萨克斯人民经济学家
Jeffrey Sachs
The People's Economist
Some academics are said to live in ivory towers. Jeffrey Sachs is a pioneer of the mud-hut school of thought. He is an economist who loves statistics because they are pictures of people's lives—people, in many cases, for whom economics means working out how to feed a family on less than a dollar a day. The equations in Jeff's head interest him because they reveal how we might be able to change the world we inhabit.
Some academics are said to live in ivory towers. Jeffrey Sachs is a pioneer of the mud-hut school of thought. He is an economist who loves statistics because they are pictures of people's lives—people, in many cases, for whom economics means working out how to feed a family on less than a dollar a day. The equations in Jeff's head interest him because they reveal how we might be able to change the world we inhabit.
有些学者被人称之为生活在象牙塔中的人，杰弗里·萨克斯却是一位“平民”派思想先驱。他是一位喜欢用统计数据做研究的经济学家，因为这些统计数据可以描绘人民的生活情况。在多数情况下，对于人们来说研究经济学无非是解决如何用不到1美元的钱来养活家人。杰弗里·萨克斯常常被自己头脑中的各种方程式所激发，因为这些方程式揭示着我们怎么才能改变所生活的世界。
The title of his new book, The End of Poverty, sounds lofty. It is lofty. But a poverty of ambition isn't going to prevent the deaths of 30,000 children daily from malaria, a preventable and treatable disease, or from hunger in a world of plenty. Jeff's hardheaded analysis does not stop at why and how to do all this. He's just as concerned with who and when. Governments, take cover: he knows where you park your cars, and he's not afraid to break into them.
他的最新著作《贫困的终结》，书名听起来也许最初给人的印象是那么的雄心勃勃，实际上他做到了。解决贫困问题这个理想不完全等同于每天仅仅阻止30,000万儿童远离一种可防御和可治疗的疟疾，或者是使那些饥荒者在一个物质丰富的世界免于挨饿。杰夫冷静的分析没有只是停留在“为什么”和“如何”这些表面问题上，他把注意力完全放到“谁”和“何时”这些实质问题上，这样的话那些相关政府的日子可能不好过了，他深知这些政府的运作过程，而且敢于指责其不当之处。
When this man gets going, he's more like a Harlem preacher than a Boston bookworm. I first met Jeff in 1999 at Harvard University when I was taking a crash course on the subject of debt cancellation. He had a reputation for being brilliant, controversial, passionate. I was struck by his uncanny ability to communicate arcane, complex economic policy and by his punk-rock instinct to question the status quo. He set out to turn upside down the conventional economic wisdom that nothing could be done about poor countries sinking under the burden of old debts. He was proved right. For those countries that were owed money, debt relief cost next to nothing, and no one noticed. For those countries that had next to nothing, it provided doctors, teachers, schools and clinics. The vision Jeff, 50, outlines in his latest book has far greater payoffs—ultimately a more equitable and safer world. In the 21st century, the least we can do is put it to the test.
工作中的他更像一个虔诚的布道者，而非大学里的书虫。1999年在哈佛大学，我第一次见到萨克斯，当时，我正在参加一个短期速成课《债务取消》。他一向以才华，雄辩，以及激情而著称，在他的课堂上我立刻被他那非凡的表达能力和对复杂经济政策问题的剖析本能以及对现实经济问题的发觉能力所打动。他开始完全颠覆了传统的经济政策，即面对这些国家积压的债务时，就变得完全地无所作为。后来的事实证明他的确是对的，他发现这些国家的货币机制使得实施“债务免除”计划几乎不存在任何的成本，而这些以前根本没有人发现，正因为如此，我们可以给他们提供医务人员，教师，创办学校和诊所。在他的新书里，50的杰夫描绘着一个更长远而宏伟规划，最终这个世界将变得更加平等和安全。
Bono, lead singer of U2, co-founded DATA, a group that raises awareness on the issues of debt, AIDS, trade and Africa
Bono，U2乐队主唱以及DATA创始人之一，这个团体的主要宗旨是更加关注于债务，爱滋病，贸易以及非洲。
Bono，U2乐队主唱以及DATA创始人之一，这个团体的主要宗旨是更加关注于债务，爱滋病，贸易以及非洲。
（咨询中国：李泽龙译）