全球12位超级富豪承诺捐出半数财产

2013-02-19 00:00:00来源：大耳朵英语

　　A dozen billionaires from Europe, Australasia and Africa have joined the world’s most elite club by publicly committing to give away at least half of their fortunes philanthropically.
　　来自欧洲、澳大利亚和非洲的12名超级富豪公开承诺，将捐出至少一半财产用于慈善事业，由此加入堪称世界顶级精英俱乐部的“捐赠誓约”(Giving Pledge)。
　　Azim Premji of India and Hasso Plattner of Germany, who are software magnates, and Vladimir Potanin, the Russian mining oligarch, are among 12 business people and their spouses who have joined 92 Americans in the Giving Pledge, which includes people collectively worth $500bn.
　　在这12位超级富豪中，有两位软件业巨头——印度的阿齐姆普雷姆吉(Azim Premji)和德国的哈索普拉特纳(Hasso Plattner)，还有一位俄罗斯矿业寡头——弗拉基米尔波塔宁(Vladimir Potanin)。他们及配偶加入之前92名美国人的行列，跻身于“捐赠誓约”，该誓约参加者的总财产已达5000亿美元。
　　The commitments come at a time of international debate over tax avoidance by companies and individuals and the moral responsibility of the wealthy to give back to society.
　　上述12名超级富豪加入誓约之际，企业和个人避税行为、以及富人回馈社会的道德责任正在全球受到热议。
　　The Giving Pledge, established three years ago by Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and Warren Buffett, the investor, was designed to promote a debate over philanthropy and encourage rich individuals to give money away to worthwhile causes.
　　“捐赠誓约”3年前由微软(Microsoft)联合创始人比尔盖茨(Bill Gates)和投资者沃伦巴菲特(Warren Buffett)发起，旨在促进人们对慈善行为展开辩论、并鼓励富人将钱财捐给有益的事业。
　　Mr Gates, one of the world’s richest men whose foundation has disbursed $25bn in the past decade, told the Financial Times: “A lot were going to do it anyway but the pledge creates more of a movement, makes people do it earlier, collaborate and do it smarter.
　　身为世界首富之一、名下基金会在过去10年捐赠250亿美元的盖茨对英国《金融时报》表示：“很多人本来就会这么做，但‘誓约’更像一场运动，让人们以合作、更明智的方式，更早完成捐赠承诺。”
　　Past efforts by him and others to expand the pledge outside the US in countries including China have met resistance from donors, who because of cultural practices prefer to remain anonymous or, for reasons of politics or personal safety, do not talk about their wealth and philanthropy.
　　此前，他与其他人将誓约推广至美国以外国家（包括中国）的努力遇到了捐赠者的阻力。这些富豪或是出于文化原因而不愿公开姓名，或是出于政治或个人安全的考虑而不愿讨论自己的财富和慈善活动。
　　Collectively, the new billionaires are worth $61bn according to Forbes’ latest estimates. That adds to wealth represented by the US members of $433bn, according to Glasspockets, a monitoring service run by the Foundation Centre in the US. It calculates health, education and human services dominate their giving.
　　根据《福布斯》(Forbes)杂志的最新估计，新加入誓约的亿万富翁身家总计610亿美元，而美国基金会中心(Foundation Centre)运营的监督机构Glasspockets表示，参与誓约的美国富翁身家共计4330亿美元。该机构估计，捐赠主要集中于医疗、教育和人道服务。　