Youth Today——Speak, Act,Change!
我们青年有力量
至今依然记得2009年冬天的某个晚上，我和Lavender一起跟随美国可持续发展社区协会（Institute for Sustainable Communities，简称ISC，美国的一个NGO组织）广州分部的三位负责人以及一些来自广东各高校的学生志愿者们一起前往广东省珠海市斗门镇南门小学，参加由该组织策划的一场“亲子环保游园会”。在游园会的“环保飞行棋”活动中，我看到了难忘的一幕：因为人多，队伍有点混乱，其中一位家长性子比较急想插队，但他的孩子则坚持按先后顺序排队并组织大家有序地开展活动，他的爸爸一开始很不悦，后来则开心地帮着孩子一起维持现场秩序……这只是生活中的一个小片段，却让我看到了一种力量——青少年的影响力！
正如梁启超那篇脍炙人口的散文《少年中国说》中所言：“少年智则国智，少年富则国富，少年强则国强，少年独立则国独立，少年自由则国自由，少年进步则国进步。”青少年的影响力绝对不容忽视！本期我们就来聚焦青少年的力量，看看朝气蓬勃、意气风发的他们如何“指点江山，挥斥方遒”，如何化“点子”为行动，进而梦想成真！
文字难度：★★★☆
Today's internet-3)savvy students are starting their own businesses and 4)forging their own path in life…and here are two prime examples:
今天，深谙互联网技术的学生们正在创立属于他们自己的事业，开创自己的人生之路……这里就有两个极好的榜样：
Edwin Broni-Mensah, 25: Creator of GiveMeTap
埃德温·布罗尼—门萨（25岁）：GiveMeTap网站创始人
Edwin Broni-Mensah, you could argue, is an 5)academic or a 6)philanthropist whose scheme is either 7)naively idealistic or brilliant or both. Either way, as soon as you've read about his idea, you'll be 8)kicking yourself for not having thought of it. We're sitting beside 9)the Serpentine on an unusually warm winter morning in London's 10)Hyde Park. Broni-Mensah is patiently 11)expounding the perils of toxic 12)BPA plastic bottles. 13)Phasing out these hateful bottles is the aim of his project, now in its second year.
你可以说埃德温·布罗尼—门萨是一名学究，或是一名慈善家，至于他提出的计划，你也许会觉得天真又充满理想主义色彩，也许会觉得精妙绝伦，又或许是两者兼而有之。无论如何，一旦听说了他的想法，你大概会严厉自责：“我为什么就没有想到呢？”在一个少有的温暖冬日上午，我们坐在伦敦海德公园的九曲湖边。布罗尼—门萨正在耐心而详细地解释有毒双酚A塑料瓶的危害。他正在进行的计划旨在逐渐淘汰这些可恶的瓶子，目前这个计划已经进入第二年。
It was through playing 14)squash at university that Broni-Mensah came up with GiveMeTap. Throughout his PhD, sport was his 15)sanctuary, yet something didn't 16)add up: “Tap water is free and portable yet I was spending a 17)fiver a day on bottled water. I was like, ‘Why?'”
在大学时，布罗尼—门萨热爱打壁球，正是这段经历让他萌生了创建网站GiveMeTap（给我自来水）的想法。读博期间，运动一直是他的“避难所”，但是他总觉得有什么地方不合理：“自来水是免费的，而且可以携带，但我却每天花五英磅购买瓶装水。我就想，‘为什么呢？'”
The concept of GiveMeTap was born, launched online for a song, and last year won him an award as “most outstanding black student in Britain”. It works like this: you buy a tidy blue bottle made from recycled aluminium for £7 from his website and take it into any cafe which has signed up as a “provider” of the scheme. Your bottle is then filled with tap water for free, thus reducing the wastage in 18)landfill sites, helping communities in Africa install clean water pumps (70% of the £7 goes towards this) and saving your money.
GiveMeTap的想法就此诞生，并通过一首广告歌在网上推广开来。去年，这一构想为布罗尼—门萨赢得“英国最杰出的黑人学生”的奖项。该计划是这样的：你可以花7英镑，在GiveMeTap网站上购买一个用再生铝制成的干净蓝色水瓶，带着这个瓶子进入任何一间和该网站建立了“合作关系”的咖啡馆就可以免费灌满自来水，这样一来不但可以省下买瓶装水的钱，减少垃圾堆填区的废弃塑料瓶，而且部分金额（买水瓶的7英镑中的70%）还将用于为非洲贫困国家安装干净的水泵。
Although the scheme currently operates solely in the 19)Manchester area, Broni-Mensah has moved in with his parents in London, in order to launch it in London, it's hoped, in time for the Olympics. In theory, he'll be providing 1 million people with access to clean water by 2013.
虽然这一计划目前只在曼彻斯特地区推行，但是为了促成该计划在伦敦的启动，布罗尼—门萨已经搬到了伦敦和父母一起住。他希望可以借伦敦奥运会的契机来推广自己的计划。如果一切顺利，到2013年，他将能为100万人提供干净的饮用水。