????雖然用意良善，但薩克斯給人的印象是易怒、傲慢以及超級自負。最令人沮喪的是，薩克斯似乎脫離了千禧村項目實地的現(xiàn)實，脫離了他手下工作人員的努力，尤其脫離了他試圖改善其生活的那些人們。在芒克的敘述中，薩克斯幾乎不會花時間待在村子里，而是乘坐那種裝甲SUV到處穿梭，只會停留在高檔酒店和非洲國家領導人的辦公室之間。薩克斯在村莊的時間只夠他接受村民們給予的英雄式歡迎，這些村民都熱衷于得到資金援助——芒克明確表示，這是一種表演。與此同時，“偉大的教授”——這是最初被薩克斯迷住的一位工作人員對他的叫法——拒絕外界對千禧村項目進行評估。而且芒克還發(fā)現(xiàn)證據，證明這個組織自身的報告存在報喜不報憂的行為。

????盡管薩克斯和他暴躁的脾氣為這本書提供了最有料的內容，但芒克也帶領讀者認識了那些認真負責、身為千禧村項目工作人員的非洲人，他們（跟芒克一樣）對這個項目越來越失望。他們被授以不可能完成的工作，既要負責處理實地的狀況，又要遵從朝令夕改、不切實際的指令，而這些指令都來自千禧村項目位于紐約的總部。一位村莊協(xié)調員被要求為一份建立小規(guī)模奶制品工廠的商業(yè)計劃書撰寫多份草案，而他所在的村莊正面臨非常嚴重的饑荒和干旱，以至于憤怒的人們襲擊了一位水車的司機。

????這樣的時刻可能會讓讀者感到，對外援助的狀態(tài)以及戰(zhàn)勝貧困的前景非常黯淡。芒克完成了一項出色的工作，她向讀者傳達了開發(fā)工作以及對外援助中所涉及的復雜的制衡體系。

????盡管薩克斯存在過錯，盡管千禧村項目遭遇了種種失敗，但芒克對他還是有些苛刻了。芒克在書中不止一次地提到了千禧村項目村莊取得進展的實例——死亡率和瘧疾患病率下降了；就學率提高了——然而這些顯著的成就讓人感覺被那些小失敗的聲音所掩蓋了。薩克斯仍然是解決全球貧困問題極少數激烈的公共倡導者之一，芒克描繪的形象很是刺痛人心，以至于讓人很容易忘記這個事實。當然，作為一個博得大量關注和資源的精神領袖，薩克斯理應接受這種審視。但他也理應得到比這書中描寫更多的認可——但只是稍微更多一些。在這本書的末尾，甚至連薩克斯本人也顯露出謙卑的姿態(tài)。他承認，雖然這少數幾個村莊的情況有所改善，但找到戰(zhàn)勝貧困的全球性解決方案仍然有一段很長的路要走。（財富中文網）

????譯者：王燦均??

????Though well-intentioned, Sachs comes across as prickly, dismissive, and supremely arrogant. Most damningly, he appears disconnected from the on-the-ground realities of MVP, the efforts of his staff, and particularly the lives he's trying to improve. By Munk's telling, Sachs barely spends any time in the villages, but rather blows through the region, being shuttled in those armored SUVS, between high-end hotels and the offices of African leaders. He drops into villages, only long enough to receive a hero's welcome—a performance, Munk makes clear—from villagers who are keen to keep the money coming. Meanwhile "the great professor"—as one initially smitten staff member calls him—resists external evaluation efforts of MVP, and Munk finds evidence the organization's reports are leaving out bad news.

????While Sachs and his short temper provide the book's juiciest bits, Munk effectively draws readers into the stories of the earnest, committed, and (like Munk) increasingly disillusioned group of Africans who work as MVP field staff. They have impossible jobs; tasked with managing the on-the-ground situation while keeping up with the constantly changing and increasingly pie-in-the-sky orders that come down from the New York-based MVP headquarters. While one village coordinator is being asked to write multiple drafts of a business plan for small-scale milk production, his village is facing famine and a drought so severe that an angry mob beats the driver of a water truck.

????Moments like this can leave readers feeling awfully bleak about the state of foreign aid and the prospects of ever overcoming poverty. Munk does a good job conveying the complexities of development work and the system of trade-offs involved in foreign aid.

????Yet for all of his faults and MVP's failures, Munk is a bit hard on Sachs. More than once, she offers examples of progress in the MVP villages —drops in mortality and malaria rates; improved school attendance—yet these notable feats feel overshadowed by the steady drumbeat of small failures. Sachs remains one of a very few fierce, public advocates for addressing global poverty. Munk's portrait is so stinging, it's easy to forget that fact. Certainly, as a figurehead who commands considerable attention and resources, Sachs deserves the scrutiny. He also deserves more credit than he gets here—but only slightly more. By the end of her book, even Sachs seems humbled, and admits that while things are better in these few villages, a global solution for poverty still a long way off.