1、 翻译评论 QQ 群：54592418牛斯狗评论 系列双语读物 财经类Inside the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation走进比尔和梅琳达盖茨基金会These days the former Microsoft boss Bill Gates devotes his time to running what has arguably become the most powerful charitable organisation in the world. Is this the future of giving - and, if so, is that
2、a good thing?这些日子，前微软公司老板比尔盖茨将个人的所有时间，都投入于运作全球最大、备受争议的慈善机构，这是慈善事业的未来吗？如果是，这是一件好事吗？Andy Beckett安迪贝克特Bill and Melinda Gates at a TB clinic in South Africa比尔和梅林达 盖茨在南非的结核病诊所。The headquarters of probably the most powerful charity in the world, and one of the most quietly influential international organi
3、sations of any sort, currently stand between a derelict restaurant and a row of elderly car repair businesses. Gentrification has yet to fully colonise this section of the Seattle waterfront, and even the actual premises of the Bill be too gloomy about things . . . Gates offers more of a positive st
4、ory. He is a role model for other philanthropists, and he is the biggest.“该基金会带来了新的活力， ”常常对亿万富翁慈善家进行评论的资深慈善评论家迈克尔爱德华兹说。 “由于对事情过于悲观，慈善机构几乎都会丧失信心 盖茨不仅给人们提供了一个积极的例子。他是其他慈善家的行动榜样，是最伟大的。 ”“Everyone follows the Gates foundations lead,“ says someone at a longer-established charity who prefers not to be nam
5、ed. “It feels like theyre everywhere. Every conference I go to, theyre there. Every study that comes out, theyre part of. They have the ear of any national leadership they want to speak to. Politicians attach themselves to Gates to get PR. Everyone loves to have a meeting with Gates. No institution
6、would refuse.“每个人都会随盖茨基金会而动， ”一个不愿意透露姓名的老牌慈善机构工作人员说。 “感觉他们无处不在。每次我去参加会议，他们都在现场。每个研究出来，他们都曾参与其中。他们要讲话，总有（国家）领导人愿意倾听。政治家紧随盖茨，希望获得公关效应。大家都喜欢与盖茨会晤。没有机构会拒绝。 ”The foundation has branch offices in Washington DC, Delhi and Beijing. This year, it opened an office in London, not in one of the scruffy inner su
7、burbs usually inhabited by charities, but close to the Houses of Parliament.基金会在华盛顿、新德里和北京设有分支机构。今年，他们在伦敦开设了办事处，不是选址在慈善机构通常居住的破旧近郊，而是靠近国会大厦。Seth Berkley, head of the International Aids Vaccine Initiative IAVI, says: “The foundation has the advantage of speed and flexibility. When they want to, they
8、can move quickly, unlike many other large bureaucracies. Most of the other private foundations in the US dont work globally. Others are more staid than Gates. I used to work at the Rockefeller Foundation an older 翻译评论 QQ 群：54592418牛斯狗评论 系列双语读物 财经类American charity and dole out grants in small amounts
9、. The Gates foundation gave us at IAVI a grant of $1.5m (1m), then $25m. Then they gave us a line of credit which is extremely unusual in grant-making of $100m, to give us assets to be able to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies and initiate vaccine development programmes. Using that $100m, we w
10、ere able to leverage lots more funding $800m in total. What Gates allowed us to do was go out and search for new ideas and move quickly on them. The old way was to find the new ideas, and then look for a donor to back them.“国际艾滋病疫苗倡议行动主席塞思伯克利说：“ 该基金会拥有速度和灵活性的优势。只要他们愿意做，就可以迅速行动，不像其他许多大的官僚机构。美国其他大多数私人
11、基金会无法在全球开展工作。其他人比盖茨更古板。我曾经在洛克菲勒基金会（一家美国老牌慈善机构）工作，捐款数额很少。盖茨基金会在国际艾滋病疫苗倡议行动的首次捐款是150万美元（约合100万英镑） ，然后是2500万美元。之后他们给了我们1亿美元的信用额度，这在赠款项目中很不寻常，使我们有资本与制药公司谈判，并启动疫苗开发方案。利用这1亿美元，我们能够获得更多的资金，总共达8亿美元。盖茨允许我们走出去，寻找新的思路，并迅速行动。老办法是找到新的思路，然后再寻找捐赠者来支持它们。”Besides its dizzying grants, the foundation is also becoming
12、a magnet for talented staff and collaborators. “We probably get more than our fair share of great external expertise and insight,“ says chief executive Jeff Raikes. foundation staff can have a certain self-assurance. When the history of global health is written, says Katherine Kreiss, the foundation
13、 officer overseeing its nutrition projects, “the start of the Gates foundation will absolutely be a seminal moment.“除了令人眼花缭乱的捐款，基金会也正吸引着有才华的员工和合作者。基金会的首席执行官杰夫雷克斯说， “我们可能比普通机构获得更多的外部专业知识和洞察力， ”令基金会工作人员具有一定的自信心。基金会负责监督营养项目的凯瑟琳克瑞斯说，在全球健康历史上， “盖茨基金会的创立，绝对是一个开创性的时刻。 ”Some have reservations about this pow
14、er and the use made of it. Mindful of the foundations ubiquity, few in the charity world are prepared to criticise it on the record. But last May the Lancet published two authored articles on the foundation. “Grant-making by the Gates foundation,“ concluded one, 翻译评论 QQ 群：54592418牛斯狗评论 系列双语读物 财经类“se
15、ems to be largely managed through an informal system of personal networks and relationships rather than by a more transparent process based on independent and technical peer review.“ The other article found that, “The research funding of the Foundation is heavily weighted towards the development of
16、new vaccines and drugs, much of it high risk and even if successful likely to take at least the 20 years which Gates has targeted for halving child mortality.“有些人对这种权力及其使用持保留意见。他们对基金会的普遍存在怀有戒心，极少有基金会愿意将公众的批评记录在案。但在去年5月柳叶刀发表了两篇关于盖茨基金会的署名文章。一篇文章的结论是， “盖茨基金会的捐款决策很大程度上是通过人脉和关系的非正式系统来管理的，缺乏更为透明的、基于独立和专业人
17、士审核的流程。 ”另一篇文章认为， “该基金会的研究经费严重倾向于新疫苗和药物的开发，风险很高，即便研发成果，如果要达到盖茨所说的将儿童死亡率降低一半的目标，可能至少需要20年。 ”In a forthcoming article for the Journal of Law, Medicine Raikes from 1981 to 2008, during which time he was the companys key figure after Gates and his co-founder Paul Allen.最终，怀疑渐渐消退了，但并没有彻底消除，基金的活动是对微软统治世界的
18、某种自我惩罚或者是延续统治世界的其它方法。莱基斯和他的前任在微软都是担任基金的首席执行官；在1981到2008年担任基金首席执行官期间，他在微软是仅次于盖茨和共同创办人保罗?艾伦的关键人物。As Raikes sits in his office, a little messy-haired, dressed in a zip-up jumper, fidgety in his chair and brisk in his answers, he even seems a bit like Gates. “There are some real cultural differences bet
19、ween the Gates foundation and Microsoft,“ he says. “Some of thats good and some of thats not so good. The foundation is in a stage of . . . maturation. In philanthropy there is kind of a culture of, he puts on a slightly airy-fairy voice You and I are here to help the world, and so we cant disagree.
20、 At Microsoft, people would really throw themselves into the fray. Im trying to encourage that here.“莱斯基坐在办公室，头发有点乱，他穿着带拉链的毛衣，坐在椅子上有些紧张，轻松地回答着问题，他甚至有点儿像盖茨。 “盖茨的基金和微软在文化上有些不同， ”他说。 “微软有好的方面，也有不好的方面。基金是一个舞台是个成熟的舞台，在慈善文化中（他假装用轻轻的假声）你和我都帮助了世界，我们都一样。 在微软，人们把自己置于紧张的竞争当中。在这里我总是在鼓励人们。 ”He offers only limite
21、d reassurance to those who consider the foundation too powerful. “Were not replacing the UN,“ he says. “But some people would say were a new form of multilateral organisation.“ Is the foundation too ubiquitous? He smiles: “There are many people who want us to be much more involved than we want.“他给那些
22、认为基金权力过大的人只有有限的保证。 “我们没有取代联合国， ”他说。 “但是有些人会认为我们是新形式的多边组织。 ”基金太普遍了吗？他笑着说：“有许多人想让我们做更多事，比我们想做的还要多。 ”Since Raikes joined the foundation in 2008, it has nevertheless broadened its activities. “Today we focus in on 25 key areas,“ he says, then starts ticking them off on his strong fingers: “Eradicate mal
23、aria. Eradicate polio. Reduce the burden of HIV, tuberculosis, diarrhoea, pneumonia . . .“ Why not concentrate on fewer of these huge tasks? “You might say its a little bit of a business way of doing things. There are limits to the amount of money we 翻译评论 QQ 群：54592418牛斯狗评论 系列双语读物 财经类could invest in
24、 any given area.“ The foundation has so much money, it worries about saturating particular areas of need with grants and so achieving diminishing returns. Instead, says Raikes, “We think dollars-per-Daly in a big way.“莱基斯2008年加入基金的时候，基金的活动范围还没有扩大。 “今天我们关注25个关键领域， ”他说，接着他掰着自己强壮的手指算起来：“ 消灭疟疾、消灭小儿麻痹症、减
25、少艾滋病负担、肺结核、腹泻、肺炎”为什么不把注意力放在较少的几个大任务上呢？“ 你或许认为那样做是做生意的方式。我们能够投资的领域是有限的。 ”基金有这么多钱，有人担心个别领域很费钱，或是回报减少了。实际上，莱基斯说， “我们想把每个 Daly 账户中的钱派上大用场。 ”Daly is an acronym for disability-adjusted life year, an increasingly common term in international aid and global health circles, which measures the number of years
26、 of healthy life lost to either severe illness or disability or premature death in a given population. The idea that suffering and its alleviation can be measured with some precision is characteristic of the foundations technocratic, optimistic thinking.Daly 是伤残调整生命年的缩写，是在国际援助和全球健康周期中被使用的越来越多的常用术语，用
27、来计算给定人口从失去健康生活到严重疾病或残疾或早亡的时间。精确计算人们遭受的不幸，以及不幸减少的程度，这种方法体现了基金的技术性和乐观的理念。The charity also seeks to maximise its impact though partnerships. It does not, for example, conduct medical research or distribute vaccines itself; instead it gives grants to those it considers the best specialists: “We think of
28、 ourselves as catalytic philanthropists,“ says Raikes. He confirms the widely held view sometimes meant as a criticism that the health solutions the foundation favours are usually technical: “The foundation is really oriented towards the science and technology way of thinking. Were not really the organisation thats involved in bed-nets for malaria. Were much more involved in finding a vaccine.“慈善也通过合伙来最大化自身的影响。例如，基金自己不去搞医学研究和分发疫苗；而是授权把这些交给专业人士去做：“我们把自己当做是起催化作用的慈善家， ”莱基斯说。他认可样一种普遍的观点（有时意味着是一种批评）基金通常感兴趣的是解决健康问题的科技：“基金的方向是考虑科学与技术的方法。我们不是为疟疾准备蚊帐的组织。我们更愿意找到治疗疾病疫苗。 ”
