The test of our progress
2015/05/26 08:41:15
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生活
| I love to read quotes by famous people. There are many famous quotes by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was the American president from 1933 to 1945. The Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in Washington DC has many of these quotes. I lived in Washington DC for six years but returned to Hong Kong just before the memorial was opened to the public. Last week, while watching the political drama TV series House of Cards on DVD, I saw one of Roosevelt's quotes in a scene that showed the memorial. This was the quote I saw: "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little." Do you know what it means? The meaning is quite simple. Roosevelt used the word "progress" as a noun, which means advancement. As a verb, it means to advance or to move forward. The word "abundance" means a lot or a very large quantity of something. What Roosevelt meant was that a society should not test or measure its progress by how much it has given to those who already have a lot but whether the society has given enough to those who have very little. In other words, a society is not progressing or advancing if it only makes people who are already rich even richer but fails to help those who are not rich. When I saw the quote, I immediately thought of the situation in Hong Kong. Rich people here are getting richer but the lives of poor people are not improving. The gap between the rich and the poor in Hong Kong is the widest in the developed world. Our society is adding to the abundance of those who have much but not providing enough for those who have little. This is not progress (noun). Hong Kong government officials, including Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, should read Roosevelt's quote and learn from it. *** 我喜愛閱讀名人的至理名言。於一九三三年至一九四五年出任美國總統的富蘭克林．羅斯福，就有許多膾炙人口的名句。華盛頓的羅斯福紀念館，就記錄許多他的名言。我曾在華盛頓待過六年，在紀念館剛向公眾開放前返港。上星期，我觀賞政治電視劇集《紙牌屋》的影碟時，其中一幕拍攝到紀念館，我見到其中有句羅斯福的名言，那就是："The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have little." 你知道這句話的意思嗎？它的意思非常顯淺。羅斯福將progress這個字作名詞用，意即進步；若作動詞用，它則解作進步或前進。Abundance即充裕或豐富。羅斯福想說的是，去檢驗或量度一個社會有多進步（progress），不應看它向那些已經豐足的人給予多少，而是要看社會可有為那些缺乏的人提供足夠的需要。也即是說，一個社會若只令本身已經富足的人更富有，卻沒有幫助那些貧困的人，那它仍然毫無長進（progressing）。 當看到這句名言時，我立即聯想起香港的境況。這裏的有錢人愈發富有，窮人的生活卻毫無改進。香港的貧富懸殊，在已發展世界中是最大的。我們的社會正在為那些富足的人增添富裕（abundance），卻沒有為窮人提供足夠的需要。這並不是進步（progress，名詞）。香港的政府官員，包括特首梁振英，好應讀讀羅斯福的名句，並從中學習。mickchug@gmail.com 中譯:七刻 Michael Chugani 褚簡寧 |
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