What I remember above all about Harvard was being in the midst of so much energy and intelligence. It could be exhilarating, intimidating, sometimes even discouraging, but always challenging. It was an amazing privilege – and though I left early, I was transformed by my years at Harvard, the friendships I made, and the ideas I worked on.
总而言之,在我记忆中,哈佛充满青春活力、人才辈出.哈佛的生活令人愉快,也让人感到压力,有时甚至会感到泄气,但永远充满挑战.生活在哈佛是极大的荣幸……虽然我离开得比较早,但我在这里的经历、在这里结识的朋友、在这里产生的一些想法影响了我一生.
But taking a serious look back … I do have one big regret.
但是,仔细回想过去,我确实有一大遗憾.
I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world - the appalling disparities of health, and wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.
我离开哈佛时,根本没有意识到这个世界是多么不平等.人类在健康、财富和机遇上的不平等大得可怕,这使无数人被迫在绝望中生活.
I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences.
我在哈佛学到了很多经济学和政治学的新思想,我也了解到了很多科学上的新进展.
But humanity's greatest advances are not in its discoveries - but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity - reducing inequity is the highest human achievement.
但是,人类最大的进步并不在于这些发现,而是在于如何用这些发现去减少不平等现象.不管通过何种手段-建立民主制度、健全公共教育体系、完善医疗保健制度,还是创造广泛的经济机会-减少不平等始终是人类最大的成就.
I left campus knowing little about the millions of young people cheated out of educational opportunities here in this country. And I knew nothing about the millions of people living in unspeakable poverty and disease in developing countries.
我离开校园的时候,根本不知道在这个国家里,有数百万年轻人无法获得受教育的机会.我也不知道,在发展中国家,无数人生活在无法形容的贫穷和疾病之中.
It took me decades to find out.
几十年后我才明白这些事情.
You graduates came to Harvard at a different time. You know more about the world's inequities than the classes that came before. In your years here, I hope you've had a chance to think about how - in this age of accelerating technology - we can finally take on these inequities, and we can solve them.
在座的各位同学,你们来到哈佛的时代与我不同.你们比以前的学生要更了解这个世界的不平等.我希望你们在哈佛求学的过程中已经思考过一个问题,那就是在这个新技术加速发展的时代,我们最终该怎样应对这种不平等,怎样来解决这个问题.
Imagine, just for the sake of discussion, that you had a few hours a week and a few dollars a month to donate to a cause - and you wanted to spend that time and money where it would have the greatest impact in saving and improving lives. Where would you spend it?
为了方便讨论,请想象一下,假如你每个星期可以付出一些时间、每个月可以捐献一些钱,你希望这些时间和金钱,用到对拯救生命和改善人类生活最有用的地方.你会选择什么地方?
For Melinda and for me, the challenge is the same: how can we do the most good for the greatest number with the resources we have.
对我和梅琳达来说,这也是我们面临的问题：如何让我们拥有的资源发挥最大的作用.
During our discussions on this question, Melinda and I read an article about the millions of children who were dying every year in poor countries from diseases that we had long ago made harmless in this country, measles, malaria, pneumonia, hepatitis B, yellow fever. One disease I had never even heard of, rotavirus, was killing half a million kids each year - none of them in the United States.
在讨论的过程中,我和梅琳达读到一篇文章,里面说在那些贫穷的国家,每年有数百万的儿童死于那些在美国早已不成问题的疾病-麻疹、疟疾、肺炎、乙型肝炎、黄热病,还有一种我以前从未听说过的轮状病毒.这些疾病每年导致50万儿童死亡,但是在美国一例这类死亡病例也没有.
We were shocked. We had just assumed that if millions of children were dying and they could be saved, the world would make it a priority to discover and deliver the medicines to save them. But it did not. For under a dollar, there were interventions that could save lives that just weren't being delivered.
我们震惊了.我们想,如果几百万儿童正在死亡线上挣扎,而且他们是可以获救的,那么这个世界理应将用药物拯救他们作为头等大事.但是事实并非如此.因为不足一美元的资金问题,受到干涉,这些药物并没有送到他们的手中.
If you believe that every life has equal value, it's revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not. We said to ourselves, "This can't be true. But if it is true, it deserves to be the priority of our giving."
如果你相信每个生命都是平等的,那么当你发现有人认为某些生命值得救助,而另一些生命不值得时,你会深感厌恶.我们对自己说："事情不可能如此.如果真是如此,那么这理应是我们努力的头等大事."
So we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it. We asked, "How could the world let these children die?"
所以,我们用任何人都会想到的方式开始工作.我们问："这个世界怎么可以眼睁睁地看着这些孩子死去?"
The answer is simple, and harsh. The market did not reward saving the lives of these children, and governments did not subsidize it. So the children died because their mothers and their fathers had no power in the market and no voice in the system.
答案很简单,也很令人难堪.在市场经济中,拯救儿童是一项没有利润的工作,政府也不会提供补助.这些儿童之所以会死亡,是因为他们的父母在经济上没有实力,在政治上没有能力发出声音.
But you and I have both.
但是,你们和我在经济上有实力,在政治上能够发出声音!
We can make market forces work better for the poor if we can develop a more creative capitalism - if we can stretch the reach of market forces so that more people can make a profit, or at least make a living, serving people who are suffering from the great inequities. We also can press governments around the world to spend taxpayer money in ways that better reflect the values of the people who pay the taxes.
我们可以让市场更好地服务穷人,如果我们能够让资本主义制度更具创造力-如果我们可以改变市场,让更多人获利,或者至少可以维持生活-那么,这就可以帮到那些正在极端不平等的状况中受苦的人们.我们还可以向全世界的政府施压,要求他们将纳税人的钱,花到更能反映纳税人价值的地方.
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