So what's image got do with it? And I must say, I think Emeka is trying to send a lot of subliminal messages, because I'm going to keep harping on some of the issues that have come up. But I'm going to try and do something different, and try and just close the loop with some of my personal stories, and try and put a face to a lot of the issues that we've been talking about. So, Africa is a complex continent full of contradictions, as you can see. We're not the only ones.
形象的意义在哪里? 我必须指出我认为Emeka试着传递 很多潜意识的信息 因为我将要反复说一些 已经提出过的话题 但我想尝试下做些不同的事 试着串联下我的个人故事 能带出这些讨论过的话题 新的一个方向 好了,非洲是一个充满矛盾的复杂的大洲 正如你所看到的一样 但并不是只有我们是这样的。
(Laughter)
(笑)
(Applause)
(掌声)
And you know, it's amazing. I mean, we need a whole conference just devoted to telling the good stories about the continent. Just think about that, you know? And this is typically what we've been talking about, the role that the media plays in focusing just on the negative stuff. Now, why is that a problem? A typical disaster story: disease, corruption, poverty. And some of you might be standing here thinking, saying, "OK, you know, Ory, you're Harvard-educated, and all you privileged people come here, saying, 'Forget the poor people. Let's focus on business and the markets, and whatever.' " And they're all, "There's the 80 percent of Africans who really need help."
你知道,这很让人吃惊 我是说,我们需要整个会议的时间 去讲有关这个大陆的好的故事 想象一下 这正是我们平常所说的: 媒体的焦点总是集中在 负面的消息上 那么,为什么这是个问题呢 一个典型的灾难性故事 疾病 腐败 贫穷 你们中的一些人或许想 说, Ory, 你是哈佛毕业的 然后所有有特权的人来这儿说 忘掉那些贫穷的人吧 让我们聚焦到商业和市场,或者别的一些什么 这些就是全部了, 有百分之八十的非洲人是这样的 谁真正需要帮助呢
And I want to tell you that this is my story, OK? And it's the story of many of the Africans who are here. We start with poverty. I didn't grow up in the slums or anything that dire, but I know what it is to grow up without having money, or being able to support family. Euvin was talking about bellwether signs. The bellwether for whether our family was broke or not was breakfast. You know, when things were good, we had eggs and sausages. When things were bad, we had porridge. And like many African families, my parents could never save because they supported siblings, cousins, you know, their parents, and things were always dicey. Now, when I was born, they realized they had a pretty smart kid, and they didn't want me to go to the neighborhood school, which was free.
接下来我想讲的是我的故事 也是许多在场的非洲人的故事 我们从贫穷说起吧 我并不是生长在贫民窟或类似悲惨的地方 但我知道没有钱长大会怎样 或者你必须养活全家 Euvin讲过预兆 看这个家有没有破产,看他们的早饭就可以了 日子好的时候我们有鸡蛋有香肠 日子不好的时候我们只有粥了 像很多非洲家庭一样 我的父母也从来没有积蓄 因为他们要帮助兄弟姐妹,堂兄弟姐妹,还有他们的父母 一切向来都是这么不确定的 当我出生的时候,他们意识到他们有了个漂亮聪明的小孩 他们不想我去邻近的学校读书 那是免费的
And they adopted a very interesting approach to education, which was they were going to take me to a school that they can barely afford. So they took me to a private, Catholic, elementary school, which set the foundation for what ended up being my career. And what happened was, because they could afford it sometimes, sometimes not, I got kicked out pretty much every term. You know, someone would come in with a list of the people who haven't paid school fees, and when they started getting pretty strict, you had to leave, until your school fees could be paid. And I remember thinking, I mean, why don't these guys just take me to a cheap school? Because you know, as a kid you're embarrassed and you're sensitive, and everyone knows you guys don't have money. But they kept at it, and I now understand why they did what they did.
他们采用了一种非常有趣的 教育方法 他们打算让我读一所他们能勉强支付的学校 所以他们带我到一家私立的天主教会学校 也正是这样,奠定了我事业的基础 接下来发生了什么呢 由于他们有时付得起,有时付不起 我在每个学期的时候很多次被逐出学校 你知道的,某人会带着张表格进来 上面写了那些付不起学费的人 当父母收入不好的时候 你只能辍学直到学费付清了 我一直在想 为什么他们要带我去读一所便宜的学校 你知道的 小孩子是很尴尬的 也很敏感 当每个人直到我们没有钱 但是我父母坚持这么做 直到现在我才明白他们这么做的原因
They talk about corruption. In Kenya, we have an entrance exam to go into high school. And there's national schools, which are like the best schools, and provincial schools. My dream school at that time was Kenya High School, a national school. I missed the cutoff by one point. And I was so disappointed, and I was like, "Oh my God, you know, what am I going to do?" And my father said, "OK, listen. Let's go and try and talk to the headmistress. You know, it's just one point. I mean, maybe she'll let you in if that slot's still there." So we went to the school, and because we were nobodies, and because we didn't have privilege, and because my father didn't have the right last name, he was treated like dirt. And I sat and listened to the headmistress talk to him, saying, you know, who do you think you are? And, you know, you must be joking if you think you can get a slot. And I had gone to school with other girls, who were kids of politicians, and who had done much, much worse than I did, and they had slots there. And there's nothing worse than seeing your parent being humiliated in front of you, you know? And we left, and I swore to myself, and I was like, "I'm never, ever going to have to beg for anything in my life." They called me two weeks later, they're like, oh, yeah, you can come now. And I told them to stuff it.
讲到腐败 在肯尼亚我们上高中有个入学考试 国立学校是最好的学校 省立的也是 我那时梦想的学校是肯尼亚高中 一所国立学校 我比录取线少了一分 我非常失望 就像不知道接下来该干什么一样 我爸爸说,好吧 试看看去和女校长谈谈吧 只差了一分而已 如果还有空位的话,也许她会让你进的 因此我们去了学校 因为我们只是贫民,因为我们没有特权 因为我父亲的姓表明了我们的身份的低下 他被歧视了 我坐着,听到那个女校长对我父亲说 你认为你是谁啊 如果你认为你能得到那个空位 真是太好笑了 如果我不得不和那些高官的女孩们 成绩非常差 却拥有位子 最糟糕的莫过于看见自己的父亲 在面前被别人羞辱 然后我们离开了,我暗暗发誓说 我今生决不 为任何事情去乞求别人 两周后,学校叫我去读书 他们轻描淡写的说,你可以来了。被我一口拒绝了
(Laughter) (Applause)
(笑) (掌声)
Final story, and I sort of have to speak quickly. Disease. My father, who I've been talking about, died of AIDS in 1999. He never told anyone that he had AIDS, his fear of the stigma was so strong. And I'm pretty much the one who figured it out, because I was a nerd. And I was in the States at the time, and they called me. He was very sick, the first time he got sick. And he had Cryptococcal meningitis. And so I went on to Google, Cryptococcal meningitis, you know. Because of doctor-patient privilege, they couldn't really tell us what was going on. But they were like, you know, this is a long-term thing. And when I went online and looked at the infectious -- read about the disease, I pretty much realized what was going on.
最后一则故事 是关于疾病的 我父亲患艾滋病于1999年死亡 他从来没和别人讲过他得了艾滋病 他害怕耻辱的感觉是如此强烈 以至于我是自己努力想出来的 那时我还在美国 他们打电话告诉我他生病了,这是他第一次生病 他得了隐球菌脑膜炎 于是我上谷歌搜索隐球菌脑膜炎 由于医患特权 医生不能确切告诉我们发生了什么 他们就像,你知道的,说这是件长期的事情 当我上网 查到这个疾病的时候 我差不多意识到有事发生了
The first time he got sick, he recovered. But what happened was that he had to be on medication that, at that time -- Diflucan, which in the States is used for yeast infections -- cost 30 dollars a pill. He had to be on that pill for the rest of his life. You know, so money ran out. He got sick again. And up until that time, he had a friend who used to travel to India, and he used to import, bring him, could get him a generic version of it. And that kept him going. But the money ran out. He got sick again. He got sick on a Friday. At that time, there was only one bank that had ATMs in Kenya, and we could not get cash. The family couldn't get cash for him to start the treatment until Monday. The hospital put him on a water drip for three days. And finally, we figured, well, OK, we'd better just try and take him to a public hospital. At least he'll get treated while we try to figure out the money situation. And he died when the ambulance was coming to the hospital to take him.
第一次的病,他恢复了 但他需要继续药物治疗 那时在美国,氟康唑 是用于治疗真菌感染,每片要卖30美元 他不能不依靠那个药片持续余生 你知道的,钱花完了 他的病又发作了 就在那个时候,他有个在印度旅游的朋友 他能给父亲 拿到氟康唑的一种纺仿制品 这让父亲生存了下来 可是钱很快又花完了 他的病再次发作了,在某一个星期五 那时肯尼亚只有一家银行有ATM机 但我们没有现金,整个家庭在周一前都拿不到现金 用来付父亲的初期治疗费用 医院把我父亲安排在水槽旁三天 终于,我们决定,好吧 我们还是试着把他送到公立医院吧 那样至少他能得到治疗 当我们试着想办法筹钱的时候 他死了,当时救护车正要 载他去医院
And, you know, now, imagine if -- and I could go on and on -- imagine if this is all you know about me. How would you look at me? With pity, you know. Sadness. And this is how you look at Africa. This is the damage it causes. You don't see the other side of me. You don't see the blogger, you don't see the Harvard-educated lawyer, the vibrant person, you know? And I just wanted to personalize that. Because we talk about it in big terms, and you wonder, you know, so what? But it's damaging. And I'm not unique, right? Imagine if all you knew about William was the fact that he grew up in a poor village. And you didn't know about the windmill, you know? And I was just moved. I was actually crying during his presentation. He was like, I try and I make. I was like Nike should hire him, you know, "Just do it!"
好吧,想象一下, 这是你们知道的有关我的所有事情 你们会怎么看我? 同情,怜悯 这就是你们对非洲的看法 这也带来了伤害 你们不了解我的另一面 你们看不到博客 你们不知道我是哈佛毕业的律师 一个精力充沛的人 我只想把非洲人的形象更私人化 因为我们经常用非洲人这个大概念加到所有的非洲人身上 你会想,这又怎么样? 但这是很伤人的 而且我不是唯一一个 想象一下,如果你们只知道William 在一个穷乡村长大 而且你们不知道风车 我刚刚却被感动了 我在他的演讲的时候哭了起来 他就像,我做了,我成功了 我觉得Nike应该雇佣他,‘想做就做!’
(Laughter)
(笑)
And this is, again, the point I'm trying to make. When you focus just on the disasters -- (Laughter) (Applause) -- we're ignoring the potential. So, what is to be done? First of all, Africans, we need to get better at telling our stories. We heard about that yesterday. We had some of them this morning. And this is an example, you know, blogging is one way of doing that. Afrigator is an aggregator of African blogs that was developed in South Africa. So we need to start getting better. If no one else will tell our stories, let's do it. And going back to the point I was trying to make, this is the Swahili Wikipedia. Swahili is spoken by about 50 million people in East Africa. It only has five contributors. Four of them are white males -- non-native speakers. The other person is -- Ndesanjo, if you're here, stand up -- is a Tanzanian, [the] first Swahili blogger. He's the only African who's contributing to this.
这也正是我想说的 如果你聚焦在一个人的不幸上 (笑)(掌声) 我们很有可能忽略了他的潜能 那么,应该怎么做呢? 首先 非洲人们,我们应该更擅于将自己的故事 昨天我们听到了一些事 今天就可以把它们写出来 你知道的 写博客就是其中一个方法 Afrigator是非洲人博客的总站 是在南非开发的 所以我们需要变得更好 如果没人讲我们的故事,那么我们自己讲 回到刚才我想要说的 这是斯瓦西里的维基百科 斯瓦西里是东非一个5千万人的国家 它只有5个投稿人 其中4个是白人男性,母语不是斯瓦西里 还有一个是Ndesanjo,如果你在这儿就站起来一下 他是坦桑尼亚人,第一个斯瓦西里的博主 他也是唯一一个非洲投稿人
People, please. We can't whine and complain the West is doing this. What are we doing? Where are the rest of the Swahili speakers? Why are we not generating our own content? You know, it's not enough to complain. We need to act. Reuters now integrates African blogs into their coverage of Africa. So, that's a start, and we've heard of all their other initiatives. The cheetah generation. The aid approach, you know, is flawed. And after all the hoopla of Live 8, we're still not anywhere in the picture. No, you're not.
人们呐,我们不能抱怨控诉说 为什么西方人在做这件事 我们在干什么呢? 其他的斯瓦西里人在干什么? 我们为什么不自己更新内容? 仅仅抱怨是不够的,我们需要行动起来 路透社现在正把非洲的博客并入到 他们对非洲的报道中 这是一个好的开始 我们也听到有一些别的行动 他们是猎豹一代 这种帮助手段是有缺陷的 Live 8 台的大力宣传过后 我们还是没有得到更多的关注 是的,你们没有
(Laughter)
(笑)
But the point I'm trying to make, though, is that it's not enough for us to criticize. And for those of you in the diaspora who are struggling with where should I be, should I move back, should I stay? You know, just jump. The continent needs you. And I can't emphasize that enough, you know. I walked away from a job with one of the top firms in D.C., Covington and Burling, six figures. With two paychecks, or three paychecks, I could solve a lot of my family's problems. But I walked away from that, because my passion was here, and because I wanted to do things that were fulfilling. And because I'm needed here, you know? I probably can win a prize for the most ways to use a Harvard Law School degree because of all the things I'm doing.
但我还是想说 仅仅批评是不够的 对于那些在国外散居的人们 和我一样挣扎着一些事 我应该搬回来吗? 还是留下来? 行动吧 非洲需要你 这点怎么强调都不够 我从DC的一家顶级公司辞职 科文顿伯林律师事务所 2个月或3个月的工资就有6位数 这样的高收入可以解决我家很多问题 但我还是辞职了,因为我的热情在这里 因为我想要实现个人抱负 因为这儿需要我 利用哈佛法学院的头衔 我很有可能因为正在做的这些事 获得各种奖励
One is because I'm pretty aggressive, and I try and find, you know, opportunities. But there is such a need, you know? I'm a corporate lawyer most of the time for an organization called Enablis that supports entrepreneurs in South Africa. We're now moving into East Africa. And we give them business development services, as well as financing loan and equity. I've also set up a project in Kenya, and what we do is we track the performance of Kenyan MPs. My partner, M, who's a tech guru, hacked WordPress. It costs us, like, 20 dollars a month just for hosting. Everything else on there is a labor of love. We've manually entered all the data there. And you can get profiles of each MP, questions they've asked in parliament. We have a comment function, where people can ask their MPs questions. There are some MPs who participate, and come back and ask.
其中一个原因是我敢作敢为 我尽一切努力寻找机会 但这儿有个需求 我大部分时间在Enablis组织 做执业律师 支持南非的企业家 我们现在搬到了东非 我们提供商业开发服务 金融贷款和股票权益 我在肯尼亚还建立了一个项目 我们所做的就是记录 肯尼亚国会议员的表现 我的合伙人M,高科技专家,创建了WordPress博客平台 这一个月要花我20美元 其他的劳力付出都是出于爱 我们几乎手动输入了所有的数据 你们可以找到所有议员的履历 他们在国会上问过的问题 网站有留言功能 人们可以问议员问题 其中一些议员会参与这个项目 他们会回答,提问
And basically, we started this because we were tired of complaining about our politicians. You know, I believe that accountability stems from demand. You're not just going to be accountable out of the goodness of your heart. And we as Africans need to start challenging our leaders. What are they doing? You know, they're not going to change just out of nowhere. So we need new policies, we need -- where's that coming from, you know? Another thing is that these leaders are a reflection of our society. We talk about African governments like they've been dropped from Mars, you know? They come from us. And what is it about our society that is generating leaders that we don't like? And how can we change that? So Mzalendo was one small way we thought we could start inspiring people to start holding their leaders accountable. Where do we go from here? I believe in the power of ideas. I believe in the power of sharing knowledge.
我们建立这个项目是因为我们厌倦了 抱怨我们的政治家 我相信责任来源于需求 你不仅仅出于善良 而负责 我们非洲人需要挑战我们的领导人 他们在做什么? 他们是不会无缘无故 改变什么的 所以我们需要新的政策,我们需要 这些能从哪儿来? 另一件事是这些领导人 是我们社会的反射 我们讨论非洲政府 就像他们从火星上掉下来 其实,他们也来自我们普罗大众 如果产生的领导是我们不喜欢的呢? 我们怎样才能改变? 所以Mzalendo是一种我们认为可以试试的方法 这能促进领导人让他们负责 我们还可以做些什么? 我相信思想意识的力量 我相信分享知识的力量
And I'd ask all of you, when you leave here, please just share, and keep the ideas that you've gotten out of here going, because it can make a difference. The other thing I want to urge you to do is take an interest in the individual. I've had lots of conversations about things I think need to be happening in Africa. People are like, "OK, if you don't do aid, I'm a bleeding heart liberal, what can I do?" And when I talk about my ideas, they're like, "BBut it's not scalable, you know. Give me something I can do with Paypal." It's not that easy, you know? And sometimes just taking an interest in the individual, in the fellows you've met, and the businesspeople you've met, it can make a huge difference, especially in Africa, because usually the individual in Africa carries a lot of people behind them. Practically. I mean, when I was a first-year student in law school, my mom's business had collapsed, so I was supporting her. My sister was struggling to get through undergrad. I was helping her pay her tuition. My cousin ran out of school fees, and she's really smart. I was paying her school fees.
我想请求你们离开的时候能分享这儿的一切 并保留这些新的思想 因为这关系重大 还有一件我想要鼓励你们做的是 保留自我的兴趣 我讨论过很多 非洲必须做的事 人们就像,如果你不帮忙 我就是个心肠过软的自由主义者。我还能怎么做? 当我谈到自己的想法时 他们就退缩 给我一些帮助,我可以处理Paypal 这并不简单 有时 你遇到的同事或商人 这有时很重要,特别是在非洲 因为通常一些在非洲的人 背后有很多帮助他的人 实际上,当我在法律学校读第一年时 我妈妈的生意破产了,所以我资助她 我的妹妹挣扎着读完本科 我也帮她付学费 我的表妹付不起学费,她真的很聪明 我帮她付了
A cousin of mine died of AIDS, left an orphan, so we said, well, what are we going to do with her? You know, she's now my baby sister. And because of the opportunities that were afforded to me, I am able to lift all those people. So, don't underestimate that. An example. This man changed my life. He's a professor. He's now at Vanderbilt. He's an undergrad professor, Mitchell Seligson. And because of him, I got into Harvard Law School, because he took an interest. I was taking a class of his, and he was just like, this is an overeager student, which we don't normally get in the United States, because everyone else is cynical and jaded. He called me to his office and said, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" I said, "I want to be a lawyer." And he was like, "Why? You know, we don't need another lawyer in the United States." And he tried to talk me out of it, but it was like, "OK, I know nothing about applying to law school, I'm poli-sci Ph.D. But, you know, let's figure out what I need you to do, what I need to do to help you out."
我的一个表亲死于艾滋病,他的孩子成了孤儿 那我们该怎么处理这件事呢 她现在成了我的小孩 因为那些提供给我的机会 我能帮助他们所有人 所以不要低估了这点 举个例子。有个男人改变了我的生活 他是个教授,在Vanderbilt工作 他教本科生,Mitchell Seligson 因为他,我才能考进哈佛法学院 因为他关注我 我上过他的一节课 他发现可我这个过于渴望的学生 这在美国可不常见 其他人都愤世嫉俗或厌倦了 他叫我去他的办公室,并问我 你长大了想做什么 我说我想当一个律师 他问为什么 美国并不缺少律师 他试着让我放弃想法 但这就像,好吧,虽然我不知道怎么申请法学院 我是个政治科学的博士 让我们找找我需要你做什么 我需要做什么才能帮助你
It was like, "Where do you want to go?" And to me at that time university -- I was at University of Pitts for undergrad, and that was like heaven, OK, because compared to what could have been in Kenya. So I'm like, "Yeah, I'm just applying to Pitt for law school." He was like, "Why? You know, you're smart, you have all these things going for you." And I'm like, "Because I'm here and it's cheap, and you know, I kind of like Pittsburgh." Like, that's the dumbest reason I've ever heard for applying to law school. And, you know, so he took me under his wing, and he encouraged me. And he said, "Look, you can get into Harvard, you're that good, OK? And if they don't admit you, they're the ones who are messed up." And he built me up, you know? And this is just an illustration.
为什么你要去那儿? 对我来说,那是在大学里 我在Pitts大学读本科 那儿就像天堂 和肯尼亚的一些大学比较来说 所以我就申请了Pitt的法学院 他就问为什么,他说你很聪明 你有足够好的条件 我在这儿因为这儿便宜 而且我也喜欢匹兹堡 这可能是我听过申请法学院 最愚蠢的原因 他帮助我,鼓励我 他说我可以进哈佛 他说我足够的好 如果哈佛不录取我,他们就错了 是他帮助我振作了起来 这是个很好的例子
You can meet other individuals here. We just need a push. That's all I needed was a push to go to the next level. Basically, I want to end with my vision for Africa, you know? A gentleman spoke yesterday about the indignity of us having to leave the continent so that we can fulfill our potential. You know, my vision is that my daughter, and any other African child being born today, can be whoever they want to be here, without having to leave. And they can have the possibility of transcending the circumstances under which they were born. That's one thing you Americans take for granted, you know? That you can grow up, you know, not so good circumstances, and you can move. Just because you are born in rural Arkansas, whatever, that doesn't define who you are. For most Africans today, where you live, or where you were born, and the circumstances under which you were born, determine the rest of your life. I would like to see that change, and the change starts with us. And as Africans, we need to take responsibility for our continent. Thank you.
你们也可能在这儿遇到一些重要的人 我们需要的仅仅是一个动力 要进入下一个阶段我需要的就是一个动力 基本上我将以我对非洲的愿景结束演讲了 一位绅士昨天讲了 我们不得不离开非洲 才能去追求自己的未来的愤慨。 我的愿景是我的女儿 和其他现在出生的非洲小孩 能成为他们自己想做的人 而不用离开非洲 他们有可能 超越他们出生时的环境 这一点是美国人认为理所当然的 生在不是很好的环境里, 你也可以搬家 仅仅由于你生在阿肯色州的乡村 无论如何,这都不会影响你能成为什么 对大多数现在的非洲人来说,你住在哪儿,或你出生于哪儿 或你出生的环境怎么样 决定了你未来的生活 我想看到这些改变 而且这些改变从我们开始 作为非洲人,我们需要为我们的非洲负责 谢谢
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