12岁时，你在做什么？是无忧无虑地嚼着薯片，翻着漫画，还是正为一件不顺心的事赌气一整天？在12岁,这个也许还在撒娇任性的年纪，克雷尔?基尔布格已经开始把目光投向整个世界，为救助他人而担负责任。他向所有人宣布—— Never Too Young to Change the World 改变世界，不必等我长大 ◎ Marc Kielburger & Craig Kielburger
译 / 张玲
An issue1) of the heart Craig’s life changed over a bowl of cereal.
It was a regular spring morning in the suburbs north of Toronto. The sun was shining after yet another frigid2) winter. As was his morning ritual, Craig ran down the stairs of his home, grabbed3) his breakfast—a bowl of cereal, and sat down with the newspaper to find the comics.
But before he could reach Calvin and Hobbes4), a headline on the front page caught Craig's eyes. "Battled Child Labor, Boy, 12, Murdered." Beside it was the picture of 12-year-old Iqbal Masih, wearing a bright red vest with his fist pumped into5) the air.
Craig read on.
Iqbal had been a child laborer in Pakistan, sold into slavery at the age of four and chained to6) a carpet loom7) for years. One day he escaped and began touring the country— and the world—telling his story and speaking out against child bondage8).
That is, until someone silenced him with a bullet as he rode his bike.
Craig was stunned9). At the time, he was also 12, but had a very different life—going to school, hanging out with friends, running with the cross country team. Why had Iqbal faced so much tragedy in his short life? How could someone do that to a child?
“This made me angry. Every young person has an issue that hits them in the heart," says Craig. "But society has taught them that they have to wait until they're adults to achieve results."
一个触及心灵的问题 在克雷格喝着一碗麦片粥的时候，他的人生改变了。
那是多伦多北部郊区春天一个平平常常的早晨。又一个寒冬过后，太阳照耀着大地。同往日的早晨一样，克雷格从自家楼梯上跑了下来，匆匆端起他的早餐——一碗麦片粥，然后拿着报纸坐下，翻找上面的连环画。
然而，还没翻到《凯文的幻虎世界》，他的目光就被报纸第一版上的大标题吸引住了：“挺身反童工，12岁男孩被谋杀。”字旁边是12岁的伊克巴?马西的照片，他身穿鲜红色背心，手握拳头挥向空中。
克雷格接着往下读。
伊克巴曾经是巴基斯坦的一名童工，4岁便被卖到工厂做苦役，之后被迫在那里操作织毯机数年之久。一天他终于逃了出来，开始在全国——乃至全世界——巡回游历，讲述他的遭遇并公开呼吁反对雇佣童工。
直到有一天，在他骑自行车的时候，有人用一颗子弹结束了他的生命。
克雷格感到无比震惊。那时他也是12岁，却过着一种迥然不同的生活——上学、与朋友外出游玩、跟着越野队一起长跑。为什么伊克巴在他短暂的一生之中竟要遭受如此多的苦难？那个凶手怎能对一个孩子下此毒手？
“这让我感到愤怒。每个年轻人都会遇到一个触及他们心灵的问题，”克雷格说，“但是，社会却教导他们说，他们必须等到长大后才能有所作为。”
Take the First Step in Faith I got this crazy idea in my head that in order to really understand child labor and I would have to go see it with my own eyes. I remember walking downstairs to the kitchen table and looking at my mom and dad with the most mature voice that I could manage.
I said, “Mom, Dad. I wanted to take two months off from school,” which wasn’t the best way to start, “and I want to go backpacking. I want to go through Pakistan, India, Thailand, Nepal, and Bangladesh. I want to meet these kids. I want to research child labor, like Iqbal, that young boy who was killed and I don’t want you to go with me. Can I go?”
I remember that my mom looked at me and she actually laughed. She shook her head and she said, “Craig, we love you very much, but you’re 12 and we don’t let you take the subway by yourself. So, no, you can’t go to Asia.” I kept pleading and kept begging and kept asking and they actually banned the use of the word Asia.
She got so frustrated one day, she said to me, “You’re not allowed to even bring it up unless you can prove that you’d be safe and you can raise half the money.” She was trying to stop me, but I thought to myself, “Well, at least I know what I am dealing with now.”
So I started to help shoveling driveways. We did car washes and bake sales and we tried to raise enough money.
I got a chaperone10) who was from Bangladesh who was 25 years old and recently graduated from University. Low and behold11), I was 12 then, almost 12 years ago, I left in December 1995 backpacking through India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand and Nepal, meeting those kids.
真正迈出第一步 我头脑中产生了一个疯狂的念头：要真正地了解童工，就必须亲眼去看看他们的生活。记得当时我下楼来到餐桌旁，看着妈妈和爸爸，我尽量用最成熟的声音对他们说道：
“妈妈，爸爸。我想跟学校请两个月的假，”这可不是个开始话题的最好方式，“我想背包旅行。我想去巴基斯坦、印度、泰国、尼泊尔和孟加拉。我想去见见这些小孩。我想研究一下童工问题，像伊克巴一样，就是那个被杀害的小男孩，但是我不想你们跟着我一块去。行吗？”
我记得当时妈妈看着我，然后她笑了。她摇摇头说道：“克雷格，我们非常爱你，但是你才12岁，我们都不让你一个人去坐地铁。所以，不行，你不能去亚洲。”我不停地请求，不停地央求，不停地询问，但是他们完全禁止我说出“亚洲”这个词。
终于有一天，她被我问烦了，她对我说：“不许你再提起这件事了，除非你能证明你可以保证自己的安全并筹到一半旅行的费用。”她这是在试图阻止我，但是我暗自寻思：“好，至少我知道现在我要解决的问题是什么了。”
于是，我开始帮着铲清车道。我们帮人洗汽车，卖面包，千方百计筹到了足够的钱。
我找到了一个伴护人，他来自孟加拉国，25岁，刚从大学毕业。你瞧，我当时12岁，大约就是12年前，我于1995年12月开始周游印度、巴基斯坦、孟加拉、泰国和尼泊尔，去见那些孩子。
Never Too Young to Change the World Free The Children was born.
That was 1995. The hardest part of our organization was when we first started: no one would take us seriously. After all, what did a couple of teenagers know about social change?
However, since then our organization has blossomed into12) the world's largest network of children helping children through education. Free The Children has built more than 500 schools around the world.
The primary goals of the organization are to free children from poverty and exploitation and free young people from the notion13) that they are powerless to make positive change in the world.
In our society, youth are considered adults-in-waiting and are repeatedly being told they are too young to challenge themselves. They are often at the receiving end of everything—instructions14) from adults, homework from teachers, allowances from parents—and are expected to wait until they get older to contribute to society.
But we've met thousands of youth who are full of opinions, ideas and dreams, youth who are empowered15) and engaged16). They are idealistic17) and not afraid to tackle what once seemed impossible and make it a reality.
改变世界，不必等我长大 “解放儿童”组织诞生了。
那是在1995年。我们组织最艰难的时期就是在我们刚起步之时：没有人认真地对待我们。毕竟，对于社会变化，几个十多岁的青少年又能知道些什么呢？
然而从那以后，我们的组织开始飞速发展起，并成为了全球最大的由儿童通过教育来帮助儿童的组织网络。“解放儿童”组织现已经在全世界建立了500多所学校。
这个组织的主要目的是把孩子们从贫困和剥削中解放出来，将年轻人从“年轻人没有能力改善世界”的固有观念中解放出来。
在我们的社会里，青少年被视作是“未成人”，并反复被告诫他们太年轻，还没有能力挑战自我。他们在所有事情上都是接受者——接受大人们的教导，接受老师布置的家庭作业，接受父母给的零花钱——人们总是希望他们等到长大后再为社会做贡献。
但是我们见到过成千上万的青少年，他们极有见地、满怀主张、充满梦想，他们充满力量，积极投入。他们是理想主义者，从不惧怕应付那些曾被认为是不可为的事情，并使之变成现实。
Craig’s suggestion for kids who want to be like him:
Many drops of water make a mighty ocean. Keep in mind that starting an organization or traveling half way around the world to help others is not necessary to make a difference, rather small, simple actions go a long way18)! Whether you decide to perform a play and spread awareness about the state of the environment, plant a tree, or participate in a schoolyard clean-up, you are reaching out19) and making a positive difference in the world!
克雷格对想和他一样的孩子们所提出的建议：
滴水汇聚，以成沧海。要记住，寻求改变并不是非得创建一个组织或是周游大半个世界去帮助他人，那些非常微小简单的行动也可以大有帮助！无论你决定演剧来传播有关环境现状的意识，种一棵小树，还是参加校园卫生打扫，你都是在做出努力，让这个世界朝好的方向改变！
○ 基尔布格兄弟
马克?基尔布格与克雷格?基尔布格是兄弟俩，他们出生于加拿大多伦多一个普通的家庭。受哥哥马克的影响，克雷格从小就对社会公益活动表现浓厚的兴趣与参与热情。12岁时，由于在报纸上看到一篇关于反童工男孩被杀害的新闻，克雷格决定去世界各地进行童工调查，为世界儿童争取自由和权利，并和他的同学们一起建立了“解放儿童”组织。今年克雷格25岁了，已经获得“世界儿童奖”， 担任联合国儿童大使，并三次获诺贝尔和平奖提名。
在克雷格与哥哥马克的努力下，“解放儿童”组织每年都会吸引世界各国无数青少年投身解放儿童运动，筹集资金帮助失学儿童重返校园，建立庇护中心保护受虐儿童，督促各地禁止童工剥削。此外，组织还致力于培养儿童和青少年的领导力，向成人世界展开演讲。
Vocabulary
1. issue [5isju:] n. 问题
2. frigid [5fridVid] adj. 寒冷的
3. grab [^rAb] v. 匆忙地做；赶着做
4. Calvin and Hobbes:《卡尔文的幻虎世界》是美国80～90年代的经典漫画，作者是美国画家比尔?沃特森(Bill Watterson)。讲述了一个叫卡尔文的小男孩和他的布老虎霍布斯之间的故事。在卡尔文的想象中，布老虎霍布斯是活的，是他的好朋友，是他生活中的依靠。他每次放学回家，都想象霍布斯会突然扑出来和他打闹，会和他一起去冒险，和他一起去战斗……该漫画风靡全球，至今仍受到千万读者喜爱，是超人气的连环漫画。
5. pump into: 挥向
6. be chained to sth.: 长时间地被某事束缚、拘禁；被迫做某事
7. loom [lu:m] n. 织布机
8. bondage [5bCndidV] n. 奴役, 束缚
9. stun [stQn] vt. 使震惊, 使惊吓
10. chaperone [5FApErEun] n. 伴护人；行为监督人
11. Low and behold: 你瞧，你看
12. blossom into: 发展，长成；blossom [5blCsCm] vi. 发展；兴旺
13. notion [5nEuFEn] n. 观念，看法
14. instruction [in5strQkFEn] n. 教导；指示
15. empower [im5pauE] v. 使能够；强化(自身或影响力)
16. engage [in5^eidVd] v. 使从事；使忙于
17. idealistic [ai7diE5listik] adj. 理想主义(者)的
18. go a long way: 有很大帮助
19. reach out: 努力争取
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