Twenty years ago, my family introduced a system called "Friday Democracy Meetings." Every Friday at 7pm, my family came together for an official meeting to discuss the current family affairs. These meetings were facilitated by one of my parents, and we even had a notetaker.
二十年前，我的家庭制定了一個制度，叫做「周五民主會議」。每周五晚上七點，我們一家人聚在一起進行一個正式會議，討論目前的家庭事務。這些會議由我父母中的一位組織，我們甚至還有一位記錄員。
These meetings had two rules. First, you are allowed to speak open and freely. Us kids were allowed to criticize our parents without that being considered disrespectful or rude. Second rule was the Chatham House rule, meaning whatever is said in the meeting stays in the meeting.
這些會議有兩條規則。第一，大家可以暢所欲言。我們小孩子可以批評父母，不會被當作不尊重或者無禮。第二條規則是「查塔姆議院規則」， 意思是無論會議中說了什麼，都只保留在會議中。
The topics which were discussed in these meetings varied from one week to another. One week, we'd talk about what food we wanted to eat, what time us kids should go to bed and how to improve things as a family, while another meeting discussed pretty much events that happened at school and how to solve disputes between siblings, by which I mean real fights.
我們在會議中討論的話題每周都不同。某一周，我們討論我們想吃的食物，我們小孩子應該幾點睡覺，如何全家人一起改善一些事情，另一周我們討論發生在學校裡的事情，如何解決兄弟姐妹之間的糾紛，我的意思是真正的打架。
At the end of each meeting, we'd reach decisions and agreements that would last at least until the next meeting.
每次會議結束時，我們會達成決定和協議，至少會維持到下一次會議。
So you could say I was raised as a politician. By the age of six or seven, I mastered politics. I was negotiating, compromising, building alliances with other political actors.
所以你們可以說我被按照政治家培養。在我六或七歲之前，就精通政治。我談判，和解，與其他政治角色建立聯盟。
And I even once tried to jeopardize the political process.
而且我甚至曾經試圖危害政治進程。
These meetings sound very peaceful, civil and democratic, right? But that was not always the case. Because of this open, free space to talk, discuss and criticize, things sometimes got really heated.
這些會議聽起來很和平，民事和民主，對吧？但是並不總是這樣。因為有這個開放自由的空間可以用來談話，討論和批評，事情有的時候變得非常過火。
One meeting went really bad for me. I was about 10 years old at that time, and I'd done something really horrible at school, which I'm not going to share today --
有一個會議對我來說很糟糕。那個時候我大概十歲，我在學校做了一些可怕的事情，我不打算今天跟你們分享這個事情，
but my brother decided to bring it up in the meeting. I could not defend myself, so I decided to withdraw from the meeting and boycott the whole system. I literally wrote an official letter and handed it to my dad, announcing that I am boycotting.
但是我哥哥決定在會議中講這件事情。我沒法為自己辯護，所以我決定退出會議，並抵制這整個制度。我親筆寫了一封正式信件，交給了我爸爸，宣布我拒絕參加。
I thought that if I stopped attending these meetings anymore, the system would collapse,
我當時認為如果我不再參加會議，這個制度就會瓦解，
but my family continued with the meetings, and they often made decisions that I disliked. But I could not challenge these decisions, because I was not attending the meetings, and thus had no right to go against it.
但是我的家人們繼續了會議，而且他們經常做一些我不喜歡的決定。但是我不能質疑這些決定，因為我沒有參加會議，所以沒有權力反對。
Ironically, when I turned about 13 years old, I ended up attending one of these meetings again, after I boycotted them for a long time. Because there was an issue that was affecting me only, and no other family member was bringing it up. The problem was that after each dinner, I was always the only one who was asked to wash the dishes, while my brothers didn't have to do anything about it.
諷刺的是，當我長到13歲，在我抵制會議這麼長時間後，我最終又一次參加了會議。因為有一個問題只影響我一個人，而我的家人沒在會議中提出。這個問題是，在每次晚飯之後，我總是唯一一個被叫去洗碗的人，而我的哥哥弟弟都不需要做。
I felt this was unjust, unfair and discriminatory, so I wanted to discuss it in the meeting. As you know, the idea that it's a woman or a girl's role to do household work is a rule that has been carried out by many societies for so long, so in order for a 13-year-old me to challenge it, I needed a platform.
我覺得那是不公平公正，又有歧視性的，所以我想在會議裡討論它。正如你們所知，對於做家務是女人或女孩的職責的這種想法是長期以來許多社會正在執行的規則。所以，像我一個13歲的女孩想挑戰它，我需要一個平臺。
In the meeting, my brothers argued that none of the other boys we knew were washing the dishes, so why should our family be any different? But my parents agreed with me and decided that my brothers should assist me. However, they could not force them, so the problem continued.
在會議中，我的兄弟們爭辯道，他們認識的男孩中沒有一個洗碗的，為什麼我們的家庭要不一樣？但是父母同意我的想法，決定讓他們幫助我。但是，他們沒法強迫他們，所以問題還是繼續。
Seeing no solution to my problem, I decided to attend another meeting and propose a new system that would be fair to everyone. So I suggested instead of one person washing all the dishes used by all the family members, each family member should wash their own dishes.
看著我的問題無法解決，我決定參加另一個會議，提出一個新的制度，對每個人都會是公平的。所以我建議，不再由一個人洗掉所有家人用的碗碟，而是每個人自己洗自己的。
And as a gesture of good faith, I said I'd wash the pots as well. This way, my brothers could no longer argue that it wasn't within their responsibility as boys or men to wash the dishes and clean after the family, because the system I proposed was about every member of the family cleaning after themselves and taking care of themselves.
為了表示真誠的姿態，我說我也會洗掉鍋子。這樣，我的兄弟們無法再辯解說作為男孩或者男人，洗碗和打掃家裡不是他們的職責。因為我提出的制度是關於家裡每個成員為自己打掃和照顧自己的。
Everyone agreed to my proposal, and for years, that was our washing-the-dishes system.
大家都同意了我的方案，而且很多年來，我們都用這個洗碗制度。
What I just shared with you is a family story, but it's pure politics. Every part of politics includes decision-making, and ideally, the process of decision-making should include people from different backgrounds, interests, opinions, gender, beliefs, race, ethnicity, age, and so on.
我剛剛跟你們分享的是一個家庭故事，但它是純粹的政治，政治的各部分包括決策制定，而且理想的情況下，決策制定的過程中，應該包括來自不同背景下，不同利益，意見，性別，信仰，種族，年齡等等的人。
And they should all have an equal opportunity to contribute to the decision-making process and influence the decisions that will affect their lives directly or indirectly.
而且他們都應該有平等的機會為決策制定做貢獻，來影響會直接或間接影響他們生活的決定。
As such, I find it difficult to understand when I hear young people saying, "I'm too young to engage in politics or to even hold a political opinion." Similarly, when I hear some women saying, "Politics is a dirty world I don't want to engage with," I'm worried that the idea of politics and political engagement has become so polarized in many parts of the world that ordinary people feel, in order for them to participate in politics, they need to be outspoken activists, and that is not true.
因此，我發現很難去理解，當我聽見年輕人說，「我們太小了還不能參加到政治中， 或者無法持有政治意見。」類似地，當我聽見一些女性說，「政治是一個骯髒的世界，我不想參與進去」。我非常擔心政治思想和政治參與在世界上很多地方已經變得兩極分化，普通人覺得為了參與到政治中，他們需要做直言不諱的活動家，而那不是真的。
I want to ask these young people, women and ordinary people in general: Can you really afford not to be interested or not to participate in politics?
我想問那些年輕人，女性和普通老百姓：你們真的能夠承擔不感興趣或者不參與政治的後果嗎？
Politics is not only activism. It's awareness, it's keeping ourselves informed, it's caring for the facts. When it's possible, it's casting a vote. Politics is the tool through which we structure ourselves as groups and societies.
政治不只是行動主義。它是一種意識，它讓我們保持知情，它關心事實。可能的時候，它主導投票。政治是我們將自己構造成為群體和社會的工具。
Politics governs every aspect of life, and by not participating in it, you're literally allowing other people to decide on what you can eat, where, if you can have access to health care, free education, how much tax you pay, when you can retire, what is your pension.
政治控制生活中的每個方面，而不去參與其中，你們是在允許其他人決定你可以吃什麼，穿什麼，你是否可以擁有健康醫療，免費的教育，你需要付多少稅，當你退休時候，你的退休金是多少。
Other people are also deciding on whether your race and ethnicity is enough to consider you a criminal, or if your religion and nationality is enough to put you on a terrorist list. And if you still think you are a strong, independent human being unaffected by politics, then think twice.
其他人也可以來決定，是否你的種族足以決定你是不是罪犯，或者憑著你的宗教信仰和國籍就可以把你放在恐怖分子名單上。如果你仍認為你是一個強大，獨立，不受政治影響的人，那麼請三思。
I am speaking to you as a young woman from Libya, a country that is in the middle of a civil war. After more than 40 years of authoritarian rule, it's not a place where political engagement by women and young people is possible, nor encouraged. Almost all political dialogues that took place in the past few years, even those gathered by foreign powers, has been with only middle-aged men in the room.
我作為一個來自利比亞的年輕女性與你們交流，我們的國家正在經歷內戰，在超過40年的專制統治後，這不是一個女性或年輕人可以或被鼓勵參與政治的地方。基本上過去幾年發生的所有政治對話，甚至是那些由國外勢力召集的，房間裡都只有中年男性的參與。
But in places with a broken political system like Libya, or in seemingly functioning places, including international organizations, the systems we have nowadays for political decision-making are not from the people for the people, but they have been established by the few for the few.
但是在像利比亞這樣政治體系破裂的地方，或者在看似運作良好的地方，包括國際組織，當今我們用於政治決策的系統體系並不是來自為人民謀利的人們，而是由為少數人謀利的少數人建立的。
And these few have been historically almost exclusively men, and they've produced laws, policies, mechanisms for political participation that are based on the opinions, beliefs, worldviews, dreams, aspirations of this one group of people, while everyone else was kept out. After all, we've all heard some version of this sentence: "What does a woman, let alone a young person, who is brown, understand about politics?"
而這些少數人，從歷史上看，基本都是男性，他們建立了法律，政策，政治參與機制，基於這一群人的意見，信仰，世界觀，夢想，抱負，而其他人都沒有被考慮在內。畢竟，我們都聽過類似的一句話：「一個女性懂什麼政治？更別說一個棕色皮膚的年輕人。」
When you're young -- and in many parts of the world, a woman -- you often hear experienced politicians say, "But you lack political experience." And when I hear that, I wonder what sort of experience are they referring to? The experience of corrupted political systems? Or of waging wars? Or are they referring to the experience of putting the interests of economic profits before those of the environment? Because if this is political experience, then yes --
當你年輕時——在世界上很多地方，一個女人——經常會聽見有經驗的政客說， 「但是你缺少政治經驗。」當我聽見這個，我很納悶他們說的是哪種經驗？腐敗政治制度的經歷？或者發動戰爭？或者他們指的經驗是把經濟利潤的利益放在環境的利益之前？因為如果這是所謂的政治經驗，那麼，是的——
we, as women and young people, have no political experience at all.
我們，女人和年輕人，沒有任何政治經驗。
Now, politicians might not be the only ones to blame, because ordinary people, and many young people as well, don't care about politics. And even those who care don't know how to participate.
政客可能不是唯一應該被責怪的，因為普通人，包括很多年輕人，都不在乎政治，甚至那些在乎政治的也不知道如何參與進去。
This must change, and here is my proposal. We need to teach people at an early age about decision-making and how to be part of it. Every family is its own mini political system that is usually not democratic, because parents make decisions that affect all members of the family, while the kids have very little to say. Similarly, politicians make decisions that affect the whole nation, while the people have very little say in them.
這必須改變，而以下是我的提議。我們需要讓大家從小就知道決策制定是什麼，以及如何成為其中的一部分。每個家庭都是一個小型政治體系，通常不是民主的，因為父母做的決定影響著家裡所有人，而小孩子沒有多少話語權。類似地，政客做的決策影響著整個國家，而人們對此也沒有多少話語權。
We need to change this, and in order to achieve this change systematically, we need to teach people that political, national and global affairs are as relevant to them as personal and family affairs.
我們需要改變，為了系統地實現這個變革，我們需要教育人們政治，國家和全球事務與個人和家庭事務一樣與大家息息相關。
So if we want to achieve this, my proposal and advice is, try out the Family Democracy Meeting system. Because that will enable your kids to exercise their agency and decision-making from a very early age.
所以為了實現這個目標，我的提議和建議是，試一下家庭民主會議制度。因為這樣使得孩子們在很小的時候就可以行使他們的權力和進行決策制定。
Politics is about having conversations, including difficult conversations, that lead to decisions. And in order to have a conversation, you need to participate, not sign off like I did when I was a kid and then learn the lesson the hard way and have to go back again. If you include your kids in family conversations, they will grow up and know how to participate in political conversations. And most importantly, most importantly, they will help others engage.
政治有關對話，包括那些帶來決策的艱難的對話。為了進行對話，你們需要參與進來，不是像我小的時候那樣退出，然後艱難地學到了教訓，不得不重新參與進去。如果你們讓孩子們參與到家庭談話中，他們會成長，知道如何參與到政治對話中。而且最重要，最重要的是，他們也會幫助其他人參與進來。
Thank you.
謝謝大家。