Sometimes, you have a negative feeling about things. You're not happy about the way things are going. You feel frustrated and dissatisfied, and so often, we choose to live with it. It's a negative that we tell ourselves we have to endure. And yet, I passionately believe that we all have the ability to turn that negative feeling into a positive by allowing our dissatisfaction to give birth to change.
有时, 你对事物会有消极的看法。 你对于事情的走向 感觉到不乐观。 你感觉到沮丧和不满, 而对此,我们常常选择 忍耐并继续生活。 但告诉我们自己要忍受, 本身就是消极的。 不过,我热切的相信, 我们都拥有能力 将负面的情感 转变为积极的感受。 通过承认我们的不满, 来催生改变。
On January 6, 1999, I was working in London when the news channels began to report the rebel invasion of my hometown, Freetown, Sierra Leone. Thousands of people lost their lives, and there were bodies littering the streets of Freetown. My husband's elderly aunt was burned alive, and I thought of my own two-year old as I saw images of little children with amputated limbs.
在 1999 年 1 月 6 日, 我当时正在伦敦工作, 新闻频道开始报道 我的家乡,塞拉利昂的弗里敦, 发生了反动暴乱。 数千人丧生, 弗里敦的街头满是尸体。 我丈夫的阿姨被活活烧死, 当我看到那些 截肢的孩子的照片时, 不禁想到了我自己两岁的孩子,。
Colleagues said to me, "How could we help?" I didn't know, so I began to call the telephone numbers that came up on my screen as international aid agencies started to make appeals to raise money to address the tragedy. The vagueness of those telephone conversations disappointed me. It felt like the people who were raising the money seemed so far removed from the crisis, and understandably so, but I wasn't satisfied and I wasn't convinced that the interventions they would eventually implement would actually have the level of impact that was so clearly needed. There were butterflies in my stomach for days as I continued to watch horrors unfold on television, and I continuously asked myself, what could I be doing? What should I be doing? What I wanted to do was to help children affected by the war. So that's what we did.
同事们对我说: “我们有什么能帮上忙的?” 我不知道, 所以我开始拨打那些 出现在我电脑屏幕上的电话号码。 当时, 许多国际援助机构开始出面 呼吁筹集资金来处理这场灾难。 但是模棱两可的电话内容 让我非常失望。 我感觉那些筹钱的人, 似乎离危机本身非常遥远, 虽然可以理解, 但我并不满足。 我也并不相信 他们最终采取的那些干涉措施 能够切实满足需求。 那段时间,看着电视上报道的 那些恐怖场面, 我始终心神不宁, 不断问自己, 我能做些什么? 我又应该做些什么? 我想要做的, 是帮助被战争影响的孩子们。 于是我们开始采取行动。
Myself, my sister and some friends started the Sierra Leone War Trust For Children, SLWT. We decided to focus on the thousands of displaced people that fled the fighting and were now living in really poor, difficult conditions in camps in Freetown. Our work started with the Ross Road Camp at the east end of the city. Working with a local health organization, we identified about 130 of the most vulnerable single mothers with children under the age of five, supporting them by providing business skills, microcredit, whatever they asked us. Working in those difficult conditions, just getting the basics right, was no small task, but our collective sense of dissatisfaction at an unacceptable status quo kept us focused on getting things done. Some of those women went on to open small businesses, repaid their loans and allowed other mothers and their children to have the same opportunity they did.
我和我的姐姐,以及一些朋友 创立了塞拉利昂 儿童战争基金机构(SLWT)。 我们决定将注意力放在 成千上万的难民上, 那些逃离战争, 如今却穷困潦倒, 不得不住在弗里敦难民营的难民们。 我们的工作从罗斯路难民营开始, 它在城市的最东端。 在一个当地健康组织的合作下, 我们找到了大约 130 名 最易受战争影响的单亲妈妈, 她们都养育着不足五岁的孩子。 我们为她们提供商业技能、 小额贷款, 以及她们所需的一切支持。 在那般艰苦的环境下工作, 同时只享有一些基本权利, 并非易事。 但是我们共有的不满, 让我们在难以接受的环境下, 强迫着自己把一切事情搞定。 这些女性中, 有的开始经营小规模的业务, 偿还她们的贷款, 让其他的母亲以及她们的孩子 拥有和她们一样的机会。
And we, we kept on going. In 2004, we opened an agricultural training center for ex-child soldiers, and when the war was behind us, we started a scholarship program for disadvantaged girls who would otherwise not be able to continue in school. Today, Stella, one of those girls, is about to qualify as a medical doctor. It's amazing what a dose of dissatisfaction can birth.
我们呢,我们也同样继续努力着。 在 2004 年, 我们为那些曾经的儿童兵 建立了一个农业训练中心。 同时,战争过后, 我们为弱势的女孩们 开展了一个奖学金项目, 如果没有这笔钱,她们将上不了学。 现如今,这些女孩中的一员,斯黛拉 将要通过医生资格认证。 这一点点的不满, 竟可以催生如此美好的事物。
(Applause)
(掌声)
Ten years later, in 2014, Sierra Leone was struck by Ebola. I was working in Freetown at the time on a hotel construction project on May 25 when the first cases were announced, but I was back in London on July 30 when the state of emergency was announced, the same day that many airlines stopped their flights to Sierra Leone.
十年过后,在 2014 年, 塞拉利昂被埃博拉病毒袭击。 第一批感染病例 在 5 月 25 日被宣布时, 我正在弗里敦的 一处酒店建造现场工作。 但当我在 7 月 30 日回到伦敦时, 塞拉利昂政府已经宣布了 全国进入紧急状态, 也是那一天,许多航空公司都 停飞了到塞拉利昂的航班。
I remember crying for hours, asking God, why this? Why us? But beyond the tears, I began to feel again that profound sense of dissatisfaction.
我记得我哭了数个小时, 质问上帝,为什么是这样? 又为什么是我们? 但是除了这一滴滴眼泪以外, 我又一次感觉到 强烈的不满。
So when, six months after those first cases had been confirmed, the disease was still spreading rapidly in Sierra Leone and the number of people infected and dying continued to rise, my level of frustration and anger got so much that I knew I could not stay and watch the crisis from outside Sierra Leone. So, in mid-November, I said goodbye to my much loved and very understanding husband and children, and boarded a rather empty plane to Freetown.
所以,在宣布 第一批感染病例的六个月后, 当疾病仍在塞拉利昂的大地上飞速肆虐, 感染人数和死亡人数仍在上升时, 强烈的沮丧和愤怒 让我知道,我不能再袖手旁观, 在塞拉利昂之外, 眼睁睁看着危机袭来。 因此,在 11 月中旬, 我告别了我深爱的, 同时也很理解我的丈夫和孩子们, 登上了一架飞往弗里敦的, 空荡荡的飞机。
Freetown was now the epicenter of the outbreak. There were hundreds of new cases every week. I spoke to many medical experts, epidemiologists and ordinary people every day. Everyone was really scared.
弗里敦当时正是病毒爆发的震中。 每周都有数百例确诊的新病例。 我每天都与很多医学专家、 流行病学专家 以及普通人沟通。 大家都很害怕。
"We won't succeed until we're talking to people under the mango tree." So said Dr. Yoti, a Ugandan doctor who worked for WHO and who had been involved in pretty much every Ebola outbreak in Africa previously. He was right, and yet there was no plan to make that happen.
“我们如果不和身处其中的人交流, 就绝不会成功。” Yoti 医生曾说道, 他是一位为世界卫生组织工作的 乌干达医生, 也是每次埃博拉病毒在非洲爆发时 身处一线的人。 他是对的, 但是当时还没有相应的计划。
So during a weekend in early December, I developed a plan that became known as the Western Area Surge plan. We needed to talk with people, not at people. We needed to work with the community influencers so people believed our message. We needed to be talking under the mango tree, not through loudspeakers. And we needed more beds. The National Ebola Response Center, NERC, built on and implemented that plan, and by the third week of January, the number of cases had fallen dramatically. I was asked to serve as a new Director of Planning for NERC, which took me right across the country, trying to stay ahead of the outbreak but also following it to remote villages in the provinces as well as to urban slum communities.
所以在 12 月上旬的一个周末, 我确立了大家所熟知的 “西区浪潮行动”(Western Area Surge)计划。 我们要和人交流, 而不是针对某个人。 我们要和社区中有影响力的人合作, 这样人们才会相信我们的意图。 我们要设身处地的去交流, 而不是高高在上的指挥。 我们也需要更多的床位。 塞拉利昂埃博拉应对中心(NERC) 完善并实施了那个计划。 在 1 月的第 3 周, 病例数量就出现了骤减。 我被要求担任 塞拉利昂埃博拉应对中心的 新规划总监, 要在国家的另一端的 疫情一线战斗, 同时还要时刻追踪 疫情在偏远村庄 以及城市的贫民窟地区的发展情况。
On one occasion, I got out of my car to call for help for a man who had collapsed on the road. I accidentally stepped in liquid that was coming down the road from where he lay. I rushed to my parents' house, washed my feet in chlorine. I'll never forget waiting for that man's test results as I constantly checked my temperature then and throughout the outbreak.
有一次,我从车上下来, 为一位在马路中央晕倒的男性求助。 我意外的踩到了 从他晕倒的马路上流下来的水。 于是我跑到我父母的家, 用氯水冲洗我的脚来消毒。 我永远记得,从那一刻起直至疫情结束, 我一直在坚持测量自己的体温, 同时等着那位先生的 病毒检测结果。
The Ebola fight was probably the most challenging but rewarding experience of my life, and I'm really grateful for the dissatisfaction that opened up the space for me to serve.
抗击埃博拉疫情可能是 我这辈子以来 最具挑战性,但也是 收获最丰富的一次经历。 我也真的非常感激 这种不满情绪, 为我营造了合适的空间 让我发光发热。
Dissatisfaction can be a constant presence in the background, or it can be sudden, triggered by events. Sometimes it's both. With my hometown, that's the way it was.
不满既可能是持续的感受, 也有可能出现在一瞬间, 被某件事情所触发。 有时,两者皆是。 在我的家乡,就是这样的。
For years, our city had changed, and it had caused me great pain. I remember a childhood growing up climbing trees, picking mangoes and plums on the university campus where my father was a lecturer. Went fishing in the streams deep in the botanical gardens. The hillsides around Freetown were covered with lush green vegetation, and the beaches were clean and pristine. The doubling of the population of Freetown in the years that followed the civil war, and the lack of planning and building control resulted in massive deforestation. The trees, the natural beauty, were destroyed as space was made for new communities, formal or informal, and for the cutting down of firewood. I was deeply troubled and dissatisfied.
我们的城市在数年之间已经面目全非, 而这让我倍感痛苦。 我记得伴随着爬树 慢慢长大的童年, 在我父亲授课的大学旁 摘芒果和李子的场景, 以及在植物园的溪水中钓鱼的画面。 弗里敦周围的山丘上, 满是绿色的植物, 沙滩也非常原生态,自然而清新。 在内战后的数年中, 弗里敦的人口已经翻倍, 又因为缺乏计划和建筑的管理, 导致了大量的滥伐森林。 那些代表着自然之美的树丛,只因为 要给正式或非正式的新社区制造空地, 或者为了制造柴火, 而全部毁于一旦。 我对此感到深深的困扰和不满。
It wasn't just the destruction of the trees and the hillsides that bothered me. It was also the impact of people, as infrastructure failed to keep up with the growth of the population: no sanitation systems to speak of, a dirty city with typhoid, malaria and dysentery. I didn't know the statistics at the time, but it turned out that by 2017, only six percent of liquid waste and 21 percent of solid waste was being collected. The rest was right there with us, in backyards, in fields, rivers and deposited in the sea.
不光是树木和丘陵的减少 在困扰着我。 困扰我的,还有因为基础建筑 未能跟上人口增长速度 而对人民造成的巨大冲击; 没有成熟的卫生系统的城市, 充斥着伤寒、疟疾和痢疾。 我不知道当时的统计数据结果, 但是 2017 年的数据表明, 只有 6% 的液态废弃物 和 21% 的固态废弃物 被有效的收集起来了。 而剩下的那些就在我们身边, 在后院里、田地里、河流中, 甚至被遗弃在海洋深处。
The steps to address that deep sense of anger and frustration I felt didn't unfold magically or clearly. That's not how the power of dissatisfaction works. It works when you know that things can be done better, and it works when you decide to take the risks to bring about that change. And so it was that in 2017 I ended up running for mayor, because I knew things could be better. It seemed the people agreed with me, because I won the election.
解决我心中的愤怒和不满的想法, 这次没有神奇或是清晰的浮现。 这不是不满的力量作用的方式。 不满只有在你知道 事情可以变得更好时, 而且你决定冒着风险 进行改变时才起作用。 于是在 2017 年, 我决定参选市长, 因为我知道这一切可以变得更好, 而且看起来大家也都认同我, 因为我赢下了那场选举。
(Applause)
(掌声)
Today, we are implementing an ambitious plan to transform our city, and when I say we, what gets me really excited is that I mean the whole Freetown community, whether it's being part of competitions like rewarding the neighborhood that makes the most improvement in overall cleanliness, or whether it's our programs that are leading and joining people and waste collectors through our apps.
现如今,我们正在实施 一项壮志雄心勃勃的计划, 来让我们的城市实现转型。 而当我提到“我们”这个 真的让我兴奋不已的词时, 我指的,是整个弗里敦社区的每个人。 无论大家是作为 奖励对卫生贡献最大社区 这样的比赛的一分子, 还是作为参与我们设计的应用, 让人们积极参与 垃圾收集计划的成员。
In Freetown today, it's a much cleaner city, and those trees that we're so well known for, we planted 23,000 of them last rainy season.
今日的弗里敦, 比以前更干净了。 那些让我们被大家所熟知的树木, 我们在上个雨季种下了 23000 棵。
(Applause)
(掌声)
And in 2020, we plan to plant a million trees as part of our "Freetown the Tree Town" campaign.
而在 2020 年, 作为“弗里敦·树之镇”运动的一环, 我们打算种下 100 万棵树。
(Applause)
(掌声)
Sometimes, sometimes we have a negative feeling about things. We're not happy about the way things are going. We feel dissatisfied, and we feel frustrated. We can change that negative into a positive.
有时,有时我们会对事物 有消极的感受。 我们对事物的走向 并不乐观。 我们会感到不满, 我们也会感到沮丧。 我们可以把消极的感受 转变为积极态度。
If you believe that things can be better, then you have the option to do something rather than to do nothing. The scale and circumstances of our situations will differ, but for each of us, we all have one thing in common. We can take risks to make a difference, and I will close in saying, step out, take a risk. If we can unite behind the power of dissatisfaction, the world will be a better place.
只要你相信事情可以变得更好, 你就有选择去付诸实践。 也许我们的处境有所不同, 但是对我们每个人来说, 我们都有一个共同点。 我们可以选择冒险来改变一切。 而我会选择, 勇敢的迈出一步, 敢于去冒险。 如果我们选择 和不满的力量团结在一起, 世界将会变得更好。
Thank you.
谢谢大家。
(Applause)
(掌声)