失之毫厘，谬以千里（A minimal error results in wide divergence）

由于我在英国居住，父母在国内对英国的新闻也就特别关注。前几日无意间闲聊，家里人说国内各大媒体纷纷报道：英国威尔士卡迪夫（Cardiff）的一名女学生为了给长有脑瘤的母亲筹钱治病，不得不拍裸照年历。爸妈好奇地问我：英国不是全民公费医疗吗？不至于家里穷得要靠出卖色相来筹钱治病吧？（几大网站都有报道，网易、新浪：http://mn.sina.com.cn/photo/news/zt/47_32972_88882/index.shtml、腾讯：http://edu.qq.com/a/20121110/000049.htm、人民网：http://edu.people.com.cn/n/2012/1110/c1053-19537516.html）。

我被这报道弄得有点儿莫名其妙。因为英国的NHS，即英国国家医疗服务，其主旨就是本着救济贫民的原则，最早建立于1944年。任何人在英国生病，都不会因为没有钱而被拒之在医院门外。医院不会因为你是穷人，低收入的人，而不给你治病。NHS的医疗服务是对生命的平等尊重。

今年伦敦奥运开幕式，NHS是被做为英国引以自豪地一个项目拿到会场上表演的。你可以看到广场上那些推着病床的护士翩翩起舞。虽然英国的开幕式无法同四年前的中国奥运开幕式相提并论，但这里表演的每一个人全都是志愿者，而广场上表演的护士也全是在NHS（英国提供免费医疗的国民健康服务体系）里做过贡献或者仍在伦敦各NHS医院任职的护士。

带着强烈的好奇心，我决定上网搜一下英文原文的新闻报道。结果英文原文是这样说的：A Cardiff student and her friends have stripped off in a naked calendar to raise money for a brain tumour charity after her mother was diagnosed with the disease.
Amy Morfoot, who attends Cardiff University, hopes to raise £5,500 for The Brain Tumour Charity, as well as increasing awareness of the effects of the often fatal disease.（http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/11/08/cardiff-student-strips-naked-charity-calendar_n_2092465.html）

女孩是在母亲诊断出脑瘤后，想借拍裸照年历，一方面是为了给 The Brain Tumour Charity （脑瘤慈善机构：http://www.thebraintumourcharity.org）筹款，一方面是想借此机会让身边（周围）的人意识到这种致命疾病的严重性。

英国的NHS医院的确不花钱，但是很多医疗研究的资金来源靠的是捐款。而英国的捐款完全是自发自愿，真正的“取之于民，用之于民”。这家脑瘤慈善机构从建立至今，已经筹得研究款项达8百万英镑。

在英国做慈善，为各种机构捐款不是有钱人的事情，它是切切实实落实到每一个人身上，每一个在社会上生存的人，每一个拥有社会义务和责任的人。几乎每个月你都会看到周围会有一些朋友、同事参加各种各样为募捐筹款搞得各类活动。我曾经在去年的博文里“为乳腺癌机构募捐（上）、（下）”里提到过。

英国人的捐款并不需要你出成百上千镑，大部分工薪阶层也就是5－10镑，20镑。因为这种活动相当多，几乎每个月都有。我就说说最常见的几种吧。除了以前提到的每年是跟着公司为“乳腺癌机构”捐款，英国规模比较大的就是“Movember”（http://uk.movember.com/。）大家都知道11月在英文里是”November”。而Movember的活动就是为了让男士们在11月里留一个月的山羊胡，借此关注并为“前列腺癌”筹款的一种方式。

拍裸体年历的女孩和同学们面带微笑，很多看到中国新闻报到的人就会说：你看她母亲都病 成这样了，她为了给母亲治病不得不出卖色相。这里面有报到的误导，同样也有对英国文化的误解。在英国能够亲身参与到慈善活动中，是一种荣誉。特别当你看到通过自己的努力筹到的钱帮到了别人，是一件很幸福满足的事情！

在Movember的这一个月里，英国很多公司都会积极参与到这种筹款活动中。所以11月份，你会经常看到留着山羊胡的供应商，客户、公司男同事在公司里进进出出，大家都引以为荣，因为可以筹到善款用以帮助更多需要的人。就连英国的品牌产品HP都不忘在11月份把自己的产品包装设计成带有山羊胡的形象，产品卖出后的一部分款项也会用于赞助Movember的活动。

工作上的机会偶然认识到英国一个普通家庭企业的供应商，主要是生产包装纸箱。英国一年一度的包装盛会都会进行一次行业里的评选，这家企业被评选为2012年最优秀的中小型企业。（http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/events/uk-packaging-awards/uk-packaging-awards-2012-winners-sme-of-the-year/）

在伯明翰每年有一个大型的活动－－－每年12月的第一个周五晚上，自愿志们会在寒冷的冬夜用纸箱搭建成临时住房，在这里度过一晚，以此来为无赢利性组织St. Basils筹款（http://www.stbasils.org.uk/）。该组织主要是用于帮助伯明翰附近年轻无家可归的人安置住宿。而我上面提到的这家家族企业每年都是这个大型活动的赞助商。（我曾经在去年的博文：“圣诞大餐和伯明翰的圣诞市场”里提到过这项活动。）

同中国的赞助商拿钱出来不同的是，这家企业每年亲力亲为，你想象不出一个在中国人眼里的“富二代”会每年在寒冷的冬夜里，在自家制造的纸箱里过一晚。去年一次活动就筹得100，000英镑。如果有朋友想亲自体验下寒冬在纸箱里住一夜是什么感觉，或者想直接捐款的话，请点击这个链接：http://www.stbasils.org.uk/Fundraising/fundraising_news/sleepoutbasils

在英国参与到慈善活动中是生活中极为平常的一件事情，每一个人，每一年都会在这样的活动中履行着自己的一份责任。我身边有很多的同事、朋友也都为之乐此不疲。很多人每个月的薪水也会有一部分用于各种捐款，包括我自己。“人人为我，我为人人”的精神在这里自然地传承着。这个世界上没有一个人因为捐款而变成穷人，举手之劳就可以帮助到别人，何乐而不为呢？

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A minimal error or deviation results in wide divergence

I have been sick since Christmas Eve and still have not fully recovered. I am not sure the sickness is due to stress from work or just something on my mind. Anyway let it go. 2013 is a new start.

I used a Chinese idiom as title for the Chinese version of this blog – “失之毫厘，谬以千里”（shī zhī háo lí, miù yǐ qiān lǐ）。毫厘（háo lí）are two small measurement units for length. The whole idiom means “A miss is as good as a mile./The slightest difference leads to a huge loss./ A minimal error or deviation results in wide divergence. ”

Once when I spoke to my parents on the phone, my mum told me a piece of news that showed on the local media, a female student from Cardiff University had stripped off for a calendar to raise money for her mom, who was diagnosed with brain tumor cancer.

My parents had been in the UK four years ago and they know that NHS provides free medical treatment for patients. They don’t understand why this girl needs to raise money for her mom’s treatment.

After the phone call, I knew there must be something wrong in the Chinese media. I found the original news from English newspaper as below.

A Cardiff student and her friends have stripped off in a naked calendar to raise money for a brain tumour charity after her mother was diagnosed with the disease. Amy Morfoot, who attends Cardiff University, hopes to raise £5,500 for The Brain Tumour Charity, as well as increasing awareness of the effects of the often fatal disease. (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/11/08/cardiff-student-strips-naked-charity-calendar_n_2092465.html)

In my Chinese blog, I mentioned that hundreds of nurses and health care workers were in the show of 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony. The universal healthcare is one of the core values of British society. One of the reasons to put the NHS in the show is that everyone is aware of how important the NHS is to everybody in the UK. We believe, as a nation, in universal healthcare. It doesn’t matter how poor you are, how rich you are, you will get treated.

I also talked about the role of charity and some charity activities and how these events help to raise money for local societies and communities. British have much more awareness of social responsibilities than Chinese. I do not believe Chinese are lacking in social responsibility, however there is no proper channel for them to donate money or to do something for local societies.

Money is critical for hospital treatment in China. No money means poor treatment and less opportunity for survival. Charity and charity work are still primitive compared to the fast growing economy during the last twenty years in China. Most charities in China are government-linked, Chinese charities are repeatedly accused of corruption and misuse of funds. I even did not mention this in my Chinese blog. However my Chinese blog was still banned, locked and scrutinized by Baidu.

Actually I did not analyse or assume why China published this misleading news. My blog friend 7 wrote an article to analyse the reason (翻译偏差分析). I did not want to do it because the news was already wrong, I only need to clarify what the truth is, no point to assume the reason behind.

After I failed to publish my Chinese version on my baidu space, it triggered my deep thinking and I decided to write something different in this English version.

All media in China are controlled by government. Free media is always a disputed and sensitive topic in China. Just a week ago, there was a protest caused by Southern Weekly newspaper (Details can be seen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20954916).

The majority of well-educated Chinese are keen to know what happens overseas and eager to see different opinions in the media. Many university intellectuals secretly listened to VOA 20 or 30 years ago at the risk of being imprisoned. Although China media is much open than twenty years ago, many sensitive search words are blocked on the google search. Twitter, facebook, youtube and even Word Press cannot be used in China.

However several of my blog friends are still using Word Press to write their blogs by using virtual private networks (VPN), proxy servers or other technical tricks to bypass the Great Firewall (防火墙，fáng huǒ qiáng, it is a filtering system that blocks mainland Chinese Internet users from some international websites and web pages). Using VPS or other technical tricks to bypass the Great Firewall to gain access to blocked websites is called “jumping the wall” (fán qiáng 翻墙 ).

The web of The New York Times has been blocked after disclosing the corruption of the Chinese Premiere. One of my friends was angry as she cannot access to read news anymore. I suggested her to look at the web of International Herald Tribune, which is a co-operation between the New York Times and The Washington Post.

It is free media in the UK, but in contrast to well-educated young or middle-aged Chinese, you hardly see anybody reading world news from newspaper or TV. If you talk to the British, most of them only read local newspaper and do not care about what happens thousands of miles away.

Many of my friends think the British are so narrow-minded. They use a Chinese idiom to describe them as well frogs (坐井观天，zuò jǐng guān tiān). A frog to view the sky from the bottom of a well and believe what it sees is the whole sky. It is a metaphor for a person with a very limited outlook (narrow-minded).

I had the same opinion as my friends several years ago. Particularly I worked for two companies in a small town. Some of my ex-colleagues worked for the same company since they were 16 and never change their jobs in their life and all their friends and relatives are living in the same village or within 20 miles distance. I was quite frustrated for several years because it is very difficult to communicate with them. On the contrary, in China the people you work with have the same education level. For the ones who could not enter universities will be eliminated out from multinational companies or any office work.

It is free media in the UK, but difficult to say that the news on the media is without bias.  After the 2012 Olympics Games, one of my friends told me that she hardly saw any interview with Chinese champion. After the competition, the British journalist interviewed athletes from America, even they are in the 3^rd or 5^th place, whereas Chinese in the 1^st place were not interviewed.

Frankly speaking I did not pay much attention to these details. In China, TV would only broadcast competitions with Chinese athletes in. In the UK I had the chance to watch a lot of sports that I never had the chance to watch in China and I quite enjoyed them.

But I believe my friend’s claim is true and I wouldn’t feel surprise about that. When the US had the gun-shooting on the 14^th of December, 2012, BBC reported the news repeatedly day and night. On the same day, 22 children were wounded by a man with knife at a primary school in China (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20723910) , but nothing has been reported in the UK TV and local newspapers at all.

Sometimes I feel sad to see how British are so unenlightened about the outside world, likewise I also feel sorry to see how Chinese are so restricted to discuss and to see the outside world. Thousands of years ago, Confucius said in the Analects: “In a group of three people, there is always something I can learn from. Choose to follow the strengths of others, use the shortcomings to reflect upon ourselves and correct them.” （三人行，必有我师焉。择其善者而从之，其不善者而改之。）

This does not only apply to a person, but also apply to a country. I believe for a person to have a life should always improve himself/herself. Knowing about other countries and other cultures will expand your horizons and help you to understand others and improve your behaviour. Same for a country, China has changed a lot in the last twenty years. No country should ignore these changes. To learn from other countries will only improve understanding rather than set prejudice in the international relationship.

15/01/2013