親主持, 我們還要做會議紀錄。
These meetings had two rules. First, you are allowed to speak open and freely. Us kids were allowed to criticize our parents without that being considered disrespectful or rude. Second rule was the Chatham House rule, meaning whatever is said in the meeting stays in the meeting.
這會議有兩項規則。 一,你可以自由開放地發言。 小孩們可以批評父母, 但不可以不尊重或不禮貌。 二,便是「漆咸樓家規 」。 意思是無論在會議上說什麼, 都不得帶出會議。
(Laughter)
The topics which were discussed in these meetings varied from one week to another. One week, we'd talk about what food we wanted to eat, what time us kids should go to bed and how to improve things as a family, while another meeting discussed pretty much events that happened at school and how to solve disputes between siblings, by which I mean real fights. At the end of each meeting, we'd reach decisions and agreements that would last at least until the next meeting.
在這些會議討論的議題 每周都不一樣。 有的時候我們會講想吃什麼, 小孩應該要幾點上床睡覺, 和怎麼整體上改進這個家庭。 又有時會討論在學校發生的事情, 和調和兄弟姊妹的爭執 爭執是指打架的意思。 在每次會議結束時, 我們會完成決定 做出至少到下次開會前 都生效的規定。
So you could say I was raised as a politician. By the age of six or seven, I mastered politics. I was negotiating, compromising, building alliances with other political actors.
所以也可以說, 我從小就在學政治 到六七歲時, 我完全掌握了政治。 我會談判、妥協, 和與其他政治角色結盟。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And I even once tried to jeopardize the political process.
我甚至曾經試著要破壞政治過程。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
These meetings sound very peaceful, civil and democratic, right? But that was not always the case. Because of this open, free space to talk, discuss and criticize, things sometimes got really heated.
這些會議聽起來很和平、 文明和民主,對吧? 但情況並非總是如此。 因為有這個開放、自由的 空間談話、討論和批評, 情況有時會變得非常激烈。
One meeting went really bad for me. I was about 10 years old at that time, and I'd done something really horrible at school, which I'm not going to share today --
有一次會議對我來說非常不利。 當時候我大概十歲, 我在學校做了一些很壞的事 這個我今天就不分享了──
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
but my brother decided to bring it up in the meeting. I could not defend myself, so I decided to withdraw from the meeting and boycott the whole system. I literally wrote an official letter and handed it to my dad, announcing that I am boycotting.
但我哥哥決定要在會議上提出來。 我無法為自己辯護, 所以我決定退出會議 並抵制整個系統。 我寫了一封正式信件 並且把它上書給我爸爸 宣布我要抵制這場會議。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I thought that if I stopped attending these meetings anymore, the system would collapse,
我以為,只要我不參加這場會 整個系統就會崩潰。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
but my family continued with the meetings, and they often made decisions that I disliked. But I could not challenge these decisions, because I was not attending the meetings, and thus had no right to go against it.
但我的家人繼續參加會議, 並且經常做出我不喜歡的決定。 但我無法反對這些決定, 因為我沒有參加會議 因此沒有權利反對它。
Ironically, when I turned about 13 years old, I ended up attending one of these meetings again, after I boycotted them for a long time. Because there was an issue that was affecting me only, and no other family member was bringing it up. The problem was that after each dinner, I was always the only one who was asked to wash the dishes, while my brothers didn't have to do anything about it. I felt this was unjust, unfair and discriminatory, so I wanted to discuss it in the meeting. As you know, the idea that it's a woman or a girl's role to do household work is a rule that has been carried out by many societies for so long, so in order for a 13-year-old me to challenge it, I needed a platform.
諷刺的是,當我長到 大約 13 歲, 在我抵制會議很長一段時間之後, 我還是參加了其中一次會議。 因為有一個只有影響到我的問題 但沒有其他家庭成員提到它。 問題是每次晚餐後, 當我的兄弟閒閒沒事做時, 我一直是唯一的一個 被要求洗碗的。 我覺得這是不公正、 不公平和歧視的, 所以我想在會議上討論它。 如你所知,在眾多的文化中 負責做家事的人是女人 所以為了讓一個 13 歲的我 挑戰這個想法,我需要一個平台。
In the meeting, my brothers argued that none of the other boys we knew were washing the dishes, so why should our family be any different? But my parents agreed with me and decided that my brothers should assist me. However, they could not force them, so the problem continued.
在會議上,我的兄弟們爭辯道 沒有其他我們認識男孩 會被要求洗碗, 那麼為什麼我們的 家庭要有所不同呢? 但我的父母同意我 並決定我的兄弟應該協助我。 但是,他們不能強迫我哥他們, 所以問題仍然在繼續。
Seeing no solution to my problem, I decided to attend another meeting and propose a new system that would be fair to everyone. So I suggested instead of one person washing all the dishes used by all the family members, each family member should wash their own dishes. And as a gesture of good faith, I said I'd wash the pots as well. This way, my brothers could no longer argue that it wasn't within their responsibility as boys or men to wash the dishes and clean after the family, because the system I proposed was about every member of the family cleaning after themselves and taking care of themselves.
因為我的問題未獲得解決, 所以我決定參加下一次的會議 並提出一個對每個人 都是公平的新的系統。 我建議不要一個人, 洗全部人的碗, 而是每個人洗自己的碗。 並且作為一種釋出善意的表現, 我說鍋子也給我洗。 這樣,我的兄弟們再也不能爭辯 因為他們因為生為男人 就可以不為家人洗碗 因為我提出的系統, 是讓每個家庭成員, 自己打掃自己的衛生 並照顧好自己。
Everyone agreed to my proposal, and for years, that was our washing-the-dishes system.
每個人都同意我的建議, 多年來,那一直是我們的洗碗系統。
What I just shared with you is a family story, but it's pure politics. Every part of politics includes decision-making, and ideally, the process of decision-making should include people from different backgrounds, interests, opinions, gender, beliefs, race, ethnicity, age, and so on. And they should all have an equal opportunity to contribute to the decision-making process and influence the decisions that will affect their lives directly or indirectly. As such, I find it difficult to understand when I hear young people saying, "I'm too young to engage in politics or to even hold a political opinion." Similarly, when I hear some women saying, "Politics is a dirty world I don't want to engage with," I'm worried that the idea of politics and political engagement has become so polarized in many parts of the world that ordinary people feel, in order for them to participate in politics, they need to be outspoken activists, and that is not true. I want to ask these young people, women and ordinary people in general: Can you really afford not to be interested or not to participate in politics?
我剛與你分享的是一個家庭故事, 但這是純粹的政治。 政治的每一個部分都包括做決定, 最理想的是, 做決定的過程 應該包括來自不同的背景、 興趣、意見、性別、 信仰、種族、民族和年齡等的人。 他們應該都有平等的機會 去影響會直接或間接地 會改變他們的生活的決策。 因此,當我聽到年輕人或女人說: 「我太年輕了,無法參與政治 或甚至持有政治觀點。 」 「政治是一個我不想參與骯髒的世界。 」 我發現很難理解。 我擔心在世界多處 政治變得如此兩極分化 當一般人想要參政時, 他們需要成為 直言不諱的積極分子, 但這不是真的。 我想問這些年輕人、女性和普通人: 你真的可以負擔得起 不參加政治的代價嗎?
Politics is not only activism. It's awareness, it's keeping ourselves informed, it's caring for the facts. When it's possible, it's casting a vote. Politics is the tool through which we structure ourselves as groups and societies. Politics governs every aspect of life, and by not participating in it, you're literally allowing other people to decide on what you can eat, wear, if you can have access to health care, free education, how much tax you pay, when you can retire, what is your pension. Other people are also deciding on whether your race and ethnicity is enough to consider you a criminal, or if your religion and nationality is enough to put you on a terrorist list. And if you still think you are a strong, independent human being unaffected by politics, then think twice.
政治不僅僅是行動主義。 它是一種意識, 它讓我們自己了解情況, 它是關心事實。 如果可能的話,是投票。 政治是我們構建 團體和社會的工具。 政治主宰生活的每個方面, 不參加的話 就是在允許他人決定 你可以吃什麼、在哪裡吃, 你是否享有健保、 免費教育, 該支付多少稅, 什麼時候退休 和退休金領多少。 其他人也在決定 是否運用你的人種和民族 就足以認定你是一個罪犯, 或者因為你的宗教和國籍 就把你列入恐怖分子。 但如果你還認為自己很強壯, 不受政治影響,獨立的人, 我建議你,三思而後行。
I am speaking to you as a young woman from Libya, a country that is in the middle of a civil war. After more than 40 years of authoritarian rule, it's not a place where political engagement by women and young people is possible, nor encouraged. Almost all political dialogues that took place in the past few years, even those gathered by foreign powers, has been with only middle-aged men in the room. But in places with a broken political system like Libya, or in seemingly functioning places, including international organizations, the systems we have nowadays for political decision-making are not from the people for the people, but they have been established by the few for the few. And these few have been historically almost exclusively men, and they've produced laws, policies, mechanisms for political participation that are based on the opinions, beliefs, worldviews, dreams, aspirations of this one group of people, while everyone else was kept out. After all, we've all heard some version of this sentence: "What does a woman, let alone a young person, who is brown, understand about politics?"
作為一名來自利比亞, 國家在內戰的年輕女子, 我來告訴你 當你的國家被專制統治四十年後, 它並不會是一個, 讓女人和年輕人參與政治的環境。 幾乎所有在過去 幾年發生的政治對話, 包括被外國勢力聚集的議會, 參與者一直只限於中年的男子。 但是在像利比亞這樣 政治制度破碎的地方, 或在看似運作的地方, 包括國際組織, 我們現在運用的政治決策系統 不是人民建立的,也不是為了人民, 而是被少數人建立,為了少數人的。 這些常常都是男人的議會 他們制定的法律、政策、 參政機制,是基於某一群人的意見、 信仰、世界觀、夢想 和願望, 而將其他人拒之門外。 畢竟,我們都聽過像這樣的話: 「女人哪懂得政治? 年輕黑人就更別說了。」
When you're young -- and in many parts of the world, a woman -- you often hear experienced politicians say, "But you lack political experience." And when I hear that, I wonder what sort of experience are they referring to? The experience of corrupted political systems? Or of waging wars? Or are they referring to the experience of putting the interests of economic profits before those of the environment? Because if this is political experience, then yes --
當你年輕── 又是一個女人的時候── 你會經常聽到有經驗的政治家 說:「你缺乏政治經驗。」 每當我聽到這個, 我一直都很好奇 他們所指的經驗是什麼? 是指腐敗的政治制度嗎? 還是發動戰爭? 還是他們在指 將經濟的利益置於環境之前的經驗? 因為如果這算是政治經驗, 對──
(Applause)
(掌聲)
we, as women and young people, have no political experience at all.
作為婦女和年輕人, 我們是少了你們的政治經驗。
Now, politicians might not be the only ones to blame, because ordinary people, and many young people as well, don't care about politics. And even those who care don't know how to participate.
但現在的話,政治家可能不是 唯一該責備的人, 因為普通人,還有很多年輕人, 不關心政治。 甚至那些關心的人 也不知道怎麼參加。
This must change, and here is my proposal. We need to teach people at an early age about decision-making and how to be part of it. Every family is its own mini political system that is usually not democratic, because parents make decisions that affect all members of the family, while the kids have very little to say. Similarly, politicians make decisions that affect the whole nation, while the people have very little say in them.
這必須改變,而這是我的建議。 我們需要在人們很小的時候 就教他們如何決策和如何參與。 每個家庭都是迷你版的政治制度, 但通常不民主, 因為父母會做出 影響所有家庭成員的決定, 但孩子們卻不能說些什麼。 同樣的,政治家也會做出 影響整個國家的決定, 但人民卻不能說些什麼。
We need to change this, and in order to achieve this change systematically, we need to teach people that political, national and global affairs are as relevant to them as personal and family affairs.
我們需要改變這個制度。 為了實現改變, 我們需要教導人民 政治的、全國的,和全球的事務 與他們和他們的生活息息相關。
So if we want to achieve this, my proposal and advice is, try out the Family Democracy Meeting system. Because that will enable your kids to exercise their agency and decision-making from a very early age.
所以,如果要實現這一點, 我建議試試「民主禮拜五」機制。 因為這樣可以讓你的孩子 從很小的時候就開始練習參與決策。
Politics is about having conversations, including difficult conversations, that lead to decisions. And in order to have a conversation, you need to participate, not sign off like I did when I was a kid and then learn the lesson the hard way and have to go back again. If you include your kids in family conversations, they will grow up and know how to participate in political conversations. And most importantly, most importantly, they will help others engage.
政治攸關對話, 包括不同意見的溝通, 並且在最後做出決定。 然後為了進行對話,你必需要參加, 不要像我小時候那樣退出, 吃了虧後,還是得回去。 如果你把你的孩子 包括在家庭事務對話中, 他們會長大, 並且學會如何參與政治對話。 最後,最重要的, 他們會幫助其他人參與。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)