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

譯者: Marssi Draw 審譯者: Geoff Chen

Three years ago, I was standing about a hundred yards

三年前，我站在距離

from Chernobyl nuclear reactor number four.

車諾比第四號核子反應爐大約一百碼外。

My Geiger counter dosimeter, which measures radiation,

我的蓋革放射量測定器，用來測量輻射量，

was going berserk,

指數狂飆，

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

當我越接近，機器的反應越激烈，

and frantic. My God.

我的天。

I was there covering the 25th anniversary

我當時在那裡播報

of the world's worst nuclear accident,

世上最嚴重的核災事故 25 週年報導，

as you can see by the look on my face,

你可以看到我臉上的表情，

reluctantly so, but with good reason,

不太情願，但是我有個好理由，

because the nuclear fire that burned for 11 days

因為 1986 年時核火災延燒了 11 天，

back in 1986 released 400 times as much radiation

釋放的輻射量大約是

投擲在廣島的原子彈的 400 倍，

as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,

and the sarcophagus, which is the covering

而用來覆蓋

over reactor number four,

第四號反應爐的「石棺」

which was hastily built 27 years ago,

在 27 年前匆促完成，

now sits cracked and rusted

現在已破裂、生鏽，

and leaking radiation.

並且釋出輻射。

So I was filming.

當時我在拍攝，

I just wanted to get the job done

只想把工作完成，

and get out of there fast.

趕快離開現場。

But then, I looked into the distance,

在那當下，我望向遠方，

and I saw some smoke coming from a farmhouse,

看到農舍上冉冉昇起的炊煙。

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

我想，誰會住在這裡？

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

我的意思是畢竟車諾比的泥土、水和空氣

are among the most highly contaminated on Earth,

是世界上受到最嚴重污染的地方之一，

and the reactor sits at the the center of

而反應爐座落在

a tightly regulated exclusion zone, or dead zone,

嚴密管制禁區的中央，或者說是死亡禁區，

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

那是一個核能警察國家，有邊防警察。

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

你得時時刻刻帶著放射量測定器，

you have to have a government minder,

你得要有政府官員陪同，

and there's draconian radiation rules

而且還有很嚴格的輻射法規，

and constant contamination monitoring.

以及不間斷的污染監測。

The point being, no human being

重點是，沒有人

should be living anywhere near the dead zone.

可以住在靠近死亡禁區的任何一個角落。

But they are.

但是他們卻住在那裡。

It turns out an unlikely community

結果是一群不太像社區的

of some 200 people are living inside the zone.

200 人住在裡面，

They're called self-settlers.

他們被稱為自主移居者。

And almost all of them are women,

他們幾乎全都是女性，

the men having shorter lifespans

男性的壽命較短

in part due to overuse of alcohol, cigarettes,

有一部分是因為他們飲酒過量、抽煙，

if not radiation.

如果排除輻射因素的話。

Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated

在意外發生時

at the time of the accident,

有成千上萬人被撤離，

but not everybody accepted that fate.

但不是每個人都接受這樣的命運安排。

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

住在禁區的女性現在大概 7、80 歲，

are the last survivors of a group who defied authorities

是最後一批違反公權力的倖存者，

and, it would seem, common sense,

對他們來說這就像常識，

and returned to their ancestral homes inside the zone.

回到他們在禁區裡的故鄉。

They did so illegally.

這麼做其實是違法的。

As one woman put it to a soldier

其中一名女性

who was trying to evacuate her for a second time,

向第二次要驅離她的士兵表明：

"Shoot me and dig the grave.

「一槍斃了我，然後幫我挖個墳。

Otherwise, I'm going home."

否則我要回家了。」

Now why would they return to such deadly soil?

那麼為什麼他們要 回到如此致命的土地上呢？

I mean, were they unaware of the risks

我的意思是，他們有意識到這些風險嗎？

or crazy enough to ignore them, or both?

或是他們瘋狂到可以忽略這個事實？ 還是說兩者都是？

The thing is, they see their lives

重點是，他們肯定用很不同的方式

and the risks they run decidedly differently.

看待自己的生命和要冒的險。

Now around Chernobyl, there are scattered ghost villages,

如今車諾比附近到處是毫無人煙的村莊，

eerily silent, strangely charming, bucolic,

靜得嚇人，詭譎迷人的氣息，一片荒蕪，

totally contaminated.

完全受到污染。

Many were bulldozed under at the time of the accident,

在那次的意外中有許多房屋被剷平，

but a few are left like this,

但是有一些遺留下來，就像這樣，

kind of silent vestiges to the tragedy.

有點像是災難過後的死寂遺跡。

Others have a few residents in them,

有一些居民住在這樣的房屋裡，

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

一到兩位「巴布希卡」(babushka) 或「巴巴」(baba)，

which are the Russian and Ukrainian words for grandmother.

在俄語和烏克蘭語中指的是祖母。

Another village might have six or seven residents.

另一個村莊也許有六到七個居民，

So this is the strange demographic of the zone --

因此成了這個地區中特異的人口分布：

isolated alone together.

孤零零的獨居與聚集。

And when I made my way to that piping chimney

當我往前走向在遠處看見那個

I'd seen in the distance,

冒著煙的煙囪，

I saw Hanna Zavorotnya, and I met her.

我看到漢娜．沃洛纽克，向前和她接觸。

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

她是卡拉瓦帝村莊的自立村長，

population eight.

管轄八個人。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

在我提出顯而易見的問題時，她告訴我：

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

「輻射嚇不了我，餓肚子才會。」

And you have to remember, these women have

你得要記得，這些女性

survived the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

從 20 世紀最惡劣的環境中活過來了。

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

史達林在 1930 年代引起的烏克蘭大飢荒，

killed millions of Ukrainians,

造成上百萬名烏克蘭人死亡；

and they faced the Nazis in the '40s,

而且他們在 1940 年代歷經納粹人

who came through slashing, burning, raping,

虐待、焚燒、性侵的暴行，

and in fact many of these women

而且事實上，其中有許多女性

were shipped to Germany as forced labor.

被運到德國做苦力。

So when a couple decades into Soviet rule,

因此在蘇維埃政權生活數十年後

Chernobyl happened,

發生了車諾比事件，

they were unwilling to flee in the face of an enemy

他們不願意因為這個

that was invisible.

看不見的敵人而離開。

So they returned to their villages

因此他們回到自己的村莊，

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

被告知會在短期內生病、死亡，

but five happy years, their logic goes,

但是過了五年快樂的日子， 他們理所當然認為

is better than 10 stuck in a high rise

這總好過十年被困在

on the outskirts of Kiev,

基輔郊區的高樓裡，

separated from the graves of their mothers

這總好過被迫離開他們父母

and fathers and babies,

和孩子的墳墓，

the whisper of stork wings on a spring afternoon.

還有鸛鳥在春天午後翱翔時的吟唱聲。

For them, environmental contamination

對他們來說，環境的污染

may not be the worst sort of devastation.

也許不是最悲慘的蹂躪。

It turns out this holds true

結果對其它物種來說

for other species as well.

也同樣如此。

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

大批的野豬、山貓、麋鹿都回到

to the region in force,

這個地區，

the very real, very negative effects of radiation

輻射造成的真實又消極影響

being trumped by the upside of a mass exodus

已被一大群移出者

of humans.

戰勝了。

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

死亡禁區反而變得欣欣向榮，

And there is a kind of heroic resilience,

有一種如英雄般的韌性，

a kind of plain-spoken pragmatism to those

一種坦率的務實存在之中，

who start their day at 5 a.m.

他們在早上五點展開新的一天，

pulling water from a well

從井中打水；

and end it at midnight

結束一天的生活後，在夜裡

poised to beat a bucket with a stick

準備劈好一桶木柴、

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

嚇跑那些會踐踏馬鈴薯田的野豬，

their only company a bit of homemade moonshine vodka.

唯一陪伴他們的是私釀伏特加。

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

在他們身上有些許挑釁的神情，

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

「他們說我的腳會受傷， 還真的受傷了，但是那又如何？」

I mean, what about their health?

然而，他們的身體健康嗎？

The benefits of hardy, physical living,

擁有身強體壯和物質生活的好處，

but an environment made toxic

但是身在有毒的環境，

by a complicated, little-understood enemy, radiation.

面對一個複雜、所知甚少的敵人：輻射。

It's incredibly difficult to parse.

這個問題實在很難釐清。

Health studies from the region

針對那個地區做的健康研究

are conflicting and fraught.

都很矛盾又漏洞百出。

The World Health Organization

世界衛生組織

puts the number of Chernobyl-related deaths

估計與車諾比事件相關的

at 4,000, eventually.

死亡人數有 4,000 人。

Greenpeace and other organizations

綠色和平和其它組織

put that number in the tens of thousands.

估計有上萬人。

Now everybody agrees that thyroid cancers

現在每個人都同意 甲狀腺癌的罹患率奇高，

are sky high, and that Chernobyl evacuees

在車諾比事件中的撤離者

suffer the trauma of relocated peoples everywhere:

飽受重新安置的創傷之苦：

higher levels of anxiety, depression, alcoholism,

更嚴重的焦慮、沮喪、酗酒、

unemployment and, importantly,

失業，還有更重要的是

disrupted social networks.

社交圈瓦解。

Now, like many of you,

現在，就像在座的你們一樣，

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

我這輩子大概搬了 20、25 次家，

Home is a transient concept.

家是一種短暫的概念。

I have a deeper connection to my laptop

相較於任何一片土地，

than any bit of soil.

我和我的筆電有更深刻的連結。

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

這對我們來說很難理解，但是家的概念

is the entire cosmos of the rural babushka,

就是這群村婦的全世界，

and connection to the land is palpable.

與土地的連結是顯而易見的。

And perhaps because these Ukrainian women

也許是因為這些烏克蘭婦女

were schooled under the Soviets

在蘇維埃政權下接受教育，

and versed in the Russian poets,

熟讀俄國詩歌

aphorisms about these ideas

和格言，與這些相關的觀念

slip from their mouths all the time.

隨時都能輕易地從她們口中頌出。

"If you leave, you die."

「如果你離開，就會逝去。」

"Those who left are worse off now.

「那些離開的人處境每況愈下，

They are dying of sadness."

他們都悲傷地死去。」

"Motherland is motherland. I will never leave."

「家鄉就是家鄉，我永遠都不會離開。」

What sounds like faith, soft faith,

那些聽起來像是信念，溫柔的信念，

may actually be fact,

也許才是事實，

because the surprising truth --

因為那些出乎意料之外的真相——

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

畢竟沒有任何研究證明，只是真相似乎是

that these women who returned to their homes

那些回到家鄉的婦女

and have lived on some of the most radioactive land

至今生活在這片全世界

on Earth for the last 27 years,

最高放射污染的土地上已長達 27 年，

have actually outlived their counterparts

相較於與她們有同樣處境，

who accepted relocation,

但是接受安置的人們，

by some estimates up to 10 years.

她們的壽命預估多於十年。

How could this be?

這怎麼可能？

Here's a theory: Could it be

有一個理論是：有沒有可能

that those ties to ancestral soil,

那些與祖先土地的連結，

the soft variables reflected in their aphorisms,

那些在他們的格言中展現的可變因子，

actually affect longevity?

其實也影響了壽命？

The power of motherland

家鄉的力量

so fundamental to that part of the world

對那部分的世界來說如此重要，

seems palliative.

似乎能夠帶來療癒。

Home and community are forces

家與社群是一種力量，

that rival even radiation.

即使連輻射都能抵抗。

Now radiation or not,

不管有沒有輻射，

these women are at the end of their lives.

這些婦女都走到了她們的生命盡頭。

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

未來十年，禁區的居民都會過世，

and it will revert to a wild, radioactive place,

這片土地會恢復為荒野，有輻射的地方，

full only of animals and occasionally

只有滿滿的動物和偶爾出現

daring, flummoxed scientists.

膽大又困惑的科學家。

But the spirit and existence of the babushkas,

但是這些老奶奶的精神與生活方式

whose numbers have been halved

──儘管在我認識她們的三年中

in the three years I've known them,

人數已減少了一半──

will leave us with powerful new templates

將留給我們強而有力的新模式，

to think about and grapple with,

讓我們得以省思 風險的相對涵義，

about the relative nature of risk,

讓我們得以攫取 一種變遷中的

about transformative connections to home,

家的聯繫，

and about the magnificent tonic

也讓我們得以反思，並且獲得

of personal agency and self-determination.

那滋養個人決心的動力。

Thank you.

謝謝！

(Applause)

（掌聲）