But how much more are you，Harvard graduates of 2008，likely to touch other people’s lives? Your intelligence，your capacity for hard work，the education you have earned and received，give you unique status，and unique responsibilities....... That is your privilege，and your burden.
If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice；if you choose to identify not only with the powerful，but with the powerless；if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages，then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence，but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better.
We do not need magic to change the world，we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already：we have the power to imagine better.
当时，我只想写小说。但是，我的父母出身贫寒，没有受过大学教育。他们认为，我那些不安分的想象力只是一种怪癖，根本不能用来还房贷、挣养老金。
他们希望我再去读个专业学位，而我想去攻读英国文学。最后，达成了一个双方都不甚满意的妥协：我改学外语。可是等到父母一走，我立刻报名学习古典文学。我不记得将这事告诉了父母。他们可能是在毕业典礼那一天才发现的。我想，在全世界的所有专业中，他们也许认为，不会有比研究希腊神话更没用的专业了，连一间宽敞的卫生间都无法换来。
我要申明，我并不责怪父母。他们只是希望我不要过穷日子，我不能批评他们。他们自己很穷，我后来一度也很穷，所以我很理解他们，贫穷是一种悲惨的经历。它带来恐惧、压力、有时还有抑郁。它意味着许许多多的羞辱和艰辛。靠自己的努力摆脱贫穷，确实让人自豪，但是只有傻瓜才会将贫穷本身浪漫化。
我毕业后只过了7年，就失败得一塌糊涂。
短命的婚姻闪电般地破裂，我还失业了，成了一个艰难的单身母亲。除了流浪汉，我是当代英国最穷的人之一，真的一无所有。我父母对我的担忧，我对自己的担忧，都变成了现实。用平常人的标准，我是我所知道的最失败的人。
那段日子是我生命中的黑暗岁月。我不知道还要在黑暗中走多久，很长一段时间中，我有的只是希望，而不是现实。
为什么我说失败是有好处的？因为失败将那些非本质的东西都剥离了。我不再伪装自己，我找到了真正的自己，我将自己所有的精力都投入到完成对我来说最重要的唯一一项工作中去了。要是我以前在其他地方成功了，那么我也许永远不会决心投身于这个我自认为真正属于我的领域。
我自由了，因为我最大的恐惧已经成为现实，而我却还依然活着，依然有一个深爱着的女儿，我还有一台旧打字机和一个大大的梦想。我生命中最低的低点，成为我重建生活的坚实基础。
失败使我的内心产生了一种安全感，以前通过考试也没有的安全感。失败让我看清自己，以前我从没认识到自己是这样的。我发现，我比自己以为的，有更强的意志和决心。我还发现，我有一些比宝石还珍贵的朋友。
只有到逆境来临的那一天，你才会真正了解你自己，了解你结识的人。这种了解是真正的财富，虽然是用痛苦换来的，但是它比我以前得到的任何证书都有用。
……
你们是哈佛毕业生的这个事实，说明你们并不很了解失败。你们也许极其渴望成功，所以非常害怕失败。说实话，你们眼中的失败，很可能就是普通人眼中的成功，毕竟你们在学业上已经很成功了。
但是，所有各位，哈佛大学2008届毕业生，你们对其他人的生活了解多少？你们的智慧、你们的能力、你们所受的教育，给了你们独一无二的优势，也给了你们独一无二的责任……你们的优势就是你们的责任。
你们要用自己的地位和影响，为那些被忽略的人们说话；你们不仅要看到那些有权有势者，也要看到那些无权无势者；你们要学会设想，那些条件不如你们的人们是如何生活的；那样的话，不仅你们的亲人们将为你们感到自豪，而且千千万万的人们将因为你们的帮助而生活得更好。
我们不需要改变世界的魔法，我们自己就有这样的力量：那就是我们一直在梦想着的，让这个世界变得更美好。
导读
2008年6月5日，《哈里·波特》小说作者、英国女作家J·K·罗琳来到哈佛并发表演讲。在演讲中，她几乎没有谈到哈里·波特，而是说了年轻时的一些经历。虽然J·K·罗琳现在是仅次于女王的最富有的女人，但是她曾经有一段非常艰辛的日子，30岁了，还差点流落街头。她更看重的是，自己从这段经历中学到的东西。
诵读名句
Of all subjects on this planet，I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded，and I was jobless，a lone parent，and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain，without being homeless.
The fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure.
A Whisper of Aids
艾滋病者私语
Mary Fisher/玛丽·费雪
In the context of an election year，I ask you，here in this great hall，or listening in the quiet of your home，to recognize that AIDS virus is not a political creature. It does not care whether you are Democrat or Republican；it does not ask whether you are black or white，male or female，gay or straight，young or old.
Tonight，I represent an AIDS community whose members have been reluctantly drafted from every segment of American society. Though I am white and a mother，I am one with a black infant struggling with tubes in a Philadelphia hospital. Though I am female and contracted this disease in marriage and enjoy the warm support of my family，I am one with the lonely gay man sheltering a flickering candle from the cold wind of his family’s rejection.
This is not a distant threat. It is a present danger. The rate of infection is increasing fastest among women and children. Largely unknown a decade ago，AIDS is the third leading killer of young adult Americans today. But it won’t be third for long，because unlike other diseases，this one travels. Adolescents don’t give each other cancer or heart disease because they believe they are in love，but HIV is different；and we have helped it along. We have killed each other with our ignorance，our prejudice，and our silence.
We may take refuge in our stereotypes，but we cannot hide there long，because HIV asks only one thing of those it attacks. Are you human? And this is the right question. Are you human? Because people with HIV have not entered some alien state of being. They are human. They have not earned cruelty，and they do not deserve meanness. They don’t benefit from being isolated or treated as outcasts. Each of them is exactly what God made：a person；not evil，deserving of our judgment；not victims，longing for our pity—people，ready for support and worthy of compassion.
…
My father has devoted much of his lifetime guarding against another holocaust. He is part of the generation who heard Pastor Nemoellor come out of the Nazi death camps to say，“They came after the Jews，and I was not a Jew，so，I did not protest. They came after the trade unionists，and I was not a trade unionist，so，I did not protest. Then they came after the Roman Catholics，and I was not a Roman Catholic，so，I did not protest. Then they came after me，and there was no one left to protest.”
The lesson history teaches is this：If you believe you are safe，you are at risk. If you do not see this killer stalking your children，look again. There is no family or community，no race or religion，no place left in America that is safe. Until we genuinely embrace this message，we are a nation at risk.
…
Someday our children will be grown. My son Max，now four，will take the measure of his mother. My son Zachary，now two，will sort through his memories. I may not be here to hear their judgments，but I know already what I hope they are. I want my children to know that their mother was not a victim. She was a messenger. I do not want them to think，as I once did，that courage is the absence of fear. I want them to know that courage is the strength to act wisely when most we are afraid. I want them to have the courage to step forward when called by their nation or their Party and give leadership，no matter what the personal cost.
I ask no more of you than I ask of myself or of my children. To the millions of you who are grieving，who are frightened，who have suffered the ravages of AIDS firsthand：Have courage，and you will find support. To the millions who are strong，I issue the plea：Set aside prejudice and politics to make room for compassion and sound policy.
…
To all within the sound of my voice，I appeal：Learn with me the lessons of history and of grace，so my children will not be afraid to say the word“AIDS”when I am gone. Then，their children and yours may not need to whisper it at all.
God bless the children，and God bless us all.
Good night.
借此大选年之机，我希望在座的所有人，以及安坐在家中的所有听众，都能够认识到艾滋病病毒不是一种政治产物，它不管你是民主党人还是共和党人；也不管你是黑人还是白人，男性还是女性，同性恋者还是异性恋者，青年人还是老年人。
今天晚上，我代表的是一个艾滋病者团体。那些无奈地成为这个团体成员的人们，来自美国社会的各个领域。我是一名白人母亲，但同时也代表费城医院里那些正与输液管抗争的黑人婴儿。我是一名在婚后感染了艾滋病毒的女性，家人的支持让我倍感温暖；但我同时也代表那些孤独的同性恋男子，他们在家人排斥的冷风下，苦苦守护着自己那摇曳飘忽的生命之火。
艾滋病不是遥远的威胁，而是眼前的危险。而妇女和儿童的感染率上升得最快。十年前，大多数人还没有听说过艾滋病，现在，它已经是美国年轻人群的第三大杀手了。而且它不会一直停留在第三的位置上，因为与其他疾病不同，艾滋病是具有传染性的。年轻人不会因为相爱而互相传染癌症或者心脏病，但艾滋病毒不同，我们助长了它的传播。我们因为自己的无知、偏见和缄默而相互伤害。
我们可以用老一套方法来逃避，但却躲避不了多久。因为艾滋病毒在袭击目标的时候只考虑一点：你是不是人类？这个问题很有意义。你是不是人类？艾滋病毒携带者并没有变成什么奇异物种。他们仍是人类。他们并没有变得更凶残，不应该因此而遭受刻薄的对待。孤立和鄙视对他们没有任何的帮助。他们中的每一个也都是上帝创造的人，不是等候我们判决的魔鬼，也不是渴盼我们怜悯的受害者——他们都是人，希望得到大家的支持，也值得大家的同情。
……
我父亲把生命的大部分时间贡献给了与另一场屠戮的抗争。他们那一代人都听过内莫洛神父的那段话。从纳粹集中营出来以后，神父说：“他们追捕犹太人，我不是犹太人，所以，我没有抗议。他们追捕工会主义者，我不是工会主义者，所以，我没有抗议。接着，他们追捕罗马天主教徒，我不是罗马天主教徒，所以，我没有抗议。再接下来，他们追捕我，这时，已经没有可以抗议的人了。
历史的教训告诉我们：如果你认为自己是安全的，那么你已身处险境。如果你没有发现这个杀手正悄悄地走近你的孩子，那么请再仔细看一眼。在美国，没有任何一个家庭或社区，没有任何一个种族或宗教，没有任何一个地方，是安全的了。在我们能够真正确信这一点之前，我们的国家都处境危险。
……
终有一天，我们的孩子会长大成人。我四岁的儿子马克斯，将会审视他的母亲。我两岁的儿子扎卡里，也会搜寻关于母亲的记忆。我也许无法听到他们的评价了，但我已经知道我希望得到怎样的评价。我希望孩子们明白，他们的母亲并不是一个受害者，而是一个信使。我希望他们不会像我从前那样，认为勇气等于无所畏惧。我希望他们明白，真正的勇气，是一种能在最害怕的时候采取明智行为的能力。我希望他们无论付出什么样的代价都要鼓起勇气继续前进直到政府或政党重视并给予地位。
我对你们的期望与我对自己及我的孩子们的期望是一样的。数以百万计因直接受到艾滋病侵害而正伤心恐惧的人们：请拿出勇气来吧，你们一定会得到支持的。而那些广大的身体健康的人们，我请求你们：把偏见和政治成见放在一旁吧，好为同情心和明智的政策预留出空间。
……
我向所有能听见我的声音的人们呼吁：请和我一起吸取历史的教训，学会感恩。这样，当我去世之后，我的孩子们就不会害怕提及“艾滋病”这个字眼。将来，他们的孩子，你们大家的孩子，都无需再低声细语地说出这个字眼。
愿上帝保佑孩子们，愿上帝保佑我们每一个人。
晚安。
导读
1981年，美国首先甄别出了艾滋病毒。艾滋病现已蔓延到了美国各地以及社会的各个阶层。有人认为美国有一百多万人是艾滋病毒携带者，并且已经有50多万人在感染艾滋病毒后死亡。目前对艾滋病还没有有效的治疗方法，但全人类都应该协力阻止艾滋病毒的扩散，对艾滋病患者给予关爱。
诵读名句
I would never have asked to be HIV positive，but I believe that in all things there is a purpose；and I stand before you and before the nation gladly.
This is not a distant threat. It is a present danger.
To all within the sound of my voice，I appeal：Learn with me the lessons of history and of grace，so my children will not be afraid to say the word “AIDS” when I am gone.
For the Children
奥黛丽·赫本：为了孩子们
Audrey Hepburn/奥黛丽·赫本
I must say that up until a year ago，before I was given the great privilege of becoming a volunteer for UNICEF，I used to be overwhelmed by a sense of desperation and helplessness when watching television and reading about the misery of the developing world’s children and their mothers. If I feel less helpless today，it is because I have seen what is being done by UNICEF and many other marvelous organizations and agencies，by the churches，by governments and most of all，with very little help，by people themselves.
The effects of the monstrous burden of debt have made the poor even poorer and have fallen most heavily on the neediest，and those whom it has damaged the most have been women and children. We must do more about the alarming state in which the children in the developing world are only just surviving，especially when we know that the finances needed are minimal compared to the global expenditure of this world；when we know that less than half of one percent of today’s world economy would be the total required to eradicate the worst aspects of poverty and would meet their basic human needs over the next 10 years. In other words，there is no deficit in human resources. The deficit is in human will.
The question I am most frequently asked is：“What do you really do for UNICEF?”Clearly，my task is to inform，to create awareness of the needs of children. To fully understand the problems of the state of the world’s children，it would be nice to be an expert on education，economics，politics，religions，traditions and cultures. I am none of these things，but I am a mother.
There is，unhappily，a need for great advocacy for children—children haunted by undernourishment，disease and death，and you don’t have to be a financial whiz to look into so many little faces with diseases，glazed eyes to know that this is the result of critical malnutrition. One of the worst symptoms of which is Vitamin A deficiency that causes corneal lesions resulting in partial or total blindness followed within a few weeks by death. Every year there are as many as 500，000 such cases in countries like Indonesia，Bangladesh，India，the Philippines，and Ethiopia. Today there are in fact millions of children at risk of going blind. Little wonder that I and many other UNICEF volunteers travel the world to raise funds before it is too late，but also to raise awareness and to combat a different kind of darkness—a darkness people find themselves in through lack of information on how easy it is to reach out and help these children.
I have known UNICEF a long time. For almost 45 years ago，I was one of the tens of thousands of starving children in war-ravaged Europe to receive aid from UNICEF immediately after our liberation that freed us from hunger，repression and constant violence，when we were reduced to near total poverty as is the developing world today. For it is poverty that is at the root of all their suffering—the not having—not having the means to help themselves. That is what UNICEF is all about，helping people to help themselves. Giving them the aid to develop，thereby allowing them to become self-reliant and live in dignity.
Unlike droughts or floods or earthquakes，the tragedy of poverty cannot easily be captured by the media and brought to the attention of the world-wide public. It is happening not in any one particular place，but in slums and shanties and neglected rural communities across two continents. It is happening not at any one particular time，but over long years of increasing poverty which have not been featured in the nightly news but which have changed the lives of many millions of people.
…
UNICEF’s business is children，not the workings of the international economy. In its every-day work in over 100 developing nations UNICEF is brought up against a face of today’s international economic problems which is not seen in the corridors of financial power，not reflected in the statistics of debt service ratios，not seated at the conference tables of debt negotiations. It is in the face of a child. It is the young child whose growing mind and body is susceptible to permanent damage from even temporary deprivation. The human brain and body are formed within the first five years of life and there is no second chance. It is the young child whose individual development today and whose social contribution tomorrow are being shaped by the economics of now. It is the young child who is paying the highest of all prices.
…
There is so much we cannot do. We cannot give the children back their parents，but we can return to them the most basic of human rights，the right to health，to tenderness，to life. Thank you.
就在一年前，当我有幸成为联合国儿童基金会的一名志愿者之前，每当在电视上或者报纸上看到发展中国家的那些母亲和儿童遭遇的、令人难以置信的悲剧时，我常常会感到特别的绝望和无助。现在当我再看到这样的故事时，已经觉得不那么无助了。因为现在我知道联合国儿童基金会以及另外一些组织、机构、教会、政府都在努力帮助他们，而更多时候，他们自己在以自己微薄的力量努力进行着自助。
在发展中国家，沉重的债务负担使得穷人更加贫困，而最贫困的人负担则最重。受伤害最大的莫过于妇女和儿童。我们必须为那些处于危险状态的发展中国家的儿童们做更多的事情，他们中的一些人现在处于仅仅能够活命的状况。尤其是我们要明白这样一个事实——他们所需的财力上的帮助相对于全世界的花销来说，只是小小的一部分；我们也明白，拿出不到世界经济0．5％的力量，就足以根除地球上最贫穷的情况，能让这些人们在今后十年获得基本的生存需求。换句话说，人类的资源不存在不充足的问题，不充足的是人们的意愿。
人们最常问我的一个问题是：你究竟为联合国儿童基金会做了些什么？很明显，我的职责是通过自己的努力，使社会了解和意识到儿童的需要。如果我是一位教育家、经济学家、政治家、宗教学家或者文化专家的话，我将能更深刻地了解当今世界上的儿童问题。尽管我不是上述任何一种专家，但是，我是一位母亲。
非常遗憾的是，现在儿童事业仍需要很大的支持，许多儿童处在营养不良、疾病和死亡的威胁之中。你不用知道确切的数字，只要看看那些瘦小的脸庞和生病中的呆滞的眼神，你就会明白他们生活在怎样的处境中。这些都是严重营养不良病症的表现。导致这种病最重要的因素就是缺乏维生素A，这会导致眼角膜受损甚至于部分或完全失明，几周之内可能就会死去。在印度尼西亚、孟加拉国、印度、菲律宾和埃塞俄比亚等国，每年会发生50万之多的此类病例。今天，实际上有上百万的儿童正在遭受失明的威胁。毫无疑问，我和基金会的其他志愿者在全世界旅行，不只是尽最大力量寻求社会对基金会的资金支持，同时也在向那些地区的人们普及最基本的医疗知识，来抗击另一种黑暗，而这种儿童们被困其中的黑暗正是因为人们缺少必要的救助常识导致的。
我很久之前就知道联合国儿童基金会。大约45年前，在刚刚被战火蹂躏完的欧洲，我是几万名饥饿的儿童中的一员，需要联合国儿童基金会的援助。战争结束，我们从饥饿、压迫和持久的暴力中解脱了出来。但是我们当时几乎赤贫，就像现在发展中国家那样。贫穷是一切苦难的根源，贫穷导致缺乏帮助自己的手段。这就是联合国儿童基金会要做的：使人们拥有能够帮助自己的能力，给予他们发展的援助，借此使他们能够自立自尊地活着。
与干旱、洪水或者地震等自然灾害不同，贫困并不会常常被媒体关注，因此在世界范围内也得不到社会的注意。贫穷问题不只在特定的地方发生，它在两个大陆的贫民窟、棚户区和被忽视的农村地区广泛地存在。贫穷问题也不只在特定的时间发生，很多年以来，贫困人口一直持续增长。尽管贫困问题并没有上电视台的晚间新闻，但是却威胁着上百万人的生存。
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联合国儿童基金会的工作是为了儿童，而不是为了国际经济。联合国儿童基金会正在全球超过100个发展中国家开展工作。在这些工作中，联合国儿童基金会遇到了一些国际经济问题，这些问题不会在金融巨子的走廊中看到，不会在债券汇率的数据中反映出来，也不会在债务谈判桌上发现，这些问题出现在儿童的面庞上。这些问题包括：儿童们正在发育的身心正在受到哪怕是暂时性的贫困的伤害。人类大脑和身体的发育情况，在5岁之前就奠定了基础，而且不会有第二次发育的机会。儿童们今天的个人发展以及明天对于社会的贡献，都在隐性地被当前的经济情况所塑造。儿童们也正在付出最昂贵的代价。
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有很多事情我们的确无能为力。我们无法使孩子们辞世的父母重返他们的身边，但我们可以使孩子们享受人权的基本保障，使他们能够拥有健康和生命的权利，享受人类的关爱。
