To sacrifice is to give up something of value for an ideal, belief, or end. This bilingual group relations conference is occurring in a context of sacrifice and loss in a multi-cultural world. We sacrifice comfort and lose meanings when we cannot use our mother tongue to communicate with the other. Our sacrifices to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 have led to social loss and loss of trust in government. Climate change calls us to sacrifice our dependency on fossil fuels if we are to sustain the life we know on our planet. Artificial intelligence is leading to the loss of employment for many people. Who will be sacrificed on AI’s altar? Demands for justice, equality, and dignity, in a shared world with limited resources, require sacrifice and loss, freely chosen or imposed, if we are to live together peacefully.

牺牲意味着为理想、信仰或目标放弃有价值的东西。本次双语团体关系会议是在一个充满牺牲和丧失的多元文化世界背景下举行的。当我们无法使用母语与他人交流时，我们就会牺牲舒适感，失去意义。我们为减缓新冠肺炎传播所做的牺牲导致了社会损失，失去了对政府的信任。气候变化要求我们牺牲对化石燃料的依赖，以维持我们在这个星球上所知的生命。人工智能正在导致许多人失业。谁将成为人工智能祭坛上的牺牲品？在资源有限的共享世界中，为了满足正义、平等和尊严的需求，就需要我们或自由、或被迫地做出牺牲并面对丧失，以便我们能够和平共处。

This conference’s leadership invites you to examine questions of sacrifice and loss associated with how authority, leadership, and power are exercised in our shared world. Our intention is to explore these dynamics with you as they unfold in our work together during the conference. There are many differences among us - real and imagined, hidden and apparent, named and unnamed. There are differences in our proficiencies to use different languages. All these differences will offer us opportunities to study whose voices and what parts of ourselves are sacrificed and lost, intentionally and unintentionally, and toward what purpose and end, around the roles of leadership and followership.

本次会议的领导层邀请您探讨这样一个问题，即在共享世界中行使权威、领导力和权力时产生的牺牲和丧失。我们的目的是在会议期间与您一起探讨这些动态。我们之间有很多差异——真实的和想象的、隐藏的和明显的、说的上来的和说不上来的。我们在使用不同语言的能力上也存在差异。所有这些差异将为我们提供探索的机会，在领导者和追随者的角色中，哪些声音和我们自身的哪些部分被有意或无意地牺牲和丢失，这是出于什么目的，以及想达到什么的结果。

From Raymond Bakaitis

Conference Director

来自雷蒙德·巴凯蒂斯

会议主任