Holly Morris: Why stay in Chernobyl? Because it's home.

Translator: Silvia Ribés Reviewer: Begoña Laka

Three years ago, I was standing about a hundred yards

Duela 3 urte, 100 metrora neukan

from Chernobyl nuclear reactor number four.

4 zenbakiko Txernobilgo erreaktore nuklearra.

My Geiger counter dosimeter, which measures radiation,

Erradiazio neurtzen duen dosimetro Geiger hau

was going berserk,

erritmo frenetikoa hartzen ari zen.

and the closer I got, the more frenetic it became,

Hurbildu ahala, erritmoa gero eta frenetikoagoa zen.

and frantic. My God.

Zoratu egin zen, izan ere.

I was there covering the 25th anniversary

Munduko istripu nuklear larrienaren 25. urteurrena zen

of the world's worst nuclear accident,

eta hara joan nintzen horren berri ematera.

as you can see by the look on my face,

Aurpegian ikusiko didazuenez, ez nuen joateko gogorik

reluctantly so, but with good reason,

eta arrazoi sendoak neuzkan!

because the nuclear fire that burned for 11 days

1986an 11 egunez sutan egon zen suak

back in 1986 released 400 times as much radiation

400 bider erradiazio gehiago izurtzen zuen

as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,

Hiroshiman lehertu zen bonbak baino.

and the sarcophagus, which is the covering

Gainera, sarkofagoa,

over reactor number four,

4. erreaktorea estaltzen duena,

which was hastily built 27 years ago,

orain dela 27 urte azkar eraikita,

now sits cracked and rusted

hor dago, apurtuta eta herdoilduta,

and leaking radiation.

erradiazioa isurtzen.

So I was filming.

Hor nengoen ni, filmatzen.

I just wanted to get the job done

Lana amaitu besterik ez nuen nahi

and get out of there fast.

eta hortik ahalik eta azkarren aldendu.

But then, I looked into the distance,

Momentu horretan, urrunean ikusi nuen

and I saw some smoke coming from a farmhouse,

landetxe batetik irteten zen kea.

and I'm thinking, who could be living here?

Nor demontre bizi daiteke hemen?

I mean, after all, Chernobyl's soil, water and air,

Txernobilgo lurra, ura eta airea

are among the most highly contaminated on Earth,

planetako kutsatuenetarikoak dira,

and the reactor sits at the the center of

eta erreaktorea kokatuta dagoen esklusio-eremua

a tightly regulated exclusion zone, or dead zone,

hilda eta gogor erregulatuta dago.

and it's a nuclear police state, complete with border guards.

Polizia eta mugako zaindariz betetako estatu nuklearra da.

You have to have dosimeter at all times, clicking away,

Dosimetroa erabili behar da une guztietan,

you have to have a government minder,

gobernuko eskolta bat behar duzu,

and there's draconian radiation rules

erradiazio erregulazio oso zorrotza dago,

and constant contamination monitoring.

eta etengabeko kutsaduraren kontrola egiten da.

The point being, no human being

Gauzak horrela, eremu hil honetatik hurbil

should be living anywhere near the dead zone.

inork ez luke bizi beharko.

But they are.

Baina egon, badago.

It turns out an unlikely community

Antza, 200 lagunek osatutako talde bat

of some 200 people are living inside the zone.

eremuan bizi da, sinesgaitza bada ere.

They're called self-settlers.

Samosely -edo okupak- deitzen dira.

And almost all of them are women,

Gehienak emakumezkoak dira.

the men having shorter lifespans

Gizonezkoen bizi-itxaropena txikiagoa da

in part due to overuse of alcohol, cigarettes,

alkohola gehiegi edateagatik, tabakoa

if not radiation.

edo erradiazioagatik.

Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated

Ehunka mila pertsona ebakuatu egin zuten

at the time of the accident,

istripua gertatu zenean

but not everybody accepted that fate.

baina batzuek ez zuten erabaki hori onartu.

The women in the zone, now in their 70s and 80s,

Eremuko emakumeak, orain 70-80 urtekoak,

are the last survivors of a group who defied authorities

agintariei aurre egin zien taldeko azkenak dira.

and, it would seem, common sense,

Sen onari jaramonik ez eginez,

and returned to their ancestral homes inside the zone.

bueltatu ziren eremu barruan dauden arbasoen etxeetara.

They did so illegally.

Legez kontra bueltatu ziren.

As one woman put it to a soldier

Zera esan zion emakume batek

who was trying to evacuate her for a second time,

bigarren aldiz ebakuatu nahi zuen soldadu bati:

"Shoot me and dig the grave.

"Tiro egin niri eta hilobia prestatu.

Otherwise, I'm going home."

Bestela, etxera joango naiz".

Now why would they return to such deadly soil?

Zergatik nahiko zuten eremu hil horretara bueltatu?

I mean, were they unaware of the risks

Ez zituzten arriskuak ezagutzen?

or crazy enough to ignore them, or both?

Kasurik ez egiteraino zoratu al ziren? Edo biak?

The thing is, they see their lives

Kontua da oso ikuspegi desberdina dutela

and the risks they run decidedly differently.

bizitzari buruz eta arriskuei buruz.

Now around Chernobyl, there are scattered ghost villages,

Orain Txernobil inguruan herri fantasma sakabanatuak daude,

eerily silent, strangely charming, bucolic,

isiltasun beldurgarrian, arraroki xarmagarriak, bukolikoak,

totally contaminated.

eta kutsatuak oso.

Many were bulldozed under at the time of the accident,

Batzuk eraitsi egin zituzten istripua gertatu zenean,

but a few are left like this,

baina beste batzuk horrela jarraitzen dute;

kind of silent vestiges to the tragedy.

istripuaren aztarna isilak dira, nolabait.

Others have a few residents in them,

Beste batzuetan biztanle batzuk daude,

one or two "babushkas," or "babas,"

"babushka" edo "baba" bat edo bi,

which are the Russian and Ukrainian words for grandmother.

horrela deitzen diete-eta amonei, errusieraz eta ukraineraz.

Another village might have six or seven residents.

Beste herri batek sei edo zazpi biztanle izan ditzake.

So this is the strange demographic of the zone --

Horrela da eremuaren demografia bitxia:

isolated alone together.

isolatua, bakartua, elkarrekin.

And when I made my way to that piping chimney

Urrutian ikusi nuen

I'd seen in the distance,

kea zerion tximiniaranzko bidean,

I saw Hanna Zavorotnya, and I met her.

Hanna Zavorotnyia ikusi eta beregana joan nintzen.

She's the self-declared mayor of Kapavati village,

Kapavati herriko alkatea da, berak bere burua izendatu zuen.

population eight.

Zortzi biztanle ditu herriak.

(Laughter)

(Barreak)

And she said to me, when I asked her the obvious,

Agerikoa galdetu nionean, zera esan zidan:

"Radiation doesn't scare me. Starvation does."

"Erradiazioak ez nau beldurtzen. Goseteak bai."

And you have to remember, these women have

Kontuan izatekoa da emakume hauek

survived the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

20.mendeko basatikeria larrienak biziraun dituztela.

Stalin's enforced famines of the 1930s, the Holodomor,

30ko hamarkadan Stalinek eragindako goseteek, Holomodorrek,

killed millions of Ukrainians,

milioika ukraniar hil zituzten,

and they faced the Nazis in the '40s,

eta 40ko hamarkadan naziei egin zieten aurre.

who came through slashing, burning, raping,

Azken hauek ebaki, erre, bortxatu egin zituzten.

and in fact many of these women

Izan ere, hauetariko emakume batzuk

were shipped to Germany as forced labor.

Alemaniara bidali zituzten lanera gogoz kontra.

So when a couple decades into Soviet rule,

Beraz, sobietarren menpe bi hamarkadan egonda,

Chernobyl happened,

Txernobilekoa gertatu zenean,

they were unwilling to flee in the face of an enemy

ez zuten alde egin izan nahi

that was invisible.

ikusezina zen etsai batengatik.

So they returned to their villages

Haien herrietara bueltatu eta gero,

and are told they're going to get sick and die soon,

gaixotu eta hil egingo zirela esan zietenean,

but five happy years, their logic goes,

zera pentsatu zuten: poztasuneko 5 urte hobeak dira

is better than 10 stuck in a high rise

10 urte Kieveko kanpoaldean baino,

on the outskirts of Kiev,

etxe-orratz batean sartuta,

separated from the graves of their mothers

eta arbasoen hilobietatik bananduta,

and fathers and babies,

ama, aita eta umeen hilobietatik,

the whisper of stork wings on a spring afternoon.

zikoinen hegoen murmurretik udaberriko arratsaldetan.

For them, environmental contamination

Haien ustez, ingurumenaren kutsadura

may not be the worst sort of devastation.

ez da hondamendirik larriena.

It turns out this holds true

Eta kontua da,

for other species as well.

beste espezie batzuentzat ere hau egia dela.

Wild boar, lynx, moose, they've all returned

Basurdeak, katamotzak, altzeak...

to the region in force,

Denak bueltatu ziren eremura.

the very real, very negative effects of radiation

Erradiazioaren eragin benetan kaltegarriek

being trumped by the upside of a mass exodus

partida galdu zuten

of humans.

gizakien exodo masiboen aurka.

The dead zone, it turns out, is full of life.

Eremu hilari, antza, bizitza dario.

And there is a kind of heroic resilience,

Pertsona hauek erresilientzia heroikoa dute,

a kind of plain-spoken pragmatism to those

benetako pragmatismo moduko bat,

who start their day at 5 a.m.

5:00etan hasten dute eguna

pulling water from a well

putzu batetik ura ateratzen;

and end it at midnight

eta gauerdian bukatzen dute

poised to beat a bucket with a stick

makilarekin ontzi bati kolpeak ematen

and scare off wild boar that might mess with their potatoes,

patatak hondatuko dituen basurde bat uxatzeko.

their only company a bit of homemade moonshine vodka.

Haiek egindako legez kanpoko vodka dute lagun bakarra.

And there's a patina of simple defiance among them.

Eta badago haiengan desafio kutsu bat.

"They told us our legs would hurt, and they do. So what?"

"Esan ziguten hanketan mina izango genuela, eta hala da. Eta zer?"

I mean, what about their health?

Zer du-eta haien osasunak?

The benefits of hardy, physical living,

Bizitza fisiko eta gogor baten abantailak,

but an environment made toxic

eta ingurumen toxiko bat

by a complicated, little-understood enemy, radiation.

gutxi ulertutako eta zaila den etsai batek kutsatuta: erradiazioa.

It's incredibly difficult to parse.

Oso zaila da arazoa aztertzea.

Health studies from the region

Eremuan egindako osasun ikerketak

are conflicting and fraught.

ez datoz bat.

The World Health Organization

Munduko Osasun Erakundeak, azkenean,

puts the number of Chernobyl-related deaths

Txernobilgo eraginagatik,

at 4,000, eventually.

4.000 hildako zenbatu zituen.

Greenpeace and other organizations

Greenpeacek eta beste erakunde batzuek

put that number in the tens of thousands.

hamaika mila zenbatzen dituzte.

Now everybody agrees that thyroid cancers

Denok dakigu tiroideko minbizi kasuak

are sky high, and that Chernobyl evacuees

izugarrizkoak direla, eta Txernobilgo ebakuatuek

suffer the trauma of relocated peoples everywhere:

leku guztietako ebakuatuen traumak dituztela:

higher levels of anxiety, depression, alcoholism,

antsietate-maila altua, depresioa, alkoholismoa,

unemployment and, importantly,

langabezia eta, bereziki,

disrupted social networks.

gizarte-sare nahastuak.

Now, like many of you,

Zuetariko askok bezala,

I have moved maybe 20, 25 times in my life.

ni ere etxez aldatu naiz 20-25 aldiz bizitza osoan.

Home is a transient concept.

"Etxea" oso kontzeptu iragankorra da.

I have a deeper connection to my laptop

Ordenagailuarekin daukadan lotura sakonagoa da

than any bit of soil.

edozein lurrekin daukadana baino.

So it's hard for us to understand, but home

Zaila egiten zaigu ulertzea

is the entire cosmos of the rural babushka,

baina etxea da babushkaren kosmos osoa,

and connection to the land is palpable.

bere lurrarekiko lotura agerikoa da.

And perhaps because these Ukrainian women

Emakume ukrainar hauek

were schooled under the Soviets

sobietarren garaian ikasi zuten

and versed in the Russian poets,

eta olerkari errusiarrak ezagutzen zituzten.

aphorisms about these ideas

Horregatik, hain zuzen ere,

slip from their mouths all the time.

aforismo ugari erabiltzen dituzte.

"If you leave, you die."

"Alde egiten baduzu, hil egingo zara."

"Those who left are worse off now.

"Alde egin zutenak orain okerrago daude.

They are dying of sadness."

Tristurak akabatuta daude."

"Motherland is motherland. I will never leave."

"Aberria da aberria. Nik inoiz ez dut alde egingo."

What sounds like faith, soft faith,

Fede-kontua ematen du, fede biguna,

may actually be fact,

baina egia bihur daiteke.

because the surprising truth --

Ikerketak ez egon arren,

I mean, there are no studies, but the truth seems to be

ematen du egia bihurtu dela,

that these women who returned to their homes

eta etxera bueltatu diren emakume hauek,

and have lived on some of the most radioactive land

azken 27 urtean planetako lur erradiaktiboenean

on Earth for the last 27 years,

bizi izan diren emakumeak,

have actually outlived their counterparts

etxez aldatzea onartu zutenak baino

who accepted relocation,

gehiago bizi izan direla

by some estimates up to 10 years.

10 urte baino gehiago, batzuen kalkuluen arabera.

How could this be?

Nola izan daiteke?

Here's a theory: Could it be

Hona hemen teoria bat:

that those ties to ancestral soil,

Lurrarekiko lotura honek

the soft variables reflected in their aphorisms,

eta aforismoetan islatzen diren aldagaiek,

actually affect longevity?

bizitzaren iraupenean eragina izan al dezakete?

The power of motherland

Aberriak duen boterea,

so fundamental to that part of the world

munduko leku horietan hain oinarrizkoa dena,

seems palliative.

antza, aringarria da.

Home and community are forces

Etxea eta komunitatea botereak dira

that rival even radiation.

erradioaktibitateari ere aurre egiten diotenak.

Now radiation or not,

Erradioaktibitatea alde batera utzita,

these women are at the end of their lives.

emakume hauek bizitzaren amaieran daude.

In the next decade, the zone's human residents will be gone,

Hurrengo hamarkadan, bertako egoiliarrak desagertu egingo dira

and it will revert to a wild, radioactive place,

eta hura eremu basati eta erradioaktibo bihurtuko da.

full only of animals and occasionally

Animaliak eta, noizbehinka, zientzialari ausartak

daring, flummoxed scientists.

eta despistatuak besterik ez dira egongo.

But the spirit and existence of the babushkas,

Baina babushken existentziak eta izpirituak

whose numbers have been halved

zeinen kopurua erdira murriztu den

in the three years I've known them,

ni eurekin egon naizen hiru urteetan,

will leave us with powerful new templates

gogoeta eta hausnarketarako

to think about and grapple with,

eredu indartsu berriak utziko dizkigute

about the relative nature of risk,

arriskuaren izaeraren erlatibitateari buruz,

about transformative connections to home,

etxearekiko lotura eraldatzaileari buruz,

and about the magnificent tonic

eta suspergarri zoragarriak diren

of personal agency and self-determination.

autokontzientzia eta autodeterminazioari buruz.

Thank you.

Eskerrik asko.

(Applause)

(Txaloak)