敲開最好的可能

http://www.my1510.cn/article.php?id=fbdaa240a9d9bf54

敲开最好的可能/drunkpiano
《瞭望东方周刊》

To unwrap the best possibilities
Looking East Weekly

在我剑桥的家里，每天回家都能看到地上躺着几封慈善机构的捐款号召信。对此我早习以为常，不过前两个星期收到的一封邮件，则可以说是别具一格：它直接把两个折叠的大塑料口袋塞到了我家里，附信写道：请把你不要的、干净整洁的衣服放到这些塑料口袋里，并在X月X日放到你家门口，我们届时会来领取，并捐给XX 机构转卖……慈善做得如此周到，让它真正成为举手之劳，正中我这种懒人的下怀。于是我把一批早已淘汰又不知该往哪里送的衣服装了满满一口袋，在指定日期放到门口，晚上回来一看，果然被拉走了。

At my house in Cambridge, we’d see a couple of appealing letters from charity organizations lying on the ground every day. I’ve been used to it since long time ago, but two weeks ago, we received a mail packet that was really distinctive from the other ones. It was slipped into my house, containing two big folded plastic bags and an attached letter that read: Please put your clean, neat unwanted clothes into these plastic bags and place it in front of your house on x/x; we’ll come and collect them and donate them to xx organization for sale…Charity work is being done in such a considerate way, making it only a slight effort for people, especially for lazy ones like me. So I stuffed one plastic bag with my want unwanted clothes which I don’t know where to send; I put the bag in front of my house on the specified day and found it collected when I got back in the evening.

正如市场经济体系中缺少的往往不是资本，而是引导这些资本流向合理项目的中间人，一个正常社会中缺少的往往不是人的善意，而是引导这些善意流向弱势群体的中间人。在经济体系中，那个给资本穿针引线的主角是金融机构，而在社会生活中，给人们的善意做中介的则是各种公益慈善机构。

In a normal society, what it usually lacks is not people’s goodwill but the agents who lead the goodwill to underprivileged groups; just like the market economy, what it usually lacks is not capital, but the agents who could guide the capital into feasible projects. Within the economical system, the leading role that functions as the go-between is financial institute; while in social life, the agent for people’s goodwill is various non-profit charity organizations.

剑桥小镇虽然只有10来万人口，其公益组织却可以说是密密麻麻。就我家附近一公里左右，我就见到过10来家慈善店铺，有帮助病人的Hospice shop，有致力扶贫的Oxfam，有保护流浪猫的Cats Protection，有帮助问题青少年的Aid of Romsey Mill，有援助精神病人的Mind……如果再去统计那些我没有路过或者注意到的慈善店铺，简直可以说到了“三步一小个、五步一大个”的地步。乍一到剑桥时我还奇怪为什么这个小镇怎么这么多卖便宜货的旧货铺，慢慢地才知道它们都是慈善组织的筹款渠道之一。至于镇中心每天有人叫卖“Big Issue”的声音，所有熟悉剑桥的人恐怕都习以为常了——Big Issue是专门雇佣流浪汉来叫卖、帮助流浪汉的一份街头报纸。

A small town as Cambridge only has a population of 100,000, but non-profit organizations are everywhere in it. About one kilometer away from my house, I see like 10 charity stores, including Hospice shop helping the sick, Oxfam devoted in poverty relief, Cats Protection protecting homeless cats, Aid of Romsey Mill helping troubled teenagers and Mind that aiding people with mental problems etc. Those offices that I haven’t walked by or noticed taken into account, it’s fair to say they are basically everywhere in town. When I first arrived Cambridge, I wondered why there were so many junk shops selling cheap goods, but gradually I got to know that they are one of charity organizations’ ways for fundraising. As to the voices peddling ‘Big Issue’ in the center of town, people who are unfamiliar with Cambridge are used to them already: ‘Big Issue’ is a street newspaper that employs the homeless to sell so as to help them.

从这些组织的密度来看，可以说凡是社会问题出现死角的地方，就有慈善的身影出现。但是慈善的兴盛，不是从天而降的，它需要一整套制度的土壤。比如，在英国注册一个慈善组织或其分部行政门槛很低，慈善委员会的网上信息显示，如果申请材料规范，一般批准注册一个慈善组织只需要10个工作日左右。当然慈善委员会对慈善组织监管也很严格，不但要求它们定期提供财务报表，而且将其财务公之于众（包括网络公开），使其接受民众监督，若有任何民众举报，委员会都会对慈善组织进行调查。同时，政府本身不但注资几十亿英镑资助NGO发展，而且法律规定对慈善店铺必须至少免80%的税收，使得慈善事业的经济可行性大大增强。

Judging from the density of these organizations, it can be concluded that where there is a dead corner with social problems, there are the appearances of charity. However, the blooming of charity work doesn’t present itself out of nowhere; it requires the seedbed of an integrated system. For example, the administrational entrance-hurdle for charity organizations or their branches is very low. As it shows on the website of the Charity Commission, it usually takes about 10 work days for the approval of the establishment of a charity organization, if they have standard application documents. Surely, the Charity Commission has strict supervisions over charity organizations. The commission requires organizations to provide financial reports at regular intervals, and publicly announces the reports through a variety of means including the internet, so that the masses can supervise on them. If there is any whistle blowing from the mass, the commission would carry out investigations on the organizations. Meanwhile, the government doesn’t only register capital to support the development of NGOs, there are also provisions in the laws that charity stores should get tax reduction at 80% at least. These measures greatly enhance the economical feasibility of charitable enterprises.

相比之下，中国要筹办慈善组织，则困难重重。不但要向民政部注册，而且要找“挂靠单位”——而要找到一个“挂靠单位”，往往难于上青天；如果要成立筹款基金，还需要有非常高的启动资金（200万-800万）；此外，“同一领域在同一行政区域不得重复设立社会团”、“民办非企业单位不得设立分支机构”等法规明显阻碍NGO之间的良性竞争和扩展。正是因为这些制度障碍，中国的公益事业极不发达，即使现有的公益性组织，据专家估算百分之九十也是以“地下”或者商业机构的形式存在，这不仅使得其慈善筹款工作开展困难，而且也使得政府难以对其进行合理监管。中国人也许和英国人一样乐于助人，但是给中国人的善意穿针引线的组织资源却因为制度原因发育不良。

In comparison, the establishment of charity organizations encounters a variety of difficulties in China. You have to register at the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and have to find an organization you can affiliate to, but it’s incredibly hard to find such an organization; and it requires a large amount of start-up capital (two to eight million RMB) to establish a fundraising fund; in addition, legislations like ‘reduplication of social groups in the same field is not approved in the same administrative region’, ‘non-enterprises run by local people are not allowed to establish branch organizations’ apparently impede the healthy competitions and expansions among NGOs. Non-profit enterprises are extremely under-developed because of those institutional impediments. Even for existing non-profit organizations, it’s estimated by specialists that about 90% of them are in existence as ‘underground’ organizations or commercial organizations, which not only makes it hard for them to promote their charitable fundraising work, but also makes it have for the government to reasonably supervise on the. Chinese people may be as ready to help others as British people, but the agents that could go between Chinese people’s goodwill and charities are mal-developed due to institutional inadequacies.

关心民主理念的人往往会为一个问题而争论不休：民众到底值不值得信任？有人认为民众不过是一群受情绪支配的乌合之众，有人则认为民众天然具有相互关爱理性协商的社区精神。其实，从民众既可能万众一心地在广场上高呼万万岁、也可能在一个10万人的小镇运转几十个慈善组织的记录来看，民众可能从来没有统一的“ 天性”，好的制度可能激励出人性最善良美好的一面，而坏的制度则可能暴露其最丑陋的一面。俾斯麦说“政治是一种可能性的艺术”，那么我们能敲开人性中哪种可能性，说到底还是取决于我们在缔造什么样的政治。

People who care about democratic ideals would frequently argue about this issue: Are the masses trustworthy or not? Some people think that the masses are just a bunch of mobs dominated by their pulses; and some think that the masses naturally possess the community spirits of mutual care and love as well as rational negotiations. As a matter of fact, seeing from the facts that the masses would stick together and shout long lives standing on the square, and that there are several dozen of charity organizations in operation in a small town with a population of 100,000, the masses may well don’t have unitary ‘nature’. A fine system could inspire the kindness and goodwill in human nature; while an inadequate one might expose the ugliest aspect of it. Bosmarck said that politics is an art of feasibilities. In that way, what feasibilities we are able to unwrap ultimately depends on what kind of politics we are building up.