冰桶挑戰席捲互聯網 爲漸凍人募資千萬美元

Pete Frates can no longer speak. But in the last two and a half weeks, a video posted on Facebook by Mr. Frates, a 29-year-old former college baseball player, has inspired people like Bill Gates, LeBron James, Chris Christie and Taylor Swift to dump a bucket of ice on their heads and speak out for his cause.

大學時曾是棒球運動員的皮特·弗雷迪斯(Pete Frates)再也沒辦法講話了。但在過去的兩週半時間裏，29歲的他上傳到Facebook上的一段視頻，促使比爾·蓋茨(Bill Gates)、勒布朗·詹姆斯(LeBron James)、克里斯·克里斯蒂(Chris Christie)和泰勒·斯威夫特(Taylor Swift)等人將一桶加了冰的水從頭頂澆下，並且發聲支持他的目標。

The “Ice Bucket Challenge” has lit social media on fire, raising both money and awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. About 30,000 Americans now have the disease, which attacks nerve cells and ultimately leads to total paralysis, though the mind remains sharp. Life expectancy is typically two to five years from the time of diagnosis.

“冰桶挑戰”這項活動在社交媒體上火了起來，既爲肌萎縮性脊髓側索硬化症（amyotrophic lateral sclerosis，簡稱ALS）的研究籌集到了資金，又增強了人們對這種病的認識。這種疾病通常被稱作葛雷克氏症(Lou Gehrig’s disease)。目前，美國大約有3萬人患有ALS，這種病會攻擊神經細胞，最終會導致患者徹底癱瘓，但患者的思維仍會保持敏捷。確診後，患者的壽命通常只有兩到五年。（患者俗稱“漸凍人”。——譯註）

The stunt goes like this: People make a video of themselves dumping a bucket of ice water on their heads, post it on Facebook, Instagram or other social media sites, and then challenge friends to do the same within 24 hours or donate $100 to ALS. (Many do both.)

這項活動是這樣的：人們將自己把一桶冰水從頭頂澆下的過程拍攝成視頻，並上傳到Facebook、Instagram或其他社交媒體網站上，然後向朋友發起挑戰，讓對方在24小時之內做同樣的事情，否則就捐100美元（約合620元人民幣）用於ALS研究。（很多人既接受挑戰，也捐了款。）

People have shared more than 1.2 million videos on Facebook between June 1 and Aug. 13 and mentioned the phenomenon more than 2.2 million times on Twitter since July 29, according to those sites. Donations to the ALS Association have spiked. As of Sunday, the association said it had received $13.3 million in donations since July 29, compared with $1.7 million during the same period last year. It said there were about 260,000 new donors. (With a spate of celebrities and business executives joining in over the past few days and pledging contributions, that number is expected to rise.)

從6月1日到8月13日，人們在Facebook上分享了120萬個視頻。同時，自7月29日以來，這一現象在Twitter上被提到了超過220萬次。上述數據分別來自這兩家網站。ALS協會(ALS Association)收到的捐款也大幅增加。該協會表示，從7月29日到週日，收到了1330萬美元捐款，而去年同期，該協會收到的捐款僅有170萬美元。ALS協會稱大約有26萬名捐贈者是新增的。（鑑於過去幾天裏，大量名人和企業高管也參與進來並承諾捐款，這一數字預計會上升。）

The Ice Bucket Challenge had been making the rounds on the Internet for several weeks before it was tied to ALS. Matt Lauer, the host of NBC’s Today Show, had water poured over his head on July 15 after being challenged by the golfer Greg Norman.

在和ALS聯繫在一起之前，冰桶挑戰活動就已經在互聯網上流傳了數週。7月15日，在被高爾夫球手格雷格·諾曼(Greg Norman)點名後，NBC節目《今日秀》(Today Show)的主持人馬特·勞爾(Matt Lauer)讓人將冰水從他頭頂潑下。

Mr. Lauer said that he would donate money to the Hospice of Palm Beach County. He challenged Brian Williams, Martha Stewart and Howard Stern.

勞爾表示，將捐款給棕櫚灘縣安養院(Hospice of Palm Beach County)。他向布萊恩·威廉姆斯(Brian Williams)、瑪莎·斯圖爾特(Martha Stewart)和霍華德·斯特恩(Howard Stern)發出了挑戰。

In late July, Mr. Frates learned about the challenge from his friend Pat Quinn, a New Yorker who also has ALS, and wanted to turn the trend into a fund-raiser for the disease.

7月底，弗雷迪斯從紐約的朋友帕特·奎因(Pat Quinn)那裏瞭解到了這項挑戰活動。奎因也是一名ALS患者。弗雷迪斯想把這個潮流轉變成一項針對ALS的募捐。

Mr. Frates nominated himself for the challenge. Instead of having ice water poured on his head — “ice water and ALS are a bad mix,” he said on his Facebook page — he posted a video of himself bouncing his head to “Ice Ice Baby,” the 1989 hit song by the rapper Vanilla Ice. He challenged some friends, and the stunt spread quickly through Boston circles, then across the web until last week when a parade of boldfaced names joined in. (Last week, Mr. Frates again took the challenge, this time having ice dumped on his head at Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park.)

弗雷迪斯點名讓自己接受該挑戰。在弗雷迪斯上傳的視頻中，他沒有讓冰水從頭頂淋下——他在Facebook上寫道，原因是“ALS患者遇到冰水會有不好的後果”——而是跟着說唱歌手瓦尼拉·艾斯(Vanilla Ice)於1989年推出的熱門歌曲《冰酷寶貝》(Ice Ice Baby)的節奏點頭。他向一些朋友發出了挑戰，這種做法很快便在波士頓多個圈子傳開，後來又在網上迅速流傳。一衆名人上週也加入了進來。（上週，弗雷迪斯再度接受挑戰。這一次，在波士頓紅襪隊[Boston Red Sox]的芬威球場[Fenway Park]裏，他讓人將冰水從自己的頭頂澆下。）

“Did we ever imagine the level of awareness or the money that is coming in? In our dreams we did,” said Mr. Frates’s mother, Nancy Frates.

“我們以前想象過，人們對這種病的瞭解，會達到現在的程度嗎？想過會有源源不斷的捐款嗎？想過，但是在夢裏，”弗雷迪斯的母親南茜·弗雷迪斯(Nancy Frates)說。

There has been a backlash. Some have criticized the campaign for so-called slacktivism, where people will click and post online for social causes with little actual impact on the cause. “There are a lot of things wrong with the Ice Bucket Challenge, but the most annoying is that it’s basically narcissism masked as altruism,” said Arielle Pardes, a writer for Vice. On Slate, Will Oremus urged people to take the “no ice bucket challenge” and just donate the money.

這場風潮也受到了非議。一些人批評，這場風潮只是“懶人公益行動”(slacktivism)，人們只是爲一項目標在網上點點按鈕、發發帖子，但對這項事業本身並沒有多少實際幫助。Vice的作者愛麗爾·帕爾戴斯(Arielle Pardes)說道，“冰桶挑戰裏有很多不妥當的地方，但是最令人反感的一點是，它基本上是把自戀包裝成了利他行爲。”在Slate網站上，威爾·奧爾穆斯(Will Oremus)敦促人們參加“不玩冰桶”的挑戰，直接捐錢。

Ms. Frates said that her son, the former captain of the Boston College baseball team, had been “living the life” when he called a family meeting in 2012. He revealed his illness and said that he did not want to whine, but would instead use the diagnosis as an opportunity to positively affect other people’s lives.

南茜·弗雷迪斯說，她曾在波士頓學院(Boston College)棒球隊當過隊長的兒子，此前一直“過着充實的生活”，直到他在2012年召集了一次家庭會議。他袒露了自己的病情，但說自己不想抱怨，而是會把自己的診斷當做一個機會，努力爲別人的生活帶來積極的影響。

The disease has progressed quickly in the past six months. Mr. Frates has lost the ability to move his arms and legs and now communicates through eye-gaze technology, his mother said. He was married last year to Julie Frates, whom he met eight months before he learned that he had ALS. They are expecting a baby in September.

過去六個月裏，病情發展很快。弗雷迪斯的母親說，弗雷迪斯已經無法移動胳膊和腿，現在只能通過跟蹤眼球運動的技術與人溝通。去年，弗雷迪斯與朱莉·弗雷迪斯(Julie Frates)結婚，兩人是在他得知自己患有ALS的八個月前相識的。他們的孩子將於今年9月降生。

In a video last December, Mr. Frates said: “The story right now goes: You’ve got ALS, have it for a little while, a long while, but either way, the end is always the same. ALS always wins. So in order to rewrite the end of it, we need to raise awareness, money.”

在去年12月的一段視頻中，弗雷迪斯說：“現在的故事都是這樣的：得了ALS，無論患病的時間是長是短，最後的結局都是一樣的。ALS總會打敗你。所以，爲了改寫故事的結局，我們需要提升公衆的關注，也需要籌錢。”