ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Holly Morris - Explorer and filmmaker
Holly Morris tells the stories of women around the world through documentary, television, print and the web.

Why you should listen

Holly Morris is a director, producer, writer and storyteller whose work spans media and continents. She is the author of Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for a New Kind of Heroine (Random House) and writer/director and executuve producer of its companion PBS documentary series, "Adventure Divas". A former National Geographic Adventure columnist and widely anthologized essayist, Morris is also a regular contributor to The New York Times, among other publications. She presents the PBS televisin series "Globe Trekker," and "Treks in a Wild World," and also hosted "Outdoor Investigations" -- a series in which she investigates the scientific side of today's environmental and natural world mysteries. 

Morris has reported on the illegal caviar trade from Iran's Caspian Sea, sex trafficking from the brothels of India, and the global diaspora of Black Panthers from Cuba. Whether she's exploring underground Soviet missile silos, or the ship breaking yards of Bangladesh, Morris goes to the grassroots to tell a global story.

Her new film, The Babushkas of Chernobyl is about a surprising group of survivors living in the shadow of Chernobyl. Based on her award-winning essay of the same name (also published as "Ukraine: A Country of Women"), it won the Meredith Editorial Excellence Award, was reprinted in London's Daily Telegraph, and The Week and was selected for the book The Best Travel Writing (2012). The film, which has won numerous awards, including the Los Angeles Film Festival Jury Award for Directing, is being widely released in Spring 2016 for the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

 

More profile about the speaker
Holly Morris | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2013

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

Holly Morris: Por que ficar em Chernobyl? Porque é meu lar.

Filmed:
1,157,051 views

Chernobyl foi o local do pior acidente nuclear do mundo e, nos últimos 27 anos, a área em volta da usina ficou conhecida como Zona da Exclusão. E ainda assim, uma comunidade de cerca de 200 pessoas vive lá, quase todos mulheres idosas. Essas vovós orgulhosas desafiaram uma ordem de realocação porque sua conexão com sua terra natal e com sua comunidade são "forças que rivalizam até a radiação".
- Explorer and filmmaker
Holly Morris tells the stories of women around the world through documentary, television, print and the web. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
Three years ago, I was standing about a hundred yards
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Há três anos, eu estava a cerca de 90 metros
00:15
from Chernobyl nuclear reactor number four.
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do reator nuclear número quatro de Chernobyl.
00:19
My Geiger counter dosimeter, which measures radiation,
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Meu dosímetro contador
Geiger, que mede radiação,
00:22
was going berserk,
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estava ficando louco,
00:23
and the closer I got, the more frenetic it became,
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e quanto mais eu me aproximava,
mais frenético ele ficava,
00:27
and frantic. My God.
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e agitado. Meu Deus.
00:30
I was there covering the 25th anniversary
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Eu estava lá cobrindo o 25º aniversário
00:32
of the world's worst nuclear accident,
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do pior acidente nuclear do mundo,
00:35
as you can see by the look on my face,
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como vocês podem ver pela minha expressão,
00:37
reluctantly so, but with good reason,
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relutante, mas com bons motivos,
00:40
because the nuclear fire that burned for 11 days
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porque o fogo nuclear que queimou por 11 dias
00:44
back in 1986 released 400 times as much radiation
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em 1986 liberou 400 vezes mais radiação
00:48
as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima,
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do que a bomba de Hiroshima,
00:50
and the sarcophagus, which is the covering
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e o sarcófago que é a cobertura
00:53
over reactor number four,
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do reator número quatro,
00:54
which was hastily built 27 years ago,
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que foi construído às pressas há 27 anos,
00:57
now sits cracked and rusted
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agora está rachado e enferrujado
00:59
and leaking radiation.
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e vazando radiação.
01:01
So I was filming.
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E eu estava filmando.
01:03
I just wanted to get the job done
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Eu só queria terminar o serviço
01:04
and get out of there fast.
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e sair de lá logo.
01:07
But then, I looked into the distance,
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Mas então, eu olhei para longe,
01:09
and I saw some smoke coming from a farmhouse,
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e vi fumaça saindo de uma casa de fazenda,
01:12
and I'm thinking, who could be living here?
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e pensei, quem poderia estar vivendo lá?
01:15
I mean, after all, Chernobyl's soil, water and air,
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Quero dizer, afinal, o solo,
a água e o ar de Chernobyl,
01:18
are among the most highly contaminated on Earth,
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estão entre os mais extremamente
contaminados na Terra,
01:21
and the reactor sits at the the center of
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e o reator está no centro de
01:23
a tightly regulated exclusion zone, or dead zone,
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uma zona de exclusão regulada
rigorosamente, ou zona morta,
01:26
and it's a nuclear police state, complete with border guards.
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e é um estado policial nuclear,
completo com guardas de fronteira.
01:30
You have to have dosimeter at all times, clicking away,
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É preciso ter dosímetros o tempo todo, apitando,
01:32
you have to have a government minder,
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é preciso um inspetor governamental,
01:34
and there's draconian radiation rules
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e há regras draconianas de radiação
01:37
and constant contamination monitoring.
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e monitoramento constante de radiação.
01:41
The point being, no human being
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Com isso, nenhum ser humano
01:44
should be living anywhere near the dead zone.
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deveria estar morando em qualquer
lugar próxima à zona morta.
01:46
But they are.
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Mas eles estão.
01:48
It turns out an unlikely community
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Parece que uma comunidade improvável
01:51
of some 200 people are living inside the zone.
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de cerca de 200 pessoas
está vivendo dentro da zona.
01:54
They're called self-settlers.
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São chamados de autocolonos,
01:56
And almost all of them are women,
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e quase todos eles são mulheres.
01:59
the men having shorter lifespans
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Os homens têm menor expectativa de vida,
02:00
in part due to overuse of alcohol, cigarettes,
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em parte devido ao abuso de álcool, cigarros,
02:03
if not radiation.
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se não radiação.
02:05
Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated
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Centenas de milhares
de pessoas foram evacuadas
02:07
at the time of the accident,
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no momento do acidente,
02:09
but not everybody accepted that fate.
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mas nem todos aceitaram o destino.
02:11
The women in the zone, now in their 70s and 80s,
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As mulheres na zona, agora com 70 ou 80 anos,
02:14
are the last survivors of a group who defied authorities
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são os últimos sobreviventes de um grupo
que desafiou as autoridades
02:17
and, it would seem, common sense,
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e, pelo jeito, o senso comum,
02:19
and returned to their ancestral homes inside the zone.
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e retornaram para as casas
de seus ancestrais dentro da zona.
02:23
They did so illegally.
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Eles fizeram isso ilegalmente.
02:25
As one woman put it to a soldier
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Como disse uma mulher para um soldado
02:27
who was trying to evacuate her for a second time,
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que tentava evacuá-la pela segunda vez:
02:30
"Shoot me and dig the grave.
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"Atire em mim e cave a cova.
02:32
Otherwise, I'm going home."
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Senão, vou voltar para casa."
02:34
Now why would they return to such deadly soil?
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Agora, por que eles voltariam
para um solo tão mortal?
02:37
I mean, were they unaware of the risks
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Quero dizer, será que eles
não conheciam os riscos
02:39
or crazy enough to ignore them, or both?
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ou eram loucos o suficiente
para ignorá-los, ou ambos?
02:42
The thing is, they see their lives
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A questão é que eles veem suas vidas
02:43
and the risks they run decidedly differently.
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e os riscos que correm decididamente diferente.
02:47
Now around Chernobyl, there are scattered ghost villages,
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Bem, ao redor de Chernobyl,
há vilas fantasma espalhadas,
02:50
eerily silent, strangely charming, bucolic,
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assustadoramente silenciosas, estranhamente encantadoras, bucólicas,
02:54
totally contaminated.
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totalmente contaminadas.
02:56
Many were bulldozed under at the time of the accident,
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Muitas foram demolidas na época do acidente,
02:59
but a few are left like this,
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mas algumas foram deixadas assim,
03:01
kind of silent vestiges to the tragedy.
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meio que vestígios silenciosos da tragédia.
03:05
Others have a few residents in them,
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Outras têm alguns residentes,
03:07
one or two "babushkas," or "babas,"
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uma ou duas babushkas, ou babas,
03:10
which are the Russian and Ukrainian words for grandmother.
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que são as palavras russas e ucranianas para "avó".
03:13
Another village might have six or seven residents.
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Outra vila pode ter seis ou sete residentes.
03:16
So this is the strange demographic of the zone --
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E essa é a estranha demografia da zona;
03:19
isolated alone together.
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isolados, sozinhos, juntos.
03:21
And when I made my way to that piping chimney
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E quando eu estava a caminho
daquela chaminé sibilante
03:24
I'd seen in the distance,
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que eu tinha visto de longe,
03:25
I saw Hanna Zavorotnya, and I met her.
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Eu vi Hanna Zavorotnya e eu a conheci.
03:29
She's the self-declared mayor of Kapavati village,
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Ela é a prefeita autodeclarada da vila Kapavati;
03:32
population eight.
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população: oito.
03:34
(Laughter)
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(Risos)
03:36
And she said to me, when I asked her the obvious,
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E ela me disse, quando eu lhe perguntei o óbvio:
03:39
"Radiation doesn't scare me. Starvation does."
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"A radiação não me assusta. A fome sim."
03:43
And you have to remember, these women have
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E vocês têm que lembrar, essas mulheres
03:44
survived the worst atrocities of the 20th century.
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sobreviveram às piores atrocidades do século XX.
03:48
Stalin's enforced famines of the 1930s, the Holodomor,
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As fomes forçadas de Stalin
de 1930, o Holodomor,
03:52
killed millions of Ukrainians,
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mataram milhões de ucranianos,
03:54
and they faced the Nazis in the '40s,
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e elas enfrentaram os nazistas na década de 40,
03:56
who came through slashing, burning, raping,
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que chegaram cortando, queimando, estuprando,
03:59
and in fact many of these women
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e de fato muitas dessas mulheres
04:00
were shipped to Germany as forced labor.
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eram mandadas para
a Alemanha para trabalho forçado.
04:03
So when a couple decades into Soviet rule,
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Depois de algumas décadas do governo soviético,
04:06
Chernobyl happened,
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aconteceu Chernobyl.
04:07
they were unwilling to flee in the face of an enemy
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Elas não estavam dispostas
a escapar ao depararem-se com um inimigo
04:10
that was invisible.
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que era invisível.
04:12
So they returned to their villages
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Então elas retornaram às suas vilas
04:14
and are told they're going to get sick and die soon,
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e lhes dizem que elas vão
ficar doentes e morrer logo,
04:18
but five happy years, their logic goes,
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mas cinco anos feliz, segundo sua lógica,
04:20
is better than 10 stuck in a high rise
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são melhores do que 10, presos num prédio alto
04:23
on the outskirts of Kiev,
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na periferia de Kiev,
04:25
separated from the graves of their mothers
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separados dos túmulos de suas mães
04:27
and fathers and babies,
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e pais e bebês,
04:29
the whisper of stork wings on a spring afternoon.
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o sussurro das asas das cegonhas
numa tarde de primavera.
04:33
For them, environmental contamination
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Para eles, contaminação ambiental
04:35
may not be the worst sort of devastation.
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pode não ser o pior tipo de devastação.
04:38
It turns out this holds true
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Parece que isso é verdade
04:39
for other species as well.
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para outras espécies também.
04:41
Wild boar, lynx, moose, they've all returned
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Javalis, linces, alces, todos retornaram
04:44
to the region in force,
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para a região em vigor,
04:46
the very real, very negative effects of radiation
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os efeitos da radiação, muito reais e negativos,
04:49
being trumped by the upside of a mass exodus
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sendo superados pela cabeça de um êxodo
de humanos em massa.
04:53
of humans.
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04:55
The dead zone, it turns out, is full of life.
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A zona morta, como se vê, é cheia de vida.
04:59
And there is a kind of heroic resilience,
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E há um tipo de resiliência heroica,
05:02
a kind of plain-spoken pragmatism to those
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um tipo de pragmatismo falado para aqueles
05:05
who start their day at 5 a.m.
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que começam seu dia às 5 da manhã,
05:08
pulling water from a well
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pegando água num poço
05:10
and end it at midnight
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e terminam à meia noite
05:12
poised to beat a bucket with a stick
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prontos para bater com uma vara num balde
05:14
and scare off wild boar that might mess with their potatoes,
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e espantar javalis que possam
se intrometer com suas batatas.
05:17
their only company a bit of homemade moonshine vodka.
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Sua única companhia
é um pouco de vodca moonshine.
05:22
And there's a patina of simple defiance among them.
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E há uma pátina de simples
provocação entre eles.
05:25
"They told us our legs would hurt, and they do. So what?"
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"Eles nos disseram que sentiríamos
dor nas pernas e sentimos. E daí?
05:29
I mean, what about their health?
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Quero dizer, e sua saúde?
05:31
The benefits of hardy, physical living,
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Os benefícios da vida física e destemida.
05:34
but an environment made toxic
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mas um ambiente tornado tóxico
05:35
by a complicated, little-understood enemy, radiation.
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por um inimigo complicado
e pouco entendido, a radiação.
05:39
It's incredibly difficult to parse.
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É incrivelmente difícil de analisar.
05:41
Health studies from the region
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Estudos de saúde da região
05:43
are conflicting and fraught.
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são conflitantes e carregados.
05:46
The World Health Organization
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A Organização Mundial da Saúde
05:47
puts the number of Chernobyl-related deaths
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estima o número de mortes
relacionadas a Chernobyl
05:50
at 4,000, eventually.
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em 4.000, por fim.
05:52
Greenpeace and other organizations
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O Greenpeace e outras organizações
05:55
put that number in the tens of thousands.
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estimam esse número nas dezenas de milhares.
05:58
Now everybody agrees that thyroid cancers
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Mas todos concordam que os casos
de câncer de tireoide
06:01
are sky high, and that Chernobyl evacuees
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estão altíssimos, e os evacuados de Chernobyl
06:04
suffer the trauma of relocated peoples everywhere:
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sofrem os traumas de pessoas
realocadas em qualquer lugar:
06:07
higher levels of anxiety, depression, alcoholism,
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altos níveis de ansiedade, depressão e alcoolismo,
06:10
unemployment and, importantly,
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desemprego e, importante,
06:12
disrupted social networks.
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círculos sociais despedaçados.
06:15
Now, like many of you,
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Agora, como muitos de vocês,
06:18
I have moved maybe 20, 25 times in my life.
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Eu já me mudei talvez 20,
25 vezes na minha vida.
06:22
Home is a transient concept.
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Lar é um conceito transiente.
06:26
I have a deeper connection to my laptop
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Eu tenho uma conexão
mais profunda com meu laptop
06:28
than any bit of soil.
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do que com qualquer pedaço de terra.
06:32
So it's hard for us to understand, but home
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Então para nós é difícil entender, mas lar
06:35
is the entire cosmos of the rural babushka,
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é todo o cosmo da babushka rural,
06:38
and connection to the land is palpable.
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e a conexão com a terra é palpável.
06:41
And perhaps because these Ukrainian women
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E talvez porque essas mulheres ucranianas
06:43
were schooled under the Soviets
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foram educadas sob os soviéticos
06:45
and versed in the Russian poets,
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e versadas nos poetas russos,
06:47
aphorisms about these ideas
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aforismos sobre essas ideias
06:49
slip from their mouths all the time.
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deslizam de suas bocas o tempo todo.
06:51
"If you leave, you die."
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"Se você for embora, você vai morrer."
06:54
"Those who left are worse off now.
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"Aqueles que foram embora estão piores agora.
06:56
They are dying of sadness."
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Estão morrendo de tristeza."
06:58
"Motherland is motherland. I will never leave."
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"Terra-mãe é terra-mãe.
Eu não vou embora nunca."
07:02
What sounds like faith, soft faith,
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Que soa como fé, fé branda,
07:05
may actually be fact,
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talvez seja fato,
07:09
because the surprising truth --
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porque a surpreendente verdade --
07:10
I mean, there are no studies, but the truth seems to be
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Quero dizer, não há estudos,
mas a verdade parece ser
07:13
that these women who returned to their homes
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que essas mulheres que voltaram para suas casas
07:15
and have lived on some of the most radioactive land
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e viveram numa das terras mais radioativas
07:17
on Earth for the last 27 years,
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da Terra nos últimos 27 anos,
07:19
have actually outlived their counterparts
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viveram, na verdade, mais que seus colegas
07:22
who accepted relocation,
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que aceitaram a realocação,
07:24
by some estimates up to 10 years.
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com algumas estimativas de até 10 anos a mais.
07:28
How could this be?
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Como pode ser?
07:30
Here's a theory: Could it be
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Aqui uma teoria: será que
07:32
that those ties to ancestral soil,
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esse vínculos com o solo ancestral,
07:35
the soft variables reflected in their aphorisms,
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as variáveis suaves refletidas em seus aforismos,
07:37
actually affect longevity?
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afetaram realmente sua longevidade?
07:40
The power of motherland
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O poder da terra-mãe
07:42
so fundamental to that part of the world
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tão fundamental àquela parte do mundo
07:45
seems palliative.
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parece paliativa.
07:46
Home and community are forces
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O lar e a comunidade são forças
07:49
that rival even radiation.
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que rivalizam até a radiação.
07:53
Now radiation or not,
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Bem, com radiação ou não,
07:56
these women are at the end of their lives.
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essas mulheres estão no final de suas vidas.
07:58
In the next decade, the zone's human residents will be gone,
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Na próxima década, os residentes
humanos da zona terão morrido,
08:02
and it will revert to a wild, radioactive place,
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4227
e ela vai voltar a ser
um lugar selvagem, e radioativo,
08:07
full only of animals and occasionally
179
475024
3114
somente cheio de animais e eventualmente
08:10
daring, flummoxed scientists.
180
478138
3092
cientistas ousados e desconcertados.
08:13
But the spirit and existence of the babushkas,
181
481230
3102
Mas o espírito e a existências das babushkas,
08:16
whose numbers have been halved
182
484332
1707
cuja quantidade diminuiu pela metade
08:18
in the three years I've known them,
183
486039
2142
nos três anos desde que as conheci,
08:20
will leave us with powerful new templates
184
488181
2198
nos deixarão modelos poderosos
08:22
to think about and grapple with,
185
490379
2016
sobre o que pensar o com o que lutar,
08:24
about the relative nature of risk,
186
492395
3663
sobre a natureza relativa do risco,
08:28
about transformative connections to home,
187
496058
3847
sobre conexões transformativas com o lar,
08:31
and about the magnificent tonic
188
499905
3546
e o magnífico estimulante
08:35
of personal agency and self-determination.
189
503451
3853
da atitude pessoal e da autodeterminação.
08:39
Thank you.
190
507304
1935
Obrigada.
08:41
(Applause)
191
509239
4000
(Aplausos)
Translated by Gustavo Rocha
Reviewed by Leonardo Silva

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Holly Morris - Explorer and filmmaker
Holly Morris tells the stories of women around the world through documentary, television, print and the web.

Why you should listen

Holly Morris is a director, producer, writer and storyteller whose work spans media and continents. She is the author of Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for a New Kind of Heroine (Random House) and writer/director and executuve producer of its companion PBS documentary series, "Adventure Divas". A former National Geographic Adventure columnist and widely anthologized essayist, Morris is also a regular contributor to The New York Times, among other publications. She presents the PBS televisin series "Globe Trekker," and "Treks in a Wild World," and also hosted "Outdoor Investigations" -- a series in which she investigates the scientific side of today's environmental and natural world mysteries. 

Morris has reported on the illegal caviar trade from Iran's Caspian Sea, sex trafficking from the brothels of India, and the global diaspora of Black Panthers from Cuba. Whether she's exploring underground Soviet missile silos, or the ship breaking yards of Bangladesh, Morris goes to the grassroots to tell a global story.

Her new film, The Babushkas of Chernobyl is about a surprising group of survivors living in the shadow of Chernobyl. Based on her award-winning essay of the same name (also published as "Ukraine: A Country of Women"), it won the Meredith Editorial Excellence Award, was reprinted in London's Daily Telegraph, and The Week and was selected for the book The Best Travel Writing (2012). The film, which has won numerous awards, including the Los Angeles Film Festival Jury Award for Directing, is being widely released in Spring 2016 for the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

 

More profile about the speaker
Holly Morris | Speaker | TED.com

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