1、Kodak Is DeadMy work is done.Those words were some of the last penned by George Eastman(乔治.伊斯曼,柯达公司创始人). He included them in his suicide note.They mark an ignoble(不光彩的) end to a noble life, the leave taking of a truly great man.The same words could now be said for the company he left behind.My work
2、is done.For all intents and purposes, the Eastman Kodak Company is through. It has been mismanaged financially, technologically and competitively. For 20 years, its leaders have foolishly spent down the patrimony(祖传财产) of a centurys prosperity.(二十年来公司的领导者们挥霍掉一个世纪的繁荣兴旺所积累下来的财富) One of Americas bedroc
3、k(基础的,基本的) brands is about to disappear, the Kodak moment has passed.It is as wrong as suicide, and, like suicide, is the result of horrifically poor decisions, a fatal wound of self-infliction(自己造成,自己施加).But George Eastman is not how he died, and the Eastman Kodak Company is not how it is being kil
4、led. Though the ends be needless and premature(提早的,过早的), they must not be allowed to overshadow(使显得不重要) the greatness that came before.History testifies of the greatness of George Eastman.It must also bear witness of(作证) the greatness of Kodak.Few companies have done so much good for so many people,
5、 or defined and lifted so profoundly the spirit of a nation and perhaps the world. It is impossible to understand the 20th Century without recognizing the role of the Eastman Kodak Company.Kodak served mankind through entertainment, science, national defense and the stockpiling(储备,储存) of family memo
6、ries.Kodak took us to the top of Mount Suribachi and to the Sea of Tranquility. It introduced us to the merry old Land of Oz(澳兹国仙境,绿野仙踪中的国度) and to stars from Charlie Chaplin to John Wayne, and Elizabeth Taylor to Tom Hanks.It showed us the shot that killed President Kennedy, and his brother bleedin
7、g out on a kitchen floor, and a fallen Martin Luther King Jr. on the hard balcony of a Memphis(孟菲斯,美国城市) motel.When that sailor kissed the nurse, and when the spy planes saw missiles in Cuba, Kodak was the eyes of a nation. From the deck of the Missouri to the grandeur of Monument Valley(美国西部纪念碑山谷,好
8、莱坞西部电影和商业广告的取景地), Kodak took us there. Virtually every significant image of the 20th Century is a gift to posterity(后代) from the Eastman Kodak Company.In an era of easy digital photography, when we can take a picture of anything at any time, we cannot imagine what life was like before George Eastman
9、 brought photography to people. Yes, there were photographers, and for relatively large sums of money they would take stilted(做作的,不自然的) pictures in studios and formal settings.But most people couldnt afford photographs, and so all they had to remember distant loved ones, or earlier times of their li
10、ves, was memory. Children could not know what their parents had looked like as young people, grandparents far away might never learn what their grandchildren looked like.Eastman Kodak allowed memory to move from the uncertainty of recollection, to the permanence of a photograph.But it wasnt just peo
11、ple whose features were savable; it was events, the sacred and precious times that families cherish. The Kodak moment, was humanitys moment. It was that place in time where there is joy, where life has its ultimate purpose.Kodak let the fleeting moments of birthdays and weddings, picnics and parties
12、, be preserved and saved. It allowed for the creation of the most egalitarian(平等主义的) art form. Lovers could take one anothers pictures, children were photographed walking out the door on the first day of school, the person releasing the shutter(快门) decided what was worth recording, and hundreds of m
13、illions of such decisions were made.And for centuries to come, those long dead will smile and dance and communicate to their unborn progeny(后代). Family history will be not only names on paper, but smiles on faces.Thanks to Kodak.The same Kodak that served is in space and on countless battlefields. T
14、his company went to war for the United States and played an important part in surveillance and reconnaissance. It also went to the moon and everywhere in between.All while generating a cash flow that employed countless thousands of salt-of-the-earth(社会中坚分子) people, and which allowed the companys fou
15、nder to engage in some of the most generous philanthropy in Americas history. Not just in Kodaks home city of Rochester, New York, but in Tuskegee and London, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He bankrolled(资助) two historically black colleges, fixed the teeth of Europes poor, and qui
16、etly did good wherever he could.And Kodak made that possible.While doing good, Kodak did very well.And all the Kodakers over all the years are essential parts of that monumental legacy. They prospered a great company, but they with that company blessed the world.That is what we should remember about
17、 the Eastman Kodak Company.Like its founder, we should remember how it lived, not how it died.My work is done.Perhaps that is true of Kodak.If it is, we should be grateful that such a company ever existed. We should rejoice in and show respect for that existence.History will forget the small men who have scuttled this company.But history will never forget Kodak.