The U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy says individual Americans have the right and responsibility to help shape U.S. foreign relations. This month, it hosted a summit in Washington with the goal of getting more Americans to do just that.
美国公民外交中心认为，每个美国人都有权利和义务帮助形成美国的外交关系。该中心11月在华盛顿举行了一个高峰会议，目的是让更多的美国人能够亲历亲为美国的外交关系。
Being a citizen diplomat can be as simple as hosting an international visitor in one's home. Or it can involve organizing and hosting "immersion journeys."
公民外交官的工作，小到在自己的家里接待国际游客，大到组织和主持“浸濡之旅”。
Breaking down misinformation
Sahar Taman, a Muslim who grew up in Wisconsin, has led tours to and from seven different Arab countries over the past four years. That has included visiting multiple mosques, synagogues and churches and having meaningful discussions about religion.
萨哈·塔曼是一名在威斯康辛州长大的穆斯林。4年来，她带团前往7个阿拉伯国家，参观了众多清真寺、犹太教堂和基督教堂，同时就宗教问题进行了有意义的讨论。
"One of the things we do is break down this culture of misinformation that exists about religion," she says. "It exists about Muslims, but often exists for Muslims about other religions, too."
她说：“我们做的事情之一就是打破有关宗教的错误信息文化，人们对穆斯林存在错误信息，穆斯林对其它宗教也常常存在错误的信息。”
Taman recalls an Islamic publisher who hosted participants in her program and wrote an essay about his experience. She said he grew up believing "the Jews were the enemies," something his government and the media in his country told him.
塔曼举例说，一个伊斯兰出版商曾经接待过参加“浸濡之旅”的人。这个出版商写了一篇文章，记录了他的这段经历。
"It was not until 2008," the publisher wrote, "when I was 63 years old, that I met a Jewish person for the first time, and I learned that they were humans, just like us.'"
他在文章中写道：“经过历次战争，犹太人就是我们的敌人，这是媒体和政府告诉我们的。但是，2008年我63岁时，平生第一次见到一位犹太人，我才了解到他们是和我们一样的人。”
Taman was one of seven people honored this year by the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy. More than 600 people from across the United Sates and 41 other nations attended the group's four-day gathering, to honor her and other citizen diplomats and talk about issues of concern.
塔曼是得到今年美国公民外交中心嘉奖的七个人中的一个。来自美国和其它41个国家的600多人参加了这次为期4天的会议，以表彰塔曼和其他公民外交官所做的贡献，同时商讨一些关心的问题。
More than a meeting
Ann Schodde, president and CEO of the U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy emphasized that the summit was more than just talk.
公民外交中心的总裁和董事长安·司可迪强调指出，这次高峰会议不只是纸上谈兵。
"It is an initiative and it is a launch, and what we are doing, launches a 10-year campaign to double the number of Americans involved internationally, whether they are five or 95 by 2020."
“它不只是一个会议，它还是一项倡议和一个运动 。我们发起了一个10年运动，计划在2020年前把在国际上参与公民外交的美国人加倍，无论是5岁的小孩子，还是95岁的老人。”
Although it is difficult to say for certain how many Americans are engaged in citizen diplomacy, Schodde says the center has looked at census data for some figures. She says tallying figures such as number of Americans studying abroad or travelling outside the U.S. for business, the total is about 63 million. But, she admits, it is a "very subjective number."
司可迪说，很难确定有多少美国人参与了公民外交活动，但该中心对一些普查数据进行了研究：“其中一个数据是在国外学习的美国学生人数，最新统计是24万1千人，如果把他们和为了商业或专业目的出国旅行的人加在一起，人数大约是6,300万，当然这是一个非常主观的数据。”
Free dental care for Afghans
One of those millions honored at the summit in Washington was Dr. James Rolfe. A dentist for more than four decades, Rolfe founded the Afghanistan Dental Relief Project, which provides free dental care to Afghan citizens.
受到嘉奖的人还有詹姆斯·罗尔夫医生。罗尔夫做牙医已经40多年了，他成立了阿富汗牙科救援计划，为阿富汗公民提供免费牙科保健。
After travelling to Afghanistan on his own in 2003 and learning that most Afghans had never seen a dentist, he set up a clinic which now treats about 20,000 people a year. He also established a school to train dental assistants, dental laboratory technicians, and dental hygienists from the orphan and widow population.
他说：“我建立了一个诊所，一所学校，我们在阿富汗的孤儿寡妇当中培训牙医助手、牙科技师和牙科保健师。我们每年治疗大约2万名病人。”
"When I started this I thought, 'this is a really great project and a lot of people are going to come and help me with it,'" Rolfe recalls. "It wasn't like that at all. There wasn't money coming in and there wasn't any volunteer pool to draw from. And so basically it was a lot of hard work and money had to come from me and the work had to come from me too."
“刚开始时，我想这真是一项很棒的计划，会有很多人来帮助我。但是，情况完全不是那么回事。既没有人捐款，也没有志愿者帮忙。基本上，面对大量艰苦的工作，我要一个人挑大梁，钱要自己出，工作也要自己干。”
That is beginning to change he says, but he still puts most of the money from his own practice in Santa Barbara, California, into the program.
他说，情况开始有所改善了，但他还得把他在加州圣芭芭拉行医的大部分收入都投入到这个计划中来。
"I wanted to go and help the people because I knew I could do it," he says. "I knew they needed the help, and I felt like they had been abandoned, even by our own country."
“我希望去帮助那里的人，因为我知道我可以办得到。我知道，他们需要帮助。我觉得，他们被遗弃了，甚至被我们的国家遗弃了。”
When there are tensions between nations, Anne Schodde says, citizen diplomats can often directly address major issues like poverty, health, the environment.
司可迪说，当国家关系紧张时，公民外交官往往能直接解决象贫困、健康和环境这样的重大问题。
"It is eminently clear that our government cannot portray American values and who we are to the rest of the world," she says. "It won't work. If you look at the power of just people working together often progress can be made on very critical issues faster."
“显然，我们的政府单枪匹马是无法向全世界展现美国的价值观和美国人的面貌的。这行不通。但是，如果人民共同努力，往往会使一些非常关键性的问题取得更快的进展。”
That's why Schodde would like to see another 60 million Americans engaged in citizen diplomacy by 2020.
这就是为什么司可迪希望，到2020年，另外6千万美国人也能参与到公民外交中来。 |