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

Prevodilac: Jelena Jevtić Lektor: Ivana Korom

Three years ago, I was standing about a hundred yards

Pre tri godine, stajala sam oko devedeset metara

from Chernobyl nuclear reactor number four.

od černobiljskog nuklearnog reaktora broj četiri.

My Geiger counter dosimeter, which measures radiation,

Gajgerov brojač, za merenje radijacije

was going berserk,

je potpuno poludeo,

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

i što sam se više približavala,

and frantic. My God.

kao da je pomahnitao. Moj bože.

I was there covering the 25th anniversary

Bila sam tamo zbog 25. godišnjice

of the world's worst nuclear accident,

najgore nuklearne katastrofe,

as you can see by the look on my face,

i kao što možete videti po izrazu mog lica,

reluctantly so, but with good reason,

ne baš voljno, ali sa dobrim razlogom,

because the nuclear fire that burned for 11 days

jer eksplozija koja je trajala 11 dana

back in 1986 released 400 times as much radiation

te 1986. ispustila je 400 puta više radijacije

as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,

nego bomba koja je bačena na Hirošimu,

and the sarcophagus, which is the covering

i sarkofag, koji pokriva

over reactor number four,

reaktor broj četiri,

which was hastily built 27 years ago,

koji je na brzinu napravljen pre 27 godina,

now sits cracked and rusted

sada je u pukotinama i rđi

and leaking radiation.

i propušta radijaciju.

So I was filming.

I tako sam ja sve to snimala.

I just wanted to get the job done

Samo sam želela da završim svoj posao

and get out of there fast.

i da pobegnem odatle što pre.

But then, I looked into the distance,

Ali, pogledala sam u daljinu,

and I saw some smoke coming from a farmhouse,

i videla dim koji izlazi iz jedne kućice,

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

i pomislila sam, da li je moguće da neko tamo živi?

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

Jer černobiljska zemlja, voda i vazduh

are among the most highly contaminated on Earth,

su među najzagađenijim na Zemlji,

and the reactor sits at the the center of

a i sam reaktor je smešten u centru

a tightly regulated exclusion zone, or dead zone,

strogo kontrolisane zone isključivosti ili mrtve zone;

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

i tu je nuklerna policija, zajedno sa graničnom stražom.

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

Sa sobom morate da imate dozimetar sve vreme, tik uz vas,

you have to have a government minder,

morate imati pratioca kojeg vam dodeljuje vlada,

and there's draconian radiation rules

i tu su isto tako drakonska pravila koja se tiču radijacije

and constant contamination monitoring.

i stalan monitoring zagađenja.

The point being, no human being

Poenta je da nijedno ljudsko biće

should be living anywhere near the dead zone.

ne treba da živi u blizini mrtve zone.

But they are.

Ali oni žive.

It turns out an unlikely community

Ispostavilo se da neobična zajednica

of some 200 people are living inside the zone.

od nekih 200 ljudi živi unutar zone.

They're called self-settlers.

Nazvani su samo-naseljenicima.

And almost all of them are women,

I gotovo sve su žene,

the men having shorter lifespans

muškarci imaju kraći životni vek

in part due to overuse of alcohol, cigarettes,

delom i zbog korišćenja alkohola, cigareta,

if not radiation.

ako ne zbog radijacije.

Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated

Stotine hiljada ljudi je evakuisano

at the time of the accident,

u vreme nesreće,

but not everybody accepted that fate.

ali nisu svi prihvatili tu sudbinu.

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

Žene u zoni, sada u svojim 70-im i 80-im,

are the last survivors of a group who defied authorities

su poslednje preživele iz grupe koja je prkosila vlastima,

and, it would seem, common sense,

a kako izgleda, i zdravom razumu,

and returned to their ancestral homes inside the zone.

i koja se vratila u svoje porodične domove unutar zone.

They did so illegally.

To su uradile ilegalno.

As one woman put it to a soldier

Kako je jedna žena sročila,

who was trying to evacuate her for a second time,

vojniku koji je pokušao da je evakuiše po drugi put:

"Shoot me and dig the grave.

"Upucaj me i iskopaj grob.

Otherwise, I'm going home."

Inače, ja idem kući."

Now why would they return to such deadly soil?

I zašto bi se one uopšte vratile na takvu smrtonosnu zemlju?

I mean, were they unaware of the risks

Mislim, zar su bile nesvesne rizika

or crazy enough to ignore them, or both?

ili dovoljno lude, pa su ih ignorisale ili i jedno i drugo?

The thing is, they see their lives

Stvar je u tome, što one vide svoje živote

and the risks they run decidedly differently.

i rizik pod kojim su, potpuno drugačije.

Now around Chernobyl, there are scattered ghost villages,

U okolini Černobilja, rasejana su napuštena sela,

eerily silent, strangely charming, bucolic,

sablasno tiha, čudno šarmantna, rustična,

totally contaminated.

potpuno kontaminirana.

Many were bulldozed under at the time of the accident,

Većina je srušena posle nesreće,

but a few are left like this,

ali neka su ostavljena ovako,

kind of silent vestiges to the tragedy.

kao tihi tragovi nesreće.

Others have a few residents in them,

Druga imaju nekoliko stanovnika,

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

jedna ili dve babuške ili babe,

which are the Russian and Ukrainian words for grandmother.

to su ruske i ukrajinske reči za baku.

Another village might have six or seven residents.

Druga sela možda imaju šest ili sedam stanovnika.

So this is the strange demographic of the zone --

Tako da je ovo neobična demografija zone,

isolated alone together.

izolovani i potpuno sami, ali zajedno.

And when I made my way to that piping chimney

I kada sam pronašla put do tog dimnjaka

I'd seen in the distance,

koji sam videla u daljini,

I saw Hanna Zavorotnya, and I met her.

ugledala sam Hanu Zavorotnaju i upoznala sam se sa njom.

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

Ona je sebe proglasila gradonačelnicom sela Kapavati,

population eight.

broj stanovnika - osam.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

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

I odgovorila mi je, kada sam je pitala očekivano,

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

"Radijacija me ne plaši. Glad me plaši."

And you have to remember, these women have

Zapamtite, ove žene

survived the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

su preživele najgora zverstva 20. veka.

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

Staljinova prisilna gladovanja '30-ih, Holodomor,

killed millions of Ukrainians,

ubila su milione Ukrajinaca,

and they faced the Nazis in the '40s,

a suočile su se i sa Nacistima '40-ih,

who came through slashing, burning, raping,

gde su prošle kroz nasilje, spaljivanje, silovanja,

and in fact many of these women

i u stvari većina ovih žena

were shipped to Germany as forced labor.

je bila isporučena Nemačkoj na prinudni rad.

So when a couple decades into Soviet rule,

Tako da, kada se posle nekoliko decenija sovjetske vlasti

Chernobyl happened,

dogodio Černobilj,

they were unwilling to flee in the face of an enemy

one nisu želele da pobegnu pred licem neprijatelja

that was invisible.

koji je bio nevidljiv.

So they returned to their villages

Tako da su se vratile u svoja sela

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

iako im je rečeno da će se razboleti i umreti uskoro,

but five happy years, their logic goes,

ali pet srećnih godina, po njihovoj logici je

is better than 10 stuck in a high rise

bolje nego 10 provedenih

on the outskirts of Kiev,

negde na periferiji Kijeva,

separated from the graves of their mothers

daleko od grobova svojih majki

and fathers and babies,

i očeva i beba,

the whisper of stork wings on a spring afternoon.

šaptaja krila roda u prolećno popodne.

For them, environmental contamination

Za njih, zagađenost životne sredine

may not be the worst sort of devastation.

nije najgora vrsta uništavanja.

It turns out this holds true

Ispostavilo se da ovo važi

for other species as well.

i za druge vrste.

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

Divlji vepar, ris, los, vratili su se

to the region in force,

u oblast koja je pod uticajem

the very real, very negative effects of radiation

veoma stvarnih i negativnih posledica radijacije,

being trumped by the upside of a mass exodus

ali manje negativnih zbog masovnog egzodusa

of humans.

ljudi.

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

Mrtva zona je, ispostavilo se, prepuna života.

And there is a kind of heroic resilience,

I postoji neka vrsta herojske otpornosti,

a kind of plain-spoken pragmatism to those

i vrsta jednostavnog pragmatizma kod onih

who start their day at 5 a.m.

koji svoje dane počinju u 5 ujutru,

pulling water from a well

vadeći vodu iz bunara,

and end it at midnight

a završavaju u ponoć

poised to beat a bucket with a stick

neustrašivo udarajući štapovima o kofu

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

da bi oterali divlje veprove koji se možda muvaju oko njihovog krompira,

their only company a bit of homemade moonshine vodka.

njihovo jedino društvo je malo domaće vodke.

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

I još uvek postoji malo bledog prkosa među njima.

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

"Rekli su da će nas boleti noge, i bole nas. Pa šta?"

I mean, what about their health?

I šta je, u stvari, sa njihovim zdravljem?

The benefits of hardy, physical living,

Prednosti teškog, fizičkog rada,

but an environment made toxic

ali u toksičnom okruženju koje je takvo

by a complicated, little-understood enemy, radiation.

zbog komplikovanog, malo razumljivog neprijatelja, radijacije.

It's incredibly difficult to parse.

Neverovatno je teško razlučiti.

Health studies from the region

Regionalne zdravstvene studije

are conflicting and fraught.

su konfliktne i zabrinjavajuće.

The World Health Organization

Svetska zdravstvena organizacija

puts the number of Chernobyl-related deaths

procenuje da smrtni ishodi koji su u vezi sa Černobiljem

at 4,000, eventually.

dolaze i do 4000.

Greenpeace and other organizations

Grinpis i druge organizacije

put that number in the tens of thousands.

smatraju da se brojke penju i na desetine hiljada.

Now everybody agrees that thyroid cancers

Svi se slažu da je rak tiroidne žlezde

are sky high, and that Chernobyl evacuees

neverovatno visok i da evakuisani iz Černobilja

suffer the trauma of relocated peoples everywhere:

pate od traume izazvane selidbom;

higher levels of anxiety, depression, alcoholism,

višeg nivoa anksioznosti, depresije, alkoholizma,

unemployment and, importantly,

nezaposlenosti i, još bitnije,

disrupted social networks.

poremećenih društvenih odnosa.

Now, like many of you,

Kao i većina vas,

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

ja sam se selila možda 20, 25 puta u životu.

Home is a transient concept.

Dom meni predstavlja nešto privremeno.

I have a deeper connection to my laptop

Imam dublju vezu sa svojim laptopom

than any bit of soil.

nego sa nekim parčetom zemlje.

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

Tako da je nama teško da to razumemo, ali dom

is the entire cosmos of the rural babushka,

je ceo kosmos seoskim babuškama,

and connection to the land is palpable.

i veza koju imaju sa svojom zemljom se da osetiti.

And perhaps because these Ukrainian women

I možda, jer su ove Ukrajinke

were schooled under the Soviets

školovane pod Sovjetima

and versed in the Russian poets,

i uz stihove ruskih pesnika,

aphorisms about these ideas

aforizmi tih načela

slip from their mouths all the time.

stalno su na njihovim usnama.

"If you leave, you die."

"Ako odeš, umrećeš."

"Those who left are worse off now.

"Oni koji su otišli sada prolaze mnogo gore.

They are dying of sadness."

Oni umiru od tuge."

"Motherland is motherland. I will never leave."

"Domovina je domovina. Nikada neću otići."

What sounds like faith, soft faith,

To što to zvuči kao neubedljiva vera,

may actually be fact,

može, u stvari biti činjenica,

because the surprising truth --

jer iznenađujuća istina je da -

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

mislim, nema studija o tome, ali istina leži u tome

that these women who returned to their homes

da te žene koje su se vratile u svoje domove

and have lived on some of the most radioactive land

i žive na možda najradioaktivnijoj zemlji

on Earth for the last 27 years,

na svetu u poslednjih 27 godina,

have actually outlived their counterparts

su u stvari, nadživele svoje sunarodnike

who accepted relocation,

koji su prihvatili iseljenje,

by some estimates up to 10 years.

po nekim proračunima i do 10 godina.

How could this be?

Kako je ovo moguće?

Here's a theory: Could it be

Evo teorije: da li je moguće da

that those ties to ancestral soil,

te spone sa zemljom predaka,

the soft variables reflected in their aphorisms,

ta ubeđenja koja se prenose aforizmima,

actually affect longevity?

u stvari prouzrukuju dugovečnost?

The power of motherland

Moć domovine

so fundamental to that part of the world

tako bitna u tom delu sveta

seems palliative.

izgleda da je umirujuća.

Home and community are forces

Dom i zajednica su sile

that rival even radiation.

koje se suprostavljaju čak i radijaciji.

Now radiation or not,

Bilo da radijacija postoji ili ne,

these women are at the end of their lives.

te žene su na samom kraju života.

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

U sledećoj deceniji, stanovnici ove zone će nestati,

and it will revert to a wild, radioactive place,

i ponovo će postati napušteno, radioaktivno mesto,

full only of animals and occasionally

ispunjeno samo životinjama i povremeno

daring, flummoxed scientists.

smelim, malo zbunjenim naučnicima.

But the spirit and existence of the babushkas,

Ali duh i opstajanje babuški,

whose numbers have been halved

čiji se broj prepolovio

in the three years I've known them,

za ove tri godine koliko ih poznajem,

will leave us with powerful new templates

ostavlja nas sa nekim novim spoznajama

to think about and grapple with,

o kojima ćemo razmišljati i sa kojima ćemo se boriti,

about the relative nature of risk,

o relativnoj prirodi rizika,

about transformative connections to home,

o transformišućim vezama sa našim domom,

and about the magnificent tonic

o veličanstvenom okrepljenju

of personal agency and self-determination.

koje nam pruža lični stav i odlučnost.

Thank you.

Hvala vam.

(Applause)

(Aplauz)