比尔·盖茨：2017年终回顾

如果仅从人们在推特上发布的内容来判断，2017实在是糟糕的一年。每条推文不能超过140个字母（现在是280个），这样的信息最先传播的往往是负面新闻，例如枪击、战争、政治冲突、愤怒、辱骂和对世界是否在开倒车的担忧。

 

但在2017年也有一些关于希望和进步的很棒的推文：新发现、默默无闻的成就、英勇之举和善良。

 

在过去四年里，我都会在年底列一张清单，总结美好的新闻故事或振奋人心的人物。今年，我决定分享一些令人感到鼓舞的推文，它们让我对2017及新的一年感到更加乐观。我希望它们也能让你感到乐观。

 

1. #感觉太美妙#

推文：2017年5月18日，我成了我们家第一个大学毕业生！

 

2017年5月18日，头戴学士帽、身穿学士服的阿德瓦多·桑切斯（Edwardo Sanchez）发布推文，他成为了家里第一个大学毕业生。我喜欢听到这样的故事，希望在2018年能有更多这样的故事，因为事实证明大学文凭是通往更高收入和更好机会的门票。恭喜阿德瓦多！

2. 亲爱的约翰

推文：《厕所：爱情故事》：宝莱坞新电影聚焦印度的环境卫生危机

 

一部关于厕所的浪漫电影？你没看错。《厕所：爱情故事》（Toilet: A Love Story）由宝莱坞最当红的演员阿克谢·库玛尔（Akshay Kumar）领衔主演，是一部关于一对新婚夫妇和印度环境卫生问题的爱情电影。我在今年早些时候也曾写到，环境卫生在印度是一个严重的问题。不安全的水、环境卫生和个人卫生导致全球每年170万人死亡，其中超过60万发生在印度。不过，一项政府新举措计划在2019年前在全国范围内建成7500万间厕所，这让印度在改善环境卫生方面大踏步地前进。这部电影讲述了关于其中一间厕所的故事，以及它给一个家庭带来的影响。点击这里了解更多这部电影的内容。

3. 免疫接种的胜利

推文：不丹和马尔代夫消灭了麻疹

 

这种特大新闻常常被人忽视。1970年代，不丹和马尔代夫启动了国家免疫规划，旨在消灭麻疹和其他可预防的疾病。今年6月，世界卫生组织证实这两个国家已经彻底消灭了麻疹——这是一种传染性极强的致命疾病。多亏了像这样的全国性计划免疫项目，全球麻疹死亡数自2000年起下降了超过80%，总共挽救了2000多万人的生命。

4. 农民部长

推文：世界粮食奖给了我更大的热忱让非洲人民填饱肚子并在全球终结饥饿。成功之前绝不停歇！

 

2017年世界粮食奖（World Food Prize）得主阿金武米·阿德希纳博士（Akinwumi Adesina）从未忘记自己卑微的出身。他是农民的儿子，在尼日利亚一个不通水电、只有一间屋子的家里长大，睡觉时只能同他的三个兄弟并排打地铺。后来，他先取得了农业经济学博士学位，再到洛克菲勒基金会工作，最终成为了尼日利亚的农业部长。他现在的职务是非洲开发银行行长。一路走来，他始终注重改善非洲小农户的生活，帮助他们种植更多食物，保护他们不受腐败影响，使他们更容易获得贷款来投资自己的农场。在尼日利亚，他给予穷人的无私奉献为他赢得了“农民部长”这个昵称。他宣布将用25万美元世界粮食奖奖金设立一个基金，用来资助投身农业的非洲青年，对于他的这项决定我们不应感到意外。他说：“在非洲摆脱饥饿之前，我绝不停歇。”

5. 做好事对你有好处

推文：我在纽约时报的初次亮相简直没法更完美、更及时了。这就是为什么帮助他人对你健康有好处的原因

 

我和梅琳达常常被问到该如何改变世界。一个很好的途径是参加志愿活动。有报道称，为别人做好事既能帮到对方，又能帮到自己。根据《纽约时报》的一篇文章，参与志愿活动的好处包括缓解高血压和降低死亡率。

 

6. #极限阅读#

推文：恭喜6岁的扎迦利·豪厄尔获得极限阅读大奖！

 

每一年我都希望自己有更多时间读书，这是我最喜欢的消遣方式之一。因此，得知很多学校里开始用一种节省时间的全新运动来鼓励学生读书，我感到极其兴奋。这种运动被称为“极限阅读”，它挑战学生的阅读习惯，使他们具备不论身在何处或正在做其他任何事都能阅读的能力——包括在玩蹦床时、跳伞时、踢足球时、骑马时、滑雪橇时，甚至在游泳时。

 

我也接受了极限阅读挑战：

虽然当这只海豹非要靠过来的时候，我只好把书放下来一会儿

祝愿你在新的一年里常有好书相伴，而且能在许多充满冒险色彩的地方阅读它们！

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Year in Review: 2017 Retweeted 

If you judge only by what people have been tweeting, 2017 was a terrible year. Twitter’s 140-character (and now 280-character) messages have often been the first to deliver news of shootings, war, political strife, anger, insults, and worries about whether the world has taken a turn for the worse. 

But 2017 has also delivered some amazing tweets of hope and progress: new discoveries, unsung achievements, acts of courage, and kindness. 

Over the last four years I’ve ended the year with a list of good news stories or inspiring people. This year, I decided to share some inspiring tweets that you may have missed. They made me feel more optimistic about 2017 and the new year. I hope they make you feel more optimistic too. 

1. #amazingfeeling

On May 18, 2017, Edwardo Sanchez, dressed in his cap and gown, tweeted that he was the first person in his family to graduate from college. I love to hear stories like this—and I hope in 2018 there will be even more of them because a college degree is a proven ticket to a life of higher income and better opportunity. Congratulations Edwardo!

2. Dear John

A rom-com about a toilet? You read that correctly. “Toilet: A Love Story” stars one of Bollywood’s most popular actors, Akshay Kumar, in a romance about a newlywed couple and India’s sanitation challenge. Sanitation is a serious issue in India, as I wrote about earlier this year. Of the 1.7 million people worldwide who die from unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene each year, more than 600,000 are in India. But a new Indian government program is making huge progress improving sanitation with a goal of installing 75 million toilets throughout the country by 2019. This film tells the story of one of those toilets and the impact it had on one family. Watch a preview here.

3. Vaccination Victory

Here’s the kind of news that’s huge, but often gets overlooked. In the 1970s, Bhutan and Maldives launched national immunization programs to wipe out measles and other preventable diseases. In June, the World Health Organization certified that both countries had eliminated measles, a highly infectious and deadly disease. Thanks to national immunization efforts like these, global measles deaths have fallen more than 80 percent since 2000, saving a total of over 20 million lives.

4. The farmer’s minister

The winner of the 2017 World Food Prize, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has never forgotten his humble roots. The son of a farm laborer, Dr. Adesina grew up in a one-room home in Nigeria without water or electricity, sleeping side-by-side on the floor with his three brothers. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in agricultural economics, worked for the Rockefeller Foundation, and eventually rose to become Nigeria’s minister of agriculture. He is currently president of the African Development Bank. Through it all, he has focused on improving the lives of Africa’s smallholder farmers, helping them to grow more food, protecting them from corruption, and increasing their access to credit to invest in their farms. In Nigeria, his dedication to the poorest earned him the nickname the “farmer’s minister.” That’s why it should come as no surprise that he announced that he is using his $250,000 World Food Prize award to set up a fund to provide grants to African youth involved in agriculture. “I will not rest until Africa breaks out of hunger,” he says.

5. Doing good is good for you

Melinda and I often get asked how to make a difference in the world. A great way is to volunteer. Now here’s news that doing good for others helps those who give as well as those who receive. According to this New York Times story, the benefits of volunteering include lower blood pressure and decreased mortality rates.

6. #extremereading

Every year, I wish I’d had more time to read–one of my favorite pastimes. That’s why I was thrilled to learn about a new, time-saving sport that is catching on in schools to encourage students to read. It’s called “extreme reading,” which challenges students to read no matter where they are or what else they’re doing: jumping on a trampoline, skydiving, playing soccer, riding a horse, sledding, or even swimming underwater.

Here’s my own extreme submission to the challenge: 

(Although I had to put my book down for a moment when the seal insisted on a snuggle.) 

Wishing you a happy new year filled with great books and many adventurous places to read them!