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CharityWayua_2016S-_改善政府的几个方法_
Growing up in Kenya, 在肯亚长大的我,
I knew I always wanted to study biochemistry . 知道自己一直很想学习生物化学。
biochemistry:n.生物化学;生物化学过程;
See, I had seen the impact of the high prevalence of diseases like malaria , and I wanted to make medicines that would cure the sick. 我见过像疟疾这样高度流行的疾病所造成的影响, 我想要制作出能治愈疾病的医药。
impact:n.影响;效果;碰撞;冲击力;v.挤入,压紧;撞击;对…产生影响; prevalence:n.流行;普遍;广泛; diseases:n.[医]病(disease的复数);[医]疾病;[植保]病害;疾病种类; malaria:n.[内科]疟疾;瘴气;
So I worked really hard, got a scholarship to the United States, where I became a cancer researcher, and I loved it. 所以我非常努力, 得到了赴美深造的奖学金,成为癌症研究学家, 我热爱自己的工作。
scholarship:n.奖学金;学问;学识;学术成就; United:adj.联合的; v.联合,团结; (unite的过去分词和过去式) cancer:n.癌症;恶性肿瘤;
For someone who wants to cure diseases, there is no higher calling. 对于一个希望能治病的人来说, 没有比这个更高的使命。
Ten years later, I returned to Kenya to do just that. 十年后我回到肯亚,就是为了继续这样的使命。
A freshly minted PhD, ready to take on this horrific illness, which in Kenya was almost certainly a death sentence . 戴上全新的博士光环, 准备好对抗这可怕的疾病。 对当时的肯亚来说,得了癌症就等于被判了死刑。
freshly:adv.新近;精神饱满地; minted:adj.铸造的;新生产的;薄荷味的;富有的;v.铸币;(mint的过去分词和过去式) horrific:adj.可怕的;令人毛骨悚然的; death sentence:n.死刑;
But instead of landing a job in a pharmaceutical company or a hospital, 但是我并没有进入药厂, 或到医院工作,
pharmaceutical:adj.制药(学)的;n.药物;
I found myself drawn to a different kind of lab, working with a different kind of patient — a patient whose illness was so serious it impacted every single person in my country; a patient who needed to get healthy fast. 我发现自己被引领到另一种实验室, 为另一种病人工作── 这位病人病得非常严重, 影响了我祖国的每一个人, 这个病人亟待恢复健康,
patient:adj.有耐心的,能容忍的;n.病人;患者; impacted:adj.压紧的;结实的;嵌入的;(人口)稠密的;v.装紧;挤满(impact的过去分词);
That patient was my government. 这个病人就是我们的政府。
(Laughter) （笑声）
See, many of us will agree that lots of governments are unhealthy today. 很多人应该都会同意,如今许多政府都不太健康。
unhealthy:不健康的
(Laughter) （笑声）
(Applause) （掌声）
And Kenya was no exception . 肯亚也不例外。
exception:n.例外;异议;
When I returned to Kenya in 2014, there was 17 percent youth unemployment . 当我在 2014 年返回肯亚时, 青年失業率是 17%,
unemployment:n.失业;失业率;失业人数;
And Nairobi, the major business hub , was rated 177th on the quality of living index . 主要商業枢纽──首都奈洛比, 生活品质指标名列第 177 名,
hub:n.中心;毂;木片; index:n.指标;指数;索引;指针;v.做索引;指出;编入索引中;
It was bad. 情况非常糟。
Now, an economy is only as healthy as the entities that make it up. 只有在组成的实体都健全的状况下,一个经济体才会健全。
economy:n.经济;节约;理财; entities:n.实体;存在(entity的复数形式);字符实体;
So when government — one of its most vital entities — is weak or unhealthy, everyone and everything suffers. 所以当政府── 也就是其中最重要的实体── 不健全或很虚弱时, 所有人事物都会受苦。
vital:adj.至关重要的;生死攸关的;有活力的;
Sometimes you might put a Band-Aid in place to try and temporarily stop the pain. 有时候你会想要贴上 OK 绷, 试着暂时止痛,
Band-Aid:n.创可贴;adj.补缀的; temporarily:adv.临时地,临时;
Maybe some of you here have participated in a Band-Aid operation to an African country — setting up alternative schools, building hospitals, digging wells — because governments there either weren't or couldn't provide the services to their citizens. 或许你们其中有些人曾经参与 幫非洲国家贴上 OK 绷的过程── 设立另类学校、建造医院、挖水井── 因为那里的政府不愿意或无法提供人民这些服务。
participated:v.参加;参与;(participate的过去式和过去分词) alternative:adj.供选择的;选择性的;交替的;n.二中择一;供替代的选择;
We all know this is a temporary solution . 我们都知道这只是暂时的办法,
temporary:adj.暂时的,临时的;n.临时工,临时雇员; solution:n.解决方案;溶液;溶解;解答;
There are just some things Band-Aids can't fix, like providing an environment where businesses feel secure that they'll have an equal opportunity to be able to run and start their businesses successfully. 有一些事情光用 OK 绷是无法解决的, 像是提供让企業感觉安全的环境, 让大家有平等的机会 可以成功地开始经商,
Band-Aids:n.创可贴;护创膏布(Band-Aid的复数);
Or there are systems in place that would protect the private property that they create. 或是让制度到位, 保护大家创造出来的私有财产。
I would argue, only government is capable of creating these necessary conditions for economies to thrive . 我认为, 只有政府才有能力创造出 让经济蓬勃发展的必要环境。
capable:adj.能干的,能胜任的;有才华的; economies:n.经济;经济结构;节约;(economy的复数) thrive:v.繁荣;茁壮成长;蓬勃发展;兴旺发达;
Economies thrive when business are able to quickly and easily set up shop. 当企業可以简单快速地设立商店,就能促进经济繁榮。
Business owners create new sources of income for themselves, new jobs get added into the economy and then more taxes are paid to fund public projects. 企業经营者为自己创造新的收入来源, 经济体增加了新的工作机会, 就会带来更多税收,进而发展公共计画。
sources:n.来源;出处;起源;根源;原因;v.(从…)获得(source的第三人称单数和复数) fund:n.基金;资金;存款;v.投资;资助;
New business is good for everyone. 新的企業对大家都有益处,
And it's such an important measure of economic growth, the World Bank has a ranking called the "Ease of Doing Business Ranking," 也是测量经济成长的重要指标。 世界银行有一项「经商便利度」排名,
economic:adj.经济的,经济上的;经济学的; World Bank:n.世界银行(向处于困境需要资助的成员国贷款的国际机构);
which measures how easy or difficult it is to start a business in any given country. 测量在任何国家开始经商的难易度。
And as you can imagine, starting or running a business in a country with an ailing government — almost impossible. 你们可以想像, 要在一个有恶质政府的国家开始经商, 是几乎不可能的。
ailing:adj.生病的,身体不舒服的;体衰的;v.生病;苦恼(ail的现在分词);
The President of Kenya knew this, which is why in 2014, he came to our lab and asked us to partner with him to be able to help Kenya to jump-start business growth. 肯亚的总统深谙此理,因此在 2014 年, 他来到我们的实验室,希望我们与他合作, 幫助肯亚加速企業成长。
jump-start:v.强力推动;快速启动;助推启动;n.助推启动法
He set an ambitious goal: he wanted Kenya to be ranked top 50 in this World Bank ranking. 他订了一个很有野心的目标: 他希望肯亚能在世界银行的排名中名列前 50 名,
ambitious:adj.野心勃勃的;有雄心的;热望的;炫耀的;
In 2014 when he came, 他 2014 年来找我们的时候,
Kenya was ranked 136 out of 189 countries. 肯亚在 189 个国家中名列第 136。
We had our work cut out for us. 我们的任务非常艰巨。
Fortunately , he came to the right place. 幸好,他找对地方了。
Fortunately:adv.幸运地;
We're not just a Band-Aid kind of team. 我们不是只会贴 OK 绷的团队,
We're a group of computer scientists, mathematicians , engineers and a cancer researcher, who understood that in order to cure the sickness of a system as big as government, we needed to examine the whole body, 我们是一群电脑科学家、数学家、工程师, 还有癌症研究学家。 我们知道如果要治疗 像政府这么大的一个系统, 我们需要檢验整个身体,
mathematicians:n.[数]数学家(mathematician的复数形式);
and then we needed to drill down all the way from the organs , into the tissues , all the way to single cells, so that we could properly make a diagnosis . 我们需要深入各个器官, 还有所有身体组织, 直到每一个单一细胞, 才能做出正确的诊断。
organs:n.[生物]器官;机构;风琴(organ的复数); tissues:n.纸巾,手巾纸;(人、动植物细胞的)组织;(tissue的复数) diagnosis:n.诊断;
So with our marching orders from the President himself, we embarked on the purest of the scientific method: all the data we could get our hands on — making hypotheses , creating solutions, one after the other . 所以我们带着总统本人的成命, 采用最纯粹的科学方法: 所有我们能够取得的资料── 作出假设、 建立解决方案、 一步接着一步去做。
embarked:v.上船;装船;(embark的过去式和过去分词) scientific:adj.科学的,系统的; hypotheses:n.假定;臆测(hypothesis的复数); one after the other:相继地,一个接一个地;
So we met with hundreds of individuals who worked at government agencies , from the tax agency , the lands office, utilities company, the agency that's responsible for registering companies, 我们面谈了数百位在政府机关工作的人, 包括税务机关、地政机关、公用事業、 负责公司登记的机关,
individuals:n.[经]个人;[生物]个体(individual的复数); agencies:n.代理;代理处(agency的复数); agency:n.代理,中介;代理处,经销处; utilities:n.公用事业;实用工具,[计]实用程序;公用程式;(utility的复数) responsible:adj.负责的,可靠的;有责任的; registering:v.登记;注册;发表意见,提出主张;显示(读数);记录;(register的现在分词)
and with each of them, we observed them as they served customers, we documented their processes — most of them were manual . 我们观察每一位人员服务客户时的状况, 我们记录了所有流程──因为大部分是人工的。
observed:adj.观察的;观测的;v.观察;遵守;注意到(observe的过去分词形式); processes:n.过程; v.处理(process的第三人称单数形式); manual:n.说明书;指南;使用手册;adj.用手的;手工的;体力的;手动的;
We also just went back and looked at a lot of their previous paperwork to try and really understand; to try and diagnose what bodily malfunctions had occurred that lead to that 136th spot on the World Bank list. 我们还回头查看许多过去的公文, 试着深入了解, 试着诊断身体功能发生哪些问题, 导致我们被世界银行排在第 136 名。
previous:adj.以前的;早先的;过早的;adv.在先;在…以前; paperwork:n.文书工作; diagnose:vt.诊断;断定;vi.诊断;判断; bodily:adv.整体地;亲自地;以肉体形式;adj.身体的;肉体的; malfunctions:n.失灵;故障,功能障碍;(malfunction的复数) occurred:v.发生;出现;存在于;出现在;(occur的过去分词和过去式)
What did we find? 我们发现什么呢？
Well, in Kenya it was taking 72 days for a business owner to register their property, compared to just one day in New Zealand , which was ranked second on the World Bank list. 在肯亚,企業经营者需要 72 天 才能登记其产業。 而世界银行名单排名第二的纽西兰 只需要一天。
compared:adj.比较的,对照的; v.相比; (compare的过去式和过去分词) Zealand:西兰岛(丹麦最大的岛)
It took 158 days to get a new electric connection. 安装新的电路管线需要 158 天,
electric:n.供电;adj.电的;用电的;电动的;发电的;
In Korea it took 18 days. 在韩国只要 18 天。
If you wanted to get a construction permit so you could put up a building, in Kenya, it was going to take you 125 days. 如果你需要 盖房子的建筑许可, 在肯亚要花上 125 天,
construction:n.建设;建筑物;解释;造句;
In Singapore, which is ranked first, that would only take you 26 days. 而排名第一的新加坡只需要 26 天。
God forbid you had to go to court to get help in being able to settle a dispute to enforce a contract , because that process alone would take you 465 days. 如果想上法庭解决纠纷、执行合约, 希望不会发生, 因为光是这个程序就会花上 465 天。
forbid:v.禁止;不准;不允许;(正式)严禁; settle:v.定居;结算;停留;确定;n.高背长椅(老式木家具,有扶手,座下多带柜); dispute:n.纠纷;争端;争论;辩论;v.争论;争执;辩论;争夺; enforce:v.强制执行;强迫;迫使; contract:v.收缩;感染;订约;n.合同;婚约;
And if that wasn't bad enough, you would lose 40 percent of your claim in just fees — legal fees , enforcement fees, court fees. 这还不够糟, 光是需要支付的费用,就会让你损失索赔的 40 %, 像是律师费、执行费、诉讼费。
claim:v.要求;声称;需要;认领;n.要求;声称;索赔;断言;值得; legal fees:律师费;法律费用; enforcement:n.执行,实施;强制;
Now, I know what you're thinking: for there to exist such inefficiencies in an African country, there must be corruption . 我知道你在想什么: 一个非洲国家有这么差的办事效率, 表示一定存在贪汙。
inefficiencies:无能; corruption:n.贪污,腐败;堕落;
The very cells that run the show must be corrupt to the bone. 操纵全局的核心人物一定都腐败到骨子里了。
I thought so, too, actually. 事实上,我也这么以为。
When we started out, 刚开始的时候,
I thought I was going to find so much corruption, 我以为我会发现各种贪污腐败,
I was literally going to either die or get killed in the process. 我可能会在过程中真的死掉或是被杀。
literally:adv.按字面:字面上:确实地:
(Laughter) （笑声）
But when we dug deeper, we didn't find corruption in the classic sense: slimy gangsters lurking in the darkness, waiting to grease the palms of their friends. 但是随着我们的调查逐渐深入, 我们并没有发现一般人认为的那种腐败: 在暗处潜伏的狡猾黑道, 等着贿赂徇私。
classic:n.名著;优秀的典范;adj.最优秀的;第一流的;有代表性的;典型的; slimy:adj.黏滑的;泥泞的;谄媚的,虚伪的; gangsters:n.匪徒;黑帮;诈骗犯(gangster的复数); lurking:v.潜伏;潜藏;(lurk的现在分词) grease:v.涂脂于;贿赂;n.油脂;贿赂; palms:n.手掌,手心;棕榈植物(palm的复数);v.把…藏于手中(palm的第三人称单数);
What we found was an overwhelming sense of helplessness . 我们发现的,是排山倒海而来的无力感。
overwhelming:adj.势不可挡的; v.压倒; (overwhelm的现在分词) helplessness:n.无能为力;无可奈何状态;
Our government was sick, because government employees felt helpless. 我们的政府生病了, 因为政府职员感到无可奈何。
They felt that they were not empowered to drive change. 他们觉得自己没有被赋予可以改变现状的能力。
empowered:v.授权;给(某人)…的权力;(empower的过去分词和过去式)
And when people feel stuck and helpless, they stop seeing their role in a bigger system. 而当人们感到无奈受困时, 他们再也看不见自己在大体制里面的角色,
They start to think the work they do doesn't matter in driving change. 开始认为自己的工作不会带来改变。
And when that happens, things slow down, fall through the cracks and inefficiencies flourish . 当这种情况发生时, 一切都开始变慢, 像掉进黑暗的狭缝中, 效率越来越低。
fall through the cracks:被忽视; flourish:n.兴旺; vt.夸耀; vi.繁荣,兴旺;
Now imagine with me, if you had a process you had to go through — had no other alternative — and this process was inefficient , complex and very, very slow. 现在跟我一起想像, 如果你有一个办公程序需要去跑── 没有其他替代方案── 而这个程序既复杂又没效率, 而且非常缓慢耗时。
inefficient:adj.无效率的,效率低的;无能的; complex:adj.复杂的;合成的;n.复合体;综合设施;
What would you do? 你会怎么做？
I think you might start by trying to find somebody to outsource it to, so that they can just take care of that for you. 可能你一开始会另外找人去做, 让别人幫你搞定。
outsource:vt.把…外包;vi.外包;
If that doesn't work, maybe you'd consider paying somebody to just " unofficially " take care of it on your behalf — especially if you thought nobody was going to catch you. 如果还是不行, 你可能会考虑付钱, 让人?私下?幫你处理── 尤其是你觉得不会被发现的话。
unofficially:adv.非正式地;非公认地; behalf:n.代表;利益; especially:adv.尤其;特别;格外;十分;
Not out of malice or greed , just trying to make sure that you get something to work for you so you can move on. 不是出于恶意或贪欲, 只是想确保事情可以办成, 好让你继续下一步。
malice:n.恶意;怨恨;预谋; greed:n.贪婪,贪心;
Unfortunately , that is the beginning of corruption. 不幸的是,这就是腐败的开端。
Unfortunately:adv.不幸地;
And if left to thrive and grow, it seeps into the whole system, and before you know it, the whole body is sick. 而且如果放任它继续扩大, 就会渗透到整个体制中, 然后在你还没发现的时候, 整个体制就已经生病了。
seeps:渗出;
Knowing this, we had to start by making sure that every single stakeholder we worked with had a shared vision for what we wanted to do. 了解到这一点, 我们首先必须确认, 每一位合作的相关人士,都对我们要做的事情拥有共同的愿景。
stakeholder:n.利益相关者;赌金保管者; vision:n.视力;美景;幻象;想象力;v.想象;显现;梦见;
So we met with everyone, from the clerk whose sole job is to remove staples from application packets, to the legal drafters at the attorney general's office, 因此我们和所有人见面, 从工作内容是拆除申请文件订书针的职员, 到总檢察长办公室的法律文书起草人,
sole:n.鞋底; adj.仅有的; v.给(鞋)换底; staples:n.主要产物,主要原料(staple的复数);v.分类,选择(staple的第三人称单数); application:n.应用;申请;应用程序;敷用; drafters:n.起草者;役马(等于draughter); attorney:n.律师(尤指代表当事人出庭者);(业务或法律事务上的)代理人;
to the clerks who are responsible for serving business owners when they came to access government services. 以及企業经营者到政府机关办事时, 负责接待的柜台人员。
And with them, we made sure that they understood how their day-to-day actions were impacting our ability as a country to create new jobs and to attract investments . 和他们一起, 我们确保大家都能了解, 他们每天的一举一动,都会影响整个国家 创造新的工作机会以及吸引资金的能力。
day-to-day:adj.日常的;逐日的; impacting:[力]冲击;[力]撞击;[物]碰撞(impact的现在分词); investments:n.[经]投资,投资的财产;投资学;(investment的复数)
No one's role was too small; everyone's role was vital. 没有人的角色轻如鸿毛,每个人都至关重要。
Now, guess what we started to see? 那么,来猜猜看,我们看到怎样的改变？
A coalition of government employees who are excited and ready to drive change, began to grow and form. 一个所有人都充满期待 而且准备好做出改变的政府职员联盟, 开始形成并茁壮。
coalition:n.联合;结合,合并;
And together we started to implement changes that impacted the service delivery of our country. 大家团结起来开始行动, 进行影响我们政府服务品质的改变。
implement:v.实施;执行;贯彻;使生效;n.工具; delivery:n.[贸易]交付;分娩;递送;
The result? 结果呢？
In just two years, 短短两年时间,
(Applause) （掌声）
And in recognition of the significant reforms we've been able to implement in such a short time , 为了表扬我们在这么短的时间 做出显着的改革,
recognition:n.识别;认识;承认;认可; significant:adj.重大的;有效的;有意义的;值得注意的;意味深长的;n.象征;有意义的事物; reforms:n.改革(reform的复数);v.改革(reform的单数第三人称); short time:adj.短暂的;快速的(shorttime的变形);
Kenya was recognized to be among the top three global reformers in the world two years in a row. 肯亚连续两年 受到表扬为全球前三名改革者。
recognized:v.认识;认出;辨别出;承认;意识到;(recognize的过去分词和过去式) global:adj.全球的;总体的;球形的; reformers:维新派;
(Applause) （掌声）
Are we fully healthy? 我们完全恢复健康了吗？
We have some serious work still to do. 我们仍有许多要努力的地方。
I like to think about these two years like a weight-loss program. 我喜欢把这两年想成是减肥计画。
weight-loss:n.减肥,瘦身;
(Laughter) （笑声）
It's that time after months of hard, grueling work at the gym, and then you get your first time to weigh yourself, and you've lost 20 pounds. 在健身房里努力了好几个月, 然后终于第一次量自己的体重, 发现自己瘦了 20 磅。
grueling:adj.累人的;紧张的;使极度疲劳的;
You're feeling unstoppable . 你觉得再也没有什么可以阻挡自己。
unstoppable:adj.无法阻碍的;无法停止的(副词unstoppably);
Now, some of you may think this doesn't apply to you. 你们之中有些人可能认为这与你无关。
apply:v.申请;涂,敷;应用;适用;请求;
You're not from Kenya. 你不是肯亚人、
You don't intend to be an entrepreneur . 你并不想成为企業家。
intend:v.打算;计划;想要; entrepreneur:n.企业家;承包人;主办者;
But think with me for just a moment. 但是请跟我一起思考一下。
When is the last time you accessed a government service? 你上次到政府机关办事是什么时候？
Maybe applied for your driver's license, tried to do your taxes on your own. 可能是申请驾照、 想要自己报税等等。
applied:adj.应用的;实用的;v.应用;使用;申请,请求;(apply的过去分词和过去式)
It's easy in this political and global economy to want to give up when we think about transforming government. 在这个充满政治的全球经济体中, 当我们希望政府转型时,很容易就会想放弃。
transforming:v.使改变形态;使改变外观(或性质);使改观;(transform的现在分词)
We can easily resign to the fact or to the thinking that government is too inefficient, too corrupt, unfixable . 我们轻易就向现实投降, 或是认为政府效率太差、 太腐败、 无法修复。
resign:v.辞职;辞去(某职务); unfixable:不固定的;
We might even rarely get some key government responsibilities to other sectors , to Band-Aid solutions, or to just give up and feel helpless. 我们甚至很少负起重要的政府责任, 可能推托给其他部门、 依赖贴 OK 绷的方式, 或是干脆放弃觉得无可奈何。
rarely:adv.很少地;难得;罕有地; sectors:n.部门; v.把…划成扇形;
But just because a system is sick doesn't mean it's dying. 一个体制生病并不代表没救了,
We cannot afford to give up when it comes to the challenges of fixing our governments. 面对改善政府的挑战时, 我们责无旁贷。
afford:v.给予,提供;买得起;
In the end, what really makes a government healthy is when healthy cells — get to the ground, roll up our sleeves , refuse to be helpless and believe that sometimes, all it takes is for us to create some space for healthy cells to grow and thrive. 毕竟, 让政府健全的关键,是所有健康的细胞── 脚踏实地、 卷起袖管、 拒绝感到无奈, 然后坚信其实有时候, 我们需要做的只是创造一个空间, 让健康的细胞能够成长茁壮。
sleeves:n.[服装]袖子; v.给…装袖子; (sleeve的单三形式)
Thank you. 谢谢。
(Applause) （掌声）