A few years ago, I found myself in Kigali, Rwanda presenting a plan to bring off-grid solar electricity to 10 million low-income East Africans. As I waited to speak to the president and his ministers, I thought about how I'd arrived in that same place 30 years before. A 25-year-old who left her career in banking to cofound the nation's first microfinance bank with a small group of Rwandan women. And that happened just a few months after women had gained the right to open a bank account without their husband's signature.
幾年前,我到盧安達的 基加利去做簡報, 提出一個將獨立電網太陽能電力帶給 一千萬名低收入東非居民的計畫。 當我在等候與總統 及他的部長見面時, 我回想起三十年前 我也來過同樣的地方。 當年我才二十五歲, 離開了金融業的職涯, 和一小群盧安達女子共同創立了 該國第一間微額信貸銀行。 銀行創立的幾個月前, 女性才剛爭取到 無須丈夫簽章即可 在銀行開戶的權利。
Just before I got on stage, a young woman approached me. "Ms. Novogratz," she said, "I think you knew my auntie." "Really? What was her name?" She said, "Felicula." I could feel tears well.
在我即將上台前, 一名年輕女子來找我。 她說:「諾沃格拉茨小姐, 妳應該認識我的姑姑。」 「真的嗎?她叫什麼名字?」 她說:「費里庫拉。」 我感到熱淚盈眶。
One of the first women parliamentarians in the country, Felicula was a cofounder, but soon after we'd established the bank, Felicula was killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident. Some associated her death to a policy she had sponsored to abolish bride price, or the practice of paying a man for the hand of his daughter in marriage. I was devastated by her death.
費里庫拉是盧安達 最早的女國會議員之一, 也是我的共同創辦人, 但就在我們創立銀行後沒多久, 她就因一場離奇的 肇事逃逸事故身亡。 有些人認為她的死亡 和她所支持的一項政策有關, 該政策是要廢除聘金, 或者花錢請一個男人 在婚姻中照顧女兒的做法。 她的死讓我心力交瘁。
And then a few years after that, after I'd left the country, Rwanda exploded in genocide. And I have to admit there were times when I thought about all the work so many had done, and I wondered what it had amounted to.
她過世的幾年後, 我離開了盧安達之後, 盧安達發生了種族大屠殺。 我必須要承認,有些時候, 我會想到這麼多人所付出的心血, 納悶這些心血加起來有多少。
I turned back to the woman. "I'm sorry, would you tell me who you are again?" She said, "Yes, my name is Monique, and I'm the deputy governor of Rwanda's National Bank." If you had told me when we were just getting started that within a single generation, a young woman will go on to help lead her nation's financial sector, I'm not sure I would have believed you. And I understood that I was back in that same place to continue work Felicula had started but could not complete in her lifetime. And that it was to me to recommit to dreams so big I might not complete them in mine.
我繼續對那名女子說: 「對不起,能不能 再說一次你的名字?」 她說:「好的,我叫蒙妮克, 我是盧安達國家銀行的副行長。 當我們才剛剛開始不到一個世代, 如果此時你告訴我, 會有一名年輕女子協助 領導她國家的金融部門, 我可能不會相信你。 我了解我回到同樣的地方 是要接續費里庫拉起頭但無法 在有生之年完成的工作。 輪到我來重新承諾 要實現這個大夢想, 大到我可能也無法在有生之年完成。
That night I decided to write a letter to the next generation because so many have passed on their wisdom and knowledge to me, because I feel a growing sense of urgency that I might not finish the work I came to do, and because I want to pass that forward to everyone who wants to create change in this world in ways that only they can do. That generation is in the streets. They are crying urgently for wholesale change against racial injustice, religious and ethnic persecution, catastrophic climate change and the cruel inequality that has left us more divided and divisive than ever in my lifetime.
那晚,我決定寫封信給下一個世代, 因為好多人將他們的 智慧和知識傳給了我, 因為我越來越覺得要快點著手, 不然我可能無法完成我要來做的事, 而且我也想要再繼續傳承給 所有想要用自己獨有的方式 在世界上創造改變的人。 那個世代走上了街頭。 他們緊迫地呼籲大規模改變, 要求改變種族不公、 宗教及人種迫害、 災難性的氣候變遷, 以及嚴重的不平等,嚴重到我們之間 分裂與不合的程度 是我此生所見最高峰。
But what would I say to them? I'm a builder, so I started by focusing on technical fixes, but our problems are too interdependent, too entangled. We need more than a system shift. We need a mind shift.
但我要對他們說什麼? 我是建造者,所以我從 著重克服技術障礙開始著手。 但我們的問題糾纏在一起, 太多關聯。 我們需要的不只是改變體制。 我們需要改變想法。
Plato wrote that a country cultivates what it honors. For too long, we have defined success based on money, power and fame. Now we have to start the hard, long work of moral revolution. By that I mean putting our shared humanity and the sustainability of the earth at the center of our systems, and prioritizing the collective we, not the individual I.
柏拉圖寫過, 國家尊崇什麼,就會培育出什麼。 長久以來,我們都用金錢、 權力,和名聲來定義成功。 現在我們得要展開艱難、 漫長的道德革命工作。 我指的是將我們的共通人性 以及地球的永續性 擺在我們體制的核心, 並把大我(我們全體)放在先, 而不是小我(我個人)。
What if each of us gave more to the world than we took from it? Everything would change. Now cynics might say that sounds too idealistic, but cynics don't create the future. And though I've learned the folly of unbridled optimism, I stand with those who hold to hard-edged hope. I know that change is possible. The entrepreneurs and change agents with whom my team and I have worked have impacted more than 300 million low-income people, and sometimes reshaped entire sectors to include the poor.
如果我們每個人給予世界的 都比向世界索求的多,會如何? 一切就會改變。 諷世者可能會說 這聽起來太理想化了, 但未來不是諷世者創造的。 雖然我學到了盡情樂觀的傻念頭, 我和那些緊緊抓住頑強 希望的人站在同一陣線。 我知道改變是有可能的。 曾經與我及我的團隊 合作過的企業家及變革促進者 已經影響了超過三億名低收入者, 有時甚至做到可以重新改造 整個部門來將窮人納入。
But you can't really talk about moral revolution without grounding it in practicality and meaning, and that requires an entirely new set of operating principles. Let me share just three.
但,如果要談道德革命, 就一定要根據實際性和意義來談, 而那就需要一組全新的運作原則。 讓我在這裡分享三條原則。
The first is moral imagination. Too often we use the lens only of our own imagination, even when designing solutions for people whose lives are completely different from our own. Moral imagination starts by seeing others as equal to ourselves, neither above nor below us, neither idealizing nor victimizing. It requires immersing in the lives of others, understanding the structures that get in their way and being honest about where they might be holding themselves back. That requires deep listening from a place of inquiry, not certainty.
第一,道德想像力。 我們幾乎時時刻刻都在使用 我們自己想像力的濾鏡, 就連在為生活與我們截然不同的人 設計解決方案時,也不例外。 道德想像力的第一步, 是將他人視為和我們自己平等, 沒有誰比較高誰比較低, 不做理想化,也不去扮演受害者。 這就需要進入到他人的生活中, 了解是什麼結構阻擋了他們, 且要誠實面對他們在什麼情況下 可能會有所保留。 那就需要抱持詢問的立場, 而非肯定的立場, 來做深刻的傾聽。
Several years ago I sat with a group of women weavers outside in a rural village in Pakistan. The day was hot ... over 120 degrees in the shade. I wanted to tell the women about a company my organization had invested in that was bringing solar light to millions of people across India and East Africa, and I had seen the transformative power of that light to allow people to do things so many of us just take for granted.
數年前,我和一群女性織布工一起 坐在巴基斯坦的一個偏鄉村落外。 那天非常熱…… 在陰影處也有四十九度。 我想要告訴這些女子 我的組織所投資的一間公司, 該公司的宗旨在將太陽能產生的光 帶給印度及東非的數百萬人, 而我見過那種光有多強的轉變力, 讓大家去做許多 我們視為理所當然的事。
"We have this light" I said, "costs about seven dollars. People say it's amazing. If we could convince the company to bring those products to Pakistan, would you all be interested?" The women stared, and then a big woman whose hands knew hard work looked at me, wiped the sweat off her face and said, "We don't want a light. We're hot. Bring us a fan." "Fan," I said. "We don't have a fan. We have a light. But if you had this light, your kids can study at night, you can work more -- " She cut me off. "We work enough. We're hot. Bring us a fan."
我說:「我們有這種光。 大約七塊美金。」 大家都說很棒。 如果我們能說服那間公司 將那些產品帶到巴基斯坦來, 你們會不會感興趣?」 這些女子瞪著眼, 接著,一名雙手滿是 粗工痕跡的高大女子看著我, 一邊擦掉臉上的汗水一邊說: 「我們不想要光。我們很熱。 帶電扇給我們。」 我說:「電扇。我們沒有電扇。 我們有光。如果有這種光, 孩子晚上就能讀書, 你能做更多工作——」她打斷了我。 「我們的工作夠了。我們很熱。 帶電扇給我們。」
That straight-talking conversation deepened my moral imagination. And I remember lying -- sweltering in my bed in my tiny guest house that night, so grateful for the clickety-clack of the fan overhead. And I thought, "Of course. Electricity. A fan. Dignity." And when I now visit our companies who've reached over 100 million people with light and electricity and it's a really hot place, and if there's a rooftop system, there is also a fan.
那段非常直白的談話, 加深了我的道德想像力。 我記得我躺下來—— 晚上在家庭旅館的床上熱到很難受, 對於頭頂上有節奏地 嗄嗄作響的電扇感到很感激。 我心想:「當然了。 電力。 電扇。 尊嚴。」 現在當我去造訪我們的公司, 那些公司已經將光和電力 帶給超過一億人, 且那裡真的很熱, 如果有個屋頂上的系統, 附有電扇就很好。
But moral imagination is also needed to rebuild and heal our countries. My nation is roiling as it finally confronts what it's not wanted to see. It would be impossible to deny the legacy of American slavery if all of us truly immersed in the lives of Black people. Every nation begins the process of healing when its people begin to see each other and to understand that it is in that work that are planted the seeds of our individual and collective transformation.
但,若要重建和治癒我們的國家, 道德想像力也是必要的。 我的國家正在動盪中, 因為它終於去正視 本來不想看見的東西。 如果我們所有人都能真正 進入到黑人的生活當中, 就不可能否認美國奴隸制度的遺毒。 每個國家的療癒過程都始於 其人民開始看見彼此 並了解到那些努力種下了 個人與集體轉變的種子。
Now that requires acknowledging the light and shadow, the good and evil that exist in every human being. In our world we have to learn to partner with those even whom we consider our adversaries.
那需要能夠承認每個人身上 都有光與影、好與壞。 在我們的世界裡,我們得要學習 如何與我們眼中的敵人合作。
This leads to the second principle: holding opposing values in tension. Too many of our leaders today stand on one corner or the other, shouting. Moral leaders reject the wall of either-or. They're willing to acknowledge a truth or even a partial truth in what the other side believes. And they gain trust by making principled decisions in service of other people, not themselves.
這就帶到了第二條原則: 保持相反立場之間的張力。 現今有太多領導人都會選邊站, 大聲叫囂。 道德領導人會排拒二選一的那道牆。 他們會願意認可對方的信念中 也有真相或甚至部分真相。 他們取得信任的方式, 是做出有原則的決策, 來服務他人, 而不是為自己。
To succeed in my work has required holding the tension between the power of markets to enable innovation and prosperity and their peril to allow for exclusion and sometimes exploitation. Those who see the sole purpose of business as profit are not comfortable with that tension, nor are those who have no trust in business at all. But standing on either side negates the creative, generative potential of learning to use markets without being seduced by them.
我的工作若要成功, 就需要保有足夠的張力 存在於推動創新和繁榮的市場力量 與有可能被排除 甚至被利用的市場風險之間。 如果認為企業的唯一目的就是獲利, 對那種張力就會感到不舒服, 那些完全不相信企業的人亦是如此。 但不論選哪一邊站, 都會減少去學習使用市場 而非被市場誘惑的潛力, 而這潛力是有創意、有生產力的。
Take chocolate. It's a hundred-billion-dollar industry dependent on the labor of about five million smallholder farming families who receive only a tiny fraction of that 100 billion. In fact, 90 percent of them make under two dollars a day. But there's a generation of new entrepreneurs that is trying to change that. They start by understanding the production costs of the farmers. They agree to a price that allows the farmers to actually earn income in a way that will sustain their lives. Sometimes including revenue-share and ownership models, building a community of trust. Now are these companies as profitable as those that focus solely on shareholder value? Possibly not in the short term. But these entrepreneurs are focused on solving problems. They're tired of easy slogans like "doing well by doing good." They know they have to be financially sustainable, and they are insisting on including the poor and the vulnerable in their definition of success.
以巧克力為例。 它是上兆美金的產業, 要仰賴五百萬個小農家庭的勞力, 這些家庭只能得到 那一兆美金中的一點點。 事實上, 他們當中有 90% 的人 可能一天賺不到兩塊錢。 但有一個世代的新企業家 在試圖改變這個現象。 他們一開始先去了解 農民的生產成本。 他們同意訂出一個價格, 讓農民能真正賺取收入, 且要能夠維生。 有時還會納入利潤分紅 和所有權模型, 建立有信任的共同體。 這些公司是否會像只著重 股東價值的公司一樣賺錢? 短期可能不會。 但這些企業家著重的是解決問題。 他們厭倦了簡單的標語, 比如「做好就能過得好」。 他們知道他們在財務上 得要能維持下去, 且他們堅持要把貧人和弱勢族群 納入到他們對成功的定義中。
And that brings me to the third principle: accompaniment. It's actually a Jesuit term that means to walk alongside: I'll hold a mirror to you, help you see your potential, maybe more than you see it yourself. I'll take on your problem but I can't solve it for you -- that you have to learn to do.
那就帶到了第三條原則: 伴隨。 這個用語來自耶穌會, 意思是並肩而行。 我會為你拿著鏡子,協助你看見自己的潛能, 可能會比你自己看到的更多。 我可以接你的問題, 但我無法為你解決它—— 你得自己學習解決。
For example, in Harlem there's an organization called City Health Works that hires local residents with no previous health care experience, trains them to work with other residents so that they can better control chronic diseases like gout, hypertension, diabetes. I had the great pleasure of meeting Destini Belton, one of the health workers, who explained her job to me. She said that she checks in on clients, checks their vital signs, takes them grocery shopping, goes on long walks, has conversations. She told me, "I let them know somebody has their back." And the results have been astounding. Patients are healthier, hospitals less burdened. As for Destini, she tells me her family and she are healthier. "And," she adds, "I love that I get to contribute to my community."
比如,在哈林區, 有個組織叫做城市健康工作, 該組織僱用過去沒有任何 健康照護經驗的當地居民, 訓練他們與其他居民合作, 把慢性疾病控制得更好, 如痛風、高血壓、糖尿病。 我很榮幸能夠認識那裡的 健康工作者黛絲蒂妮貝爾頓, 她向我解釋她的工作。 她說她要去查看客戶的狀況, 檢查他們的生命徵象, 帶他們去買雜貨, 去做長程散步, 去談話。 她告訴我:「我讓他們 知道有人會挺他們。」 而成果十分驚人。 病人變得更健康, 醫院的負擔減少了。 至於黛絲蒂妮, 她告訴我,她和家人都變得更健康。 「且,」她補充: 「我很喜歡能為 我的社區付出的感覺。」
All of us yearn to be seen, to count. The work of change, of moral revolution, is hard. But we don't change in the easy times. We change in the difficult times. In fact, I've come to see discomfort as a proxy for progress.
我們所有人都渴望被看見, 渴望自己有價值。 改變的工作,道德革命的工作, 很困難。 但在輕鬆的時候我們不會改變。 在艱苦的時候我們才會改變。 事實上,我漸漸認為, 感到不舒服就表示正在進步。
But there's one more thing. There's something I wish I'd known when I was just starting out so many years ago. No matter how hard it gets, there's always beauty to be found.
但,還有一件事, 我希望我多年前剛開始時 就能知道這件事。 不論情況變得多艱困, 一定都能找到美好之處。
I remember now what seems a long time ago, spending an entire day talking to woman after woman in the Mathare Valley slum in Nairobi, Kenya. I listened to their stories of struggle and survival as they talked about losing children, of fighting violence and hunger, sometimes feeling like they wouldn't even survive. And right before I left, a huge rainstorm poured down. And I was sitting in my little car as the wheels stuck in the mud thinking, "I'm never getting out of here," when suddenly there was a tap on my window -- a woman who was beckoning me to follow her, and I did. Jumped out through the rainstorm, we went down this little muddy path, through a rickety metal door, inside a shack where a group of women were dancing with abandon.
現在我還記得,在很久以前, 我會花一整天時間,在肯亞 奈洛比的瑪薩瑞山谷貧民窟, 和一名又一名女子談話。 我傾聽她們的故事, 掙扎與生存的故事, 她們談到失去孩子, 對抗暴力及饑荒, 有時感到她們根本不可能活下來。 就在我離開前, 下了一場暴雨。 我坐在我的小車裡面, 車輪卡在泥巴中, 心想:「我永遠離不開這裡了。」 突然,有人來拍我的車窗—— 一名女子示意我跟她走, 我跟去了。跳出車外,冒著大雨。 我們走在一條滿是泥巴的小徑上, 穿過一扇搖搖晃晃的 金屬門,進入一間小屋, 裡面有一群女子在盡情跳舞。
I jumped in and found myself lost in the rhythm and the color and the smiles and suddenly I realized: this is what we do as human beings. When we're broken, when we feel that we are failing or are in despair, we dance. We sing. We pray. Beauty resides too in showing up, in paying attention, in being kind when we feel like being anything but kind. Look at the explosion of art and music and poetry in this moment of our collective crisis. It is in the darkest times that we have the chance to find our deepest beauty.
我立刻加入,沉醉在節奏、 色彩,和微笑當中, 我突然了解到: 這就是我們人類會做的事。 當我們沮喪時, 當我們感到我們正在/ 已經落入絕望中時, 我們就會跳舞。 我們就會唱歌。 我們就會禱告。 美好也存在於「到場」當中, 「付出注意力」當中, 「當我們不想仁慈時 還能表現仁慈」當中。 看看在我們集體面對危機時 所爆發出來的藝術、音樂,和詩作。 在最黑暗的時刻, 我們才有機會找到 我們最深處的美好。
So let this be our moment to move forward with the fierce urgency of a new generation fortified with our most profound and collective wisdom. And ask yourself: what can you do with the rest of today and the rest of your life to give back more to the world than you take?
讓這個時刻成為 我們向前邁進的時刻, 我們迫切需要一個新的世代, 要用我們最淵博的集體智慧來打造。 並問問你自己: 今天剩下的時間,人生剩下的日子, 你能做些什麼, 來回饋這個世界,讓施比受更多?
Thank you.
謝謝。