첫 딸 아기를 그윽하게 바라보는 Mark Zuckerberg·내외. 그들 표정이 말할 수 없이 행복해 보인다.
약관의 나이에 페이스북을 창시해 '청년 재벌이 된 마크 저커버그는 어렵사리 얻은 첫 딸을 품에 안은 채 이런 다짐을 합니다. "세상을 보다 좋게 변화시키는데 엄마 아빠가 보유한 페이스북 주식의 99%를 쓰겠다"고요. 이'대단한 딸 바보 아빠'가 쾌척한 금액은 무려 450억 달러(약 52조 1100억 원) 규모로 대한민국 1년 예산의 1/7에 해당되는 엄청난 기부입니다.
첫딸을 얻은 감격에 이 젊은 아빠와 엄마는 "살아있는 동안 평등과 인간의 잠재력 증진을 위해 노력하겠다"는 엄숙한 다짐도 했습니다. 지난 12월 1일 금수저를 물고 태어난 맥스라는 이 아기는 태어나자마자 미국사회 발전에 엄청난 기여를 한 겁니다. '아기 장수'같은 초특급 파워를 가진 맥스라는 이름의 이 여자아기는 '존재자체'로 선행을 한 진기록을 보유하게 된 셈입니다. '그 아기'가 있었기에 딸바보 아빠는 저렇게 '위대한 결심'을 한 것이니까요.
저커버그는 편지에서 "맥스야, 우리는 너를 사랑하며, 너와 모든 어린이들에게 보다 나은 세상을 남겨주기 위한 엄청난 책임감을 느끼고 있다"며 "네가 우리에게 줬던 것과 같은 사랑과 희망, 기쁨으로 가득한 삶을 살기 바라며 네가 이 세상에 무엇을 가져다줄지 어서 보고 싶구나"라고 말했습니다. 젊은 아빠가 첫 딸아기에 거는 기대가 꽤나 커 보입니다. 아마도 이 세상 모든 딸바보 아빠들의 심정이기도 할 겁니다.
저커버그는 "세상 모든 부모들처럼 엄마 아빠도 네가 지금보다 나은 세상에서 살기를 바란다"면서 "우리는 다음 세대의 모든 어린이들을 위해 세상을 보다 좋게 만들어야 할 도덕적 책임이 있다"고 말합니다. "그럼에도 불구하고 우리는 우리가 가진 자원을 가장 큰 기회와 다음 세대가 직면할 문제에 집중하지 않고 있다"며 "예를 들어 질병을 예방하는데 쓰는 돈보다 질병을 치료하는데 쓰는 돈이 50배나 많다"고 편지에 쓰고 있습니다.
저커버그는 "너희 세대가 집중해야할 것은 잠재력과 평등 증진"이라면서 "이를 위해서는 25년, 50년, 100년에 걸친 장기적인 투자가 필요하고, 사람 및 공동체와의 적극적인 소통이 이뤄져야 하며, 변화를 위한 기술 구축, 적극적인 정책 참여, 각 분야의 가장 강하고 독립적인 리더(leader)후원, 내일의 발전을 위해 현재의 어려움을 감수하는 자세가 필요하다"고 말합니다. 젊은 아빠가 앞으로 딸아이가 살아가야하는 '더 좋은 세상'에 대해 철학적 비전을 제시하고 있는 겁니다.
젊은 아빠는 딸에게 "인터넷을 오락과 커뮤니케이션 수단으로 여기는 사람들도 있지만,이 세상의 많은 이들에게 인터넷은 생명줄(Lifeline)"이라며 "엄마 아빠 세대는 개인의 관심사와는 상관없이 모든 학생들이 같은 교실에서 같은 수업을 받아야 했지만 너희 세대는 다르다"고 말합니다. 인터넷이' 생명줄'이라고 말하는 멋쟁이 젊은 아빠는 사실 인터넷 덕분에 거부가 된 겁니다. 이 세상에서 가장 빠른 시일내에 '자수성가'로 억만장자가 된 저커버그의 이 '통 큰 기부'는 전 세계인들에게 크나큰 감동을 주고 있습니다.
저커버그는 "앞으로 오랫동안 아빠가 페이스북 CEO로 일하기는 하겠지만 이런 문제들은 너무도 중요해서 나이가 들 때까지 기다릴 수는 없다"면서 "다음 세대 모든 어린이들의 잠재력과 평등 증진을 위해 챈 저커버그 이니셔티브(Chan Juckerberg Initiative)를 만들어 교육 증진, 질병치료, 보다 강한 커뮤니티 형성을 위해 노력하겠다"고 밝혔습니다. 그러면서 이를 위해 자신과 아내 프리실라 챈이 갖고 있는 페이스북 주식 99%를 기부하겠다고 발표한 겁니다. 그러니까 젊은 아빠 저커버그와 그 아내는 딸아이가 살아가야할 미래의 세상을 위해 '모든 것'을 바친다는 각오로 52조원이라는 현재로선 '최고액수'의 기부금을 쾌척하게 된 겁니다.
아기가 태어나기 전 저커버그는 딸이 태어나면 사내 규정에 따라 두달간의 유급 육아휴직을 쓰겠다고 밝히기도 했습니다. 그만큼 '아기의 탄생'이 젊은 아빠에게 큰 기쁨으로 다가왔다는 얘깁니다. 페이스북은 지난 주 전세계 모든 페이스북 남성직원에게 4개월간의 유급 육아휴직을 부여하는 계획을 발표했습니다.
저커버그의 '딸에게 주는 편지' 가 공개된 후 네티즌들은 "아름다운 편지다" "맥스야 ,멋진 엄마 아빠를 가졌구나" " 내 아이들을 위해 무엇을 해야하는지 생각하게 만들었다"는 등 찬사를 쏟아내고 있습니다.
아래 저커버그가 자신이 페이스북에 올린 '딸에게 보내는 편지'의 원문을 소개합니다.
A letter to our daughter
Dear Max,
Your mother and I don't yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future. Your new life is full of promise, and we hope you will be happy and healthy so you can explore it fully. You've already given us a reason to reflect on the world we hope you live in.
Like all parents, we want you to grow up in a world better than ours today.
While headlines often focus on what's wrong, in many ways the world is getting better. Health is improving. Poverty is shrinking. Knowledge is growing. People are connecting. Technological progress in every field means your life should be dramatically better than ours today.
We will do our part to make this happen, not only because we love you, but also because we have a moral responsibility to all children in the next generation.
We believe all lives have equal value, and that includes the many more people who will live in future generations than live today. Our society has an obligation to invest now to improve the lives of all those coming into this world, not just those already here.
But right now, we don't always collectively direct our resources at the biggest opportunities and problems your generation will face. Consider disease. Today we spend about 50 times more as a society treating people who are sick than we invest in research so you won't get sick in the first place.
Medicine has only been a real science for less than 100 years, and we've already seen complete cures for some diseases and good progress for others. As technology accelerates, we have a real shot at preventing, curing or managing all or most of the rest in the next 100 years.
Today, most people die from five things -- heart disease, cancer, stroke, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases -- and we can make faster progress on these and other problems.
Once we recognize that your generation and your children's generation may not have to suffer from disease, we collectively have a responsibility to tilt our investments a bit more towards the future to make this reality. Your mother and I want to do our part.
Curing disease will take time. Over short periods of five or ten years, it may not seem like we're making much of a difference. But over the long term, seeds planted now will grow, and one day, you or your children will see what we can only imagine: a world without suffering from disease.
There are so many opportunities just like this. If society focuses more of its energy on these great challenges, we will leave your generation a much better world.
Our hopes for your generation focus on two ideas: advancing human potential and promoting equality. Advancing human potential is about pushing the boundaries on how great a human life can be.
Can you learn and experience 100 times more than we do today?
Can our generation cure disease so you live much longer and healthier lives?
Can we connect the world so you have access to every idea, person and opportunity?
Can we harness more clean energy so you can invent things we can't conceive of today while protecting the environment?
Can we cultivate entrepreneurship so you can build any business and solve any challenge to grow peace and prosperity?
Promoting equality is about making sure everyone has access to these opportunities -- regardless of the nation, families or circumstances they are born into.
Our society must do this not only for justice or charity, but for the greatness of human progress.
Today we are robbed of the potential so many have to offer. The only way to achieve our full potential is to channel the talents, ideas and contributions of every person in the world.
Can our generation eliminate poverty and hunger?
Can we provide everyone with basic healthcare?
Can we build inclusive and welcoming communities?
Can we nurture peaceful and understanding relationships between people of all nations?
Can we truly empower everyone -- women, children, underrepresented minorities, immigrants and the unconnected? If our generation makes the right investments, the answer to each of these questions can be yes -- and hopefully within your lifetime.
• • •
This mission -- advancing human potential and promoting equality -- will require a new approach for all working towards these goals.
We must make long term investments over 25, 50 or even 100 years. The greatest challenges require very long time horizons and cannot be solved by short term thinking.
We must engage directly with the people we serve. We can't empower people if we don't understand the needs and desires of their communities.
We must build technology to make change. Many institutions invest money in these challenges, but most progress comes from productivity gains through innovation.
We must participate in policy and advocacy to shape debates. Many institutions are unwilling to do this, but progress must be supported by movements to be sustainable.
We must back the strongest and most independent leaders in each field. Partnering with experts is more effective for the mission than trying to lead efforts ourselves.
We must take risks today to learn lessons for tomorrow. We're early in our learning and many things we try won't work, but we'll listen and learn and keep improving.
• • •
Our experience with personalized learning, internet access, and community education and health has shaped our philosophy.
Our generation grew up in classrooms where we all learned the same things at the same pace regardless of our interests or needs.
Your generation will set goals for what you want to become -- like an engineer, health worker, writer or community leader. You'll have technology that understands how you learn best and where you need to focus. You'll advance quickly in subjects that interest you most, and get as much help as you need in your most challenging areas. You'll explore topics that aren't even offered in schools today. Your teachers will also have better tools and data to help you achieve your goals.
Even better, students around the world will be able to use personalized learning tools over the internet, even if they don't live near good schools. Of course it will take more than technology to give everyone a fair start in life, but personalized learning can be one scalable way to give all children a better education and more equal opportunity.
We're starting to build this technology now, and the results are already promising. Not only do students perform better on tests, but they gain the skills and confidence to learn anything they want. And this journey is just beginning. The technology and teaching will rapidly improve every year you're in school.
Your mother and I have both taught students and we've seen what it takes to make this work. It will take working with the strongest leaders in education to help schools around the world adopt personalized learning. It will take engaging with communities, which is why we're starting in our San Francisco Bay Area community. It will take building new technology and trying new ideas. And it will take making mistakes and learning many lessons before achieving these goals.
But once we understand the world we can create for your generation, we have a responsibility as a society to focus our investments on the future to make this reality.
Together, we can do this. And when we do, personalized learning will not only help students in good schools, it will help provide more equal opportunity to anyone with an internet connection.
• • •
Many of the greatest opportunities for your generation will come from giving everyone access to the internet.
People often think of the internet as just for entertainment or communication. But for the majority of people in the world, the internet can be a lifeline.
It provides education if you don't live near a good school. It provides health information on how to avoid diseases or raise healthy children if you don't live near a doctor. It provides financial services if you don't live near a bank. It provides access to jobs and opportunities if you don't live in a good economy.
The internet is so important that for every 10 people who gain internet access, about one person is lifted out of poverty and about one new job is created.
Yet still more than half of the world's population -- more than 4 billion people -- don't have access to the internet.
If our generation connects them, we can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. We can also help hundreds of millions of children get an education and save millions of lives by helping people avoid disease.
This is another long term effort that can be advanced by technology and partnership. It will take inventing new technology to make the internet more affordable and bring access to unconnected areas. It will take partnering with governments, non-profits and companies. It will take engaging with communities to understand what they need. Good people will have different views on the best path forward, and we will try many efforts before we succeed.But together we can succeed and create a more equal world.
• • •
Technology can't solve problems by itself. Building a better world starts with building strong and healthy communities.
Children have the best opportunities when they can learn. And they learn best when they're healthy.
Health starts early -- with loving family, good nutrition and a safe, stable environment.
Children who face traumatic experiences early in life often develop less healthy minds and bodies. Studies show physical changes in brain development leading to lower cognitive ability.
Your mother is a doctor and educator, and she has seen this firsthand.
If you have an unhealthy childhood, it's difficult to reach your full potential.
If you have to wonder whether you'll have food or rent, or worry about abuse or crime, then it's difficult to reach your full potential.
If you fear you'll go to prison rather than college because of the color of your skin, or that your family will be deported because of your legal status, or that you may be a victim of violence because of your religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, then it's difficult to reach your full potential.
We need institutions that understand these issues are all connected. That's the philosophy of the new type of school your mother is building.
By partnering with schools, health centers, parent groups and local governments, and by ensuring all children are well fed and cared for starting young, we can start to treat these inequities as connected.
Only then can we collectively start to give everyone an equal opportunity.
It will take many years to fully develop this model. But it's another example of how advancing human potential and promoting equality are tightly linked. If we want either, we must first build inclusive and healthy communities.
• • •
For your generation to live in a better world, there is so much more our generation can do.
Today your mother and I are committing to spend our lives doing our small part to help solve these challenges. I will continue to serve as Facebook's CEO for many, many years to come, but these issues are too important to wait until you or we are older to begin this work. By starting at a young age, we hope to see compounding benefits throughout our lives.
As you begin the next generation of the Chan Zuckerberg family, we also begin the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to join people across the world to advance human potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation. Our initial areas of focus will be personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities.
We will give 99% of our Facebook shares -- currently about $45 billion -- during our lives to advance this mission. We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others.
We'll share more details in the coming months once we settle into our new family rhythm and return from our maternity and paternity leaves. We understand you'll have many questions about why and how we're doing this.
As we become parents and enter this next chapter of our lives, we want to share our deep appreciation for everyone who makes this possible.
We can do this work only because we have a strong global community behind us. Building Facebook has created resources to improve the world for the next generation. Every member of the Facebook community is playing a part in this work.
We can make progress towards these opportunities only by standing on the shoulders of experts -- our mentors, partners and many incredible people whose contributions built these fields.
And we can only focus on serving this community and this mission because we are surrounded by loving family, supportive friends and amazing colleagues. We hope you will have such deep and inspiring relationships in your life too.
Max, we love you and feel a great responsibility to leave the world a better place for you and all children. We wish you a life filled with the same love, hope and joy you give us. We can't wait to see what you bring to this world.
Love,
Mom and Dad
(2015년 12월 1일 화요일)
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