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Robin Nagle: What I discovered in New York City trash
Robin Nagle: Cfare zbulova ne plehrat e qytetit te New Yorkut
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Banoret e New Yorkut prodhojne 11.000 ton mbeturina çdo ditë. Çdo dite! Kjo statistikë mahnitese është një nga arsyet pse Robin Nagle nisi nje projekt kerkimi me Departamentin e Higjenës së qytetit. Ajo eci nëpër rruge, përdori fshesat mekanike, madje drejtoi dhe nje kamion plehrash vete--te gjitha këto për të pasur mundesi t'i pergjigjej nje pyetje qe duket e thjesht por shumë e komplikuar: Kush kujdeset për pastrimin e ambientit tonë?
Robin Nagle - Trash anthropologist
Robin Nagle is an anthropologist with a very particular focus... garbage. Full bio
Robin Nagle is an anthropologist with a very particular focus... garbage. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
I was about 10 years old
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Isha rreth 10 vjeç
00:14
on a camping trip with my dad
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në një udhëtim kampingu me babain tim
00:16
in the Adirondack Mountains, a wilderness area
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në malet Adirondack, një vend i shkret
00:19
in the northern part of New York State.
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në pjesën veriore të shtetit të New Yorkut.
00:22
It was a beautiful day.
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Ishte një ditë shumë e bukur.
00:23
The forest was sparkling.
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Pylli shkëlqente.
00:25
The sun made the leaves glow like stained glass,
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Dielli i bënte gjethet të ndriçonin si xham i veshur,
00:28
and if it weren't for the path we were following,
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dhe nëse nuk do ishim duke ndjekur shtegun
00:32
we could almost pretend we were
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mund të pretendonim se ne ishim
00:33
the first human beings to ever walk that land.
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njerëzit e parë që po ecnin në atë tokë.
00:37
We got to our campsite.
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Arritem në vendin e kampit.
00:38
It was a lean-to on a bluff
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Ishte një vend i pjerrët
00:40
looking over a crystal, beautiful lake,
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me pamje të një liqeni të kristaltë e të bukur,
00:43
when I discovered a horror.
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kur zbulova diçka të neveritëshme.
00:46
Behind the lean-to was a dump,
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Mbapa kasolles ndodhej nje pirg
00:49
maybe 40 feet square
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mbase 4 metra katror
00:50
with rotting apple cores
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me mollë të ngrëna të kalbura
00:53
and balled-up aluminum foil,
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dhe shuka letre alumini,
00:54
and a dead sneaker.
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dhe një këpucë atletike të çarë.
00:56
And I was astonished,
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U befasova,
00:59
I was very angry, and I was deeply confused.
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isha shumë e inatosur dhe shume e hutuar njekohesisht.
01:02
The campers who were too lazy
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Kampistët ishin shumë dembelë
01:04
to take out what they had brought in,
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që të mblidhnin ato çka kishin sjellë me vete,
01:06
who did they think would clean up after them?
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kush mendonin se do i pastronte ato pas atyre?
01:09
That question stayed with me,
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Ajo pyetje qëndroi me mua
01:11
and it simplified a little.
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dhe u thjeshtësua disi.
01:13
Who cleans up after us?
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Kush pastron pas nesh?
01:16
However you configure
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Si do që ta mendoni
01:17
or wherever you place the us,
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ose kudo që ta vendosni "ne",
01:19
who cleans up after us in Istanbul?
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kush pastron pas nesh në Stamboll?
01:21
Who cleans up after us in Rio
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Kush pastron pas nesh ne Rio de Zhanerio
01:24
or in Paris or in London?
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ose në Paris apo Londër?
01:26
Here in New York,
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Këtu në Nju Jork,
01:28
the Department of Sanitation cleans up after us,
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departamenti i higjënes pastron pas nesh,
01:30
to the tune of 11,000 tons of garbage
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një sasi prej 11.000 ton mbeturinash
01:33
and 2,000 tons of recyclables every day.
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dhe 2.000 ton mbeturina riciklueshme në ditë.
01:37
I wanted to get to know them as individuals.
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Doja ti njiha ata si individe.
01:40
I wanted to understand who takes the job.
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Doja të kuptoja kush e bën këtë punë.
01:43
What's it like to wear the uniform
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Çdo të thotë të veshësh atë uniformë
01:45
and bear that burden?
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dhe të mbartësh atë barrë?
01:47
So I started a research project with them.
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Kështu fillova një projekt kërkimi me ata.
01:50
I rode in the trucks and walked the routes
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Vajta te kamionet dhe eca nëpër rrugë
01:52
and interviewed people in offices and facilities
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duke intervistuar njerëz nëpër zyra dhe objekte
01:55
all over the city,
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nëpër gjithë qytetin,
01:56
and I learned a lot,
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dhe mësova shumë,
01:58
but I was still an outsider.
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por ende isha nje e jashtme.
02:00
I needed to go deeper.
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Me duhej te futesha më thellë.
02:02
So I took the job as a sanitation worker.
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Keshtu pranova nje punë si punonjëse higjene.
02:05
I didn't just ride in the trucks now. I drove the trucks.
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Nuk shkoja thjesht tek kamionët, tashmë i ngisja vetë kamionët.
02:08
And I operated the mechanical brooms and I plowed the snow.
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Ngisja fshesat mekanike dhe pastrueset e dëborës.
02:11
It was a remarkable privilege
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Ishte nje privilegj i mrekullueshëm
02:13
and an amazing education.
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dhe një edukim i veçante.
02:16
Everyone asks about the smell.
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Të gjithë pyesin per erërat.
02:18
It's there, but it's not as prevalent as you think,
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Era e keqe ndihet, por nuk është aq e fortë sa mendoni,
02:21
and on days when it is really bad,
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dhe në ditët që është vërtet e keqe,
02:22
you get used to it rather quickly.
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mësohesh me të, shume shpejt.
02:25
The weight takes a long time to get used to.
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Per peshën duhet më shumë kohë për tu mësuar.
02:28
I knew people who were several years on the job
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Njoh njerez te cilet ishin me vite ne ate pune
02:30
whose bodies were still adjusting to the burden
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trupat e te cileve ishin ende ne pershtatje me barren
02:33
of bearing on your body
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e mbartjes ne trupin tend
02:35
tons of trash every week.
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tonalitet e mbeturinave çdo jave.
02:38
Then there's the danger.
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Me pas eshte rreziku.
02:40
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
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Sipas zyres se statistikave te punes,
02:43
sanitation work is one of the 10 most dangerous
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puna e higjenes eshte njera nga 10 me te rrezikshmet
02:45
occupations in the country,
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profesionet ne vend,
02:47
and I learned why.
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dhe e mesova pse-ne.
02:49
You're in and out of traffic all day,
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Je gjithe diten brenda dhe jashte trafikut,
02:50
and it's zooming around you.
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cdo gje bucet rreth teje.
02:51
It just wants to get past you, so it's often
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Ajo do thjesht te kalluar nga ty, dhe ndodh shpesh
02:53
the motorist is not paying attention.
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qe motoristi mos te kete kujdes.
02:55
That's really bad for the worker.
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Kjo eshte shume e keqe per punetorin.
02:57
And then the garbage itself is full of hazards
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Edhe mbetjet jane plot me rreziqe
02:59
that often fly back out of the truck
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te cilat shpesh fluturojne jashte kamionit
03:01
and do terrible harm.
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dhe bejne nje dem shume te madh.
03:03
I also learned about the relentlessness of trash.
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Gjithashtu mesova se sa te pameshirshme jane mbetjet.
03:06
When you step off the curb
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Kur zbret nga trotuari
03:07
and you see a city from behind a truck,
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dhe e sheh qytetin nga nje kamion
03:10
you come to understand that trash
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arrin te kuptosh se mbetja
03:12
is like a force of nature unto itself.
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eshte nje force e natyres ne vetvete.
03:14
It never stops coming.
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Ajo nuk ndalon kurre se ardhuri.
03:17
It's also like a form of respiration or circulation.
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Eshte edhe si nje form frymemarrjeje ose qarkullimi.
03:20
It must always be in motion.
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Duhet gjithmone te jete ne levizje.
03:23
And then there's the stigma.
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Kemi edhe turpin.
03:25
You put on the uniform, and you become invisible
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Ti vesh uniformen dhe behesh i padukshem
03:28
until someone is upset with you for whatever reason
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deri sa dikush te nxehet me ty per cilen do aryse
03:31
like you've blocked traffic with your truck,
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si per shembull ke bllokuar trafikun me kamionin tend,
03:33
or you're taking a break too close to their home,
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ose po ben nje ndalese shume afer shtepise tyre,
03:36
or you're drinking coffee in their diner,
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ose je duke pire nje kafe ne restorantin e tyre,
03:39
and they will come and scorn you,
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dhe do vine te te perbuzin
03:41
and tell you that they don't want you anywhere near them.
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dhe te thone se nuk te duan afer tyre.
03:44
I find the stigma especially ironic,
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Mua turpi me duket disi ironik,
03:47
because I strongly believe that sanitation workers
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sepse mendoj fuqishem se puntoret e pastrimit
03:50
are the most important labor force
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jane forca me e rendesishme puntore
03:52
on the streets of the city, for three reasons.
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ne rruget e qytetit per tre arsye.
03:55
They are the first guardians of public health.
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Ata jane rojet e pare te higjenes publike.
03:58
If they're not taking away trash
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Nese ata nuk i largojne mbetjet
04:00
efficiently and effectively every day,
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ne menyre efikase dhe efektive cdo dite,
04:02
it starts to spill out of its containments,
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ato fillojne te perhapin permbajtjet e tyre,
04:05
and the dangers inherent to it threaten us
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dhe rreziku nga ato fillon te na kecenoj
04:09
in very real ways.
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ne menyra shume reale.
04:10
Diseases we've had in check for decades and centuries
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Semundje qe ne i kemi ne kontroll per dekada dhe shekuj
04:13
burst forth again and start to harm us.
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shperthejne dhe nisin te na demtojne.
04:16
The economy needs them.
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Ekonomia ka nevoje per ta.
04:17
If we can't throw out the old stuff,
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Nese nuk mundemi te flakim gjerat e vjetra
04:20
we have no room for the new stuff,
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nuk kemi vend per te rejat,
04:22
so then the engines of the economy
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dhe atehere motorrat e ekonomise
04:24
start to sputter when consumption is compromised.
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nisin te zhurmojne kur konsumi eshte i kompromentuar.
04:27
I'm not advocating capitalism, I'm just pointing out their relationship.
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Nuk po mbroj kapitalizmin, thjesht po theksoj lidhjen e tyre.
04:31
And then there's what I call
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Dhe me pas vjen ajo qe une e quaj
04:33
our average, necessary quotidian velocity.
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mesatarja jone, shpejtesia e perditshme e nevojitur.
04:37
By that I simply mean
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Me kete thjesht nenkuptoj
04:39
how fast we're used to moving
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se sa shpejt jemi mesuar te levizim
04:41
in the contemporary day and age.
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ne ditet dhe kohen bashkekohore.
04:43
We usually don't care for, repair, clean, carry around
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Ne zakonisht nuk na intereson riparimi, pastrimi, mbajtja
04:48
our coffee cup, our shopping bag,
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e kupes se kafes, e qeseve se blerjeve,
04:51
our bottle of water.
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shishen e ujit.
04:52
We use them, we throw them out, we forget about them,
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Ne i perdorim ato, i flakim, i harrojme ato
04:55
because we know there's a workforce
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sepse dime qe eshte nje force pune
04:57
on the other side that's going to take it all away.
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ne anen tjeter qe do i largoje ato.
05:00
So I want to suggest today a couple of ways
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Pra dua sot te sugjeroj disa menyra
05:02
to think about sanitation that will perhaps help
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per te menduar per pastrimin qe mbase do ndihmojne
05:07
ameliorate the stigma
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per te permiresuar tuprin
05:09
and bring them into this conversation
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dhe ti sjellim ne kete bisede
05:12
of how to craft a city that is sustainable and humane.
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se si te artizanojme nje qytet i cili eshte
i qendrueshem dhe njerezor.
i qendrueshem dhe njerezor.
05:17
Their work, I think, is kind of liturgical.
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Puna e tyre mendoj se eshte nje lloj liturgjiku.
05:21
They're on the streets every day, rhythmically.
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Ata jane ne rruge cdo dite, ritmikisht.
05:24
They wear a uniform in many cities.
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Veshin uniforma ne shume qytete.
05:26
You know when to expect them.
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Ti di kur ti presesh.
05:28
And their work lets us do our work.
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Dhe puna e tyre na lejon te bejme punen tone.
05:32
They are almost a form of reassurance.
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Jan si nje form sigurimi.
05:34
The flow that they maintain
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Rrjedha qe ata permbajne
05:36
keeps us safe from ourselves,
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na mban ne te siguruar nga ne vete,
05:38
from our own dross, our cast-offs,
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nga zgjyrat tona, nga braktisjet tona,
05:41
and that flow must be maintained always
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dhe ajo rrjedhe duhet te mirembahet gjithmone
05:44
no matter what.
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pa marre parasysh cfare.
05:46
On the day after September 11 in 2001,
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Diten pas 11 Shtatorit ne 2001,
05:49
I heard the growl of a sanitation truck on the street,
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degjova hungerimen e nje kamion patsrimi ne rruge,
05:53
and I grabbed my infant son and I ran downstairs
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kapa djalin tim foshnje dhe vrapova ne katin e poshtem
05:55
and there was a man doing his paper recycling route
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dhe aty ishte nje burre i cili bente itinerarin e riciklimit te letres
05:58
like he did every Wednesday.
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sikurse bente cdo te Merkure.
06:00
And I tried to thank him for doing his work
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U perpoqa ta falenderoja ate per punen qe bente
06:02
on that day of all days,
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ate dite nga te gjitha ditet,
06:05
but I started to cry.
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por fillova te qaja.
06:07
And he looked at me,
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Ai me veshtroi,
06:09
and he just nodded, and he said,
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dhe ai thjesht tundi koken, dhe tha,
06:12
"We're going to be okay.
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"Do jemi mire.
06:15
We're going to be okay."
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Do ja dalim mire."
06:18
It was a little while later that I started
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Ishte pak me vone qe une nisa
06:19
my research with sanitation,
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kerkimet e mia mbi pastrimin,
06:20
and I met that man again.
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dhe e takova ate burre perseri.
06:22
His name is Paulie, and we worked together many times,
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Ai quhet Paulie, dhe punuam bashke shume here,
06:25
and we became good friends.
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dhe u miq te mire.
06:27
I want to believe that Paulie was right.
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Dua te besoj se Paulie kishte te drejte.
06:29
We are going to be okay.
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Ne do jemi mire.
06:32
But in our effort to reconfigure
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Por ne perpjekjen tone per te rikonfiguruar
06:34
how we as a species exist on this planet,
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se si ne si specie ekzistojme ne kete planet,
06:37
we must include and take account of
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duhet te perfshijme dhe te marim ne konsidearate
06:40
all the costs, including the very real human cost
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te gjitha cmimet, duke perfshire cmimin shume real njerezor
06:44
of the labor.
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te punes.
06:45
And we also would be well informed
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Gjithashtu do ishim te mire informuar
06:48
to reach out to the people who do that work
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per tu afruar tek ata njerez qe e bejne ate pune
06:50
and get their expertise
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dhe te marim njohurite e tyre
06:52
on how do we think about,
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ne menyren se si mendojme,
06:54
how do we create systems around sustainability
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si krijojme sistemet mbi qendrueshmerine
06:57
that perhaps take us from curbside recycling,
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e cila mbase na merr nga riciklimi i buze trotuarit
07:01
which is a remarkable success across 40 years,
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i cili eshte nje sukses shenues keto 40 vite,
07:03
across the United States and countries around the world,
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ne Shtetet e Bashkuara dhe ne shtete te tjera te botes,
07:06
and lift us up to a broader horizon
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dhe na ngre ne nje horizont me te gjere
07:09
where we're looking at other forms of waste
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ku ne mund te shohim forma te ndryshme te mbetjeve
07:12
that could be lessened
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qe mund te pakesohen
07:14
from manufacturing and industrial sources.
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nga burime prodhimi dhe industriale.
07:16
Municipal waste, what we think of when we talk about garbage,
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Mbetje urbane, cfare mendojme kur ne flasim per plehrat,
07:20
accounts for three percent of the nation's waste stream.
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llogaritet per tre perqind te derdhjes se mbetjeve te kombit.
07:24
It's a remarkable statistic.
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Eshte nje statistike e shenueshme.
07:27
So in the flow of your days,
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Pra ne rrjedhen e dites tuaj,
07:29
in the flow of your lives,
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ne rrjedhen e jetes tuaj,
07:31
next time you see someone whose job is
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heres tjeter qe do shihni se puna kujt eshte
07:34
to clean up after you,
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te kujdeset per pastrimin tuaj,
07:37
take a moment to acknowledge them.
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merni nje moment per ti mirenjohur ata.
07:39
Take a moment to say thank you.
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Merni nje moment per te thene faleminderit.
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(Duartorkitje)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Robin Nagle - Trash anthropologistRobin Nagle is an anthropologist with a very particular focus... garbage.
Why you should listen
Robin Nagle has been the anthropologist-in-residence at the Department of Sanitation in New York City since 2006.
Nagle's fascination with trash stems from her desire to understand the all-too-often invisible infrastructure that guides the flow of garbage through a megalopolis like New York. After all, the city produces 11,000 tons of rubbish each day... and all of that has to be dealt with somewhere and by someone. If not, damaging health problems and consequences for all. So why do sanitation workers experience such stigma, all too often scorned and berated while on the job? Nagle, who is also director of NYU's Draper Interdisciplinary Master's program in humanities and social thought, determined to find out. She got her sanitation worker license and has spent much time with workers on the job, getting an up-close view of the city's garbage and the systems in place to deal with it.
Her book, Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City was published in 2013 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. See also the profile of her work -- and a photoessay of her favorite places in New York City.
Robin Nagle | Speaker | TED.com