When you walk around the place where you live, most of the times, you feel pretty safe and comfortable, right? Now imagine if there were land mines buried right here, scattered around, and you'd never know when you might step on one. That's how it is for many in my home country, Colombia. As a result of a 50-year internal armed conflict, we have an undetermined number of land mines buried throughout the countryside, affecting more than one third of the Colombian population. These anti-personnel mines are designed to maim, not to kill their targets. The logic behind this, which is awful, is that more resources are taken up caring for an injured soldier than dealing with a person who has been killed.
Kada šetate mestom u kojem živite, uglavnom se osećate sigurno i ugodno, zar ne? A sada zamislite da su nagazne mine zakopane baš ovde i razbacane naokolo, a da ne možete znati kada možete nagaziti na jednu od njih. To je stvarnost za mnoge ljude u mojoj otadžbini, Kolumbiji. Kao posledicu pedesetogodišnjeg unutrašnjeg oružanog sukoba, imamo neodređen broj nagaznih mina zakopanih širom seoskih predela koje utiču na više od trećine stanovništva Kolumbije. Ove protivpešadijske mine su napravljene da osakate, a ne da ubiju svoje mete. Logika iza ovoga, koja je strašna, jeste da je potrebno više sredstava da se brine o povređenom vojniku nego o osobi koja je ubijena.
I met Adriana Rodriguez about five years ago while I was working for the Colombian government as a documentary filmmaker. During the conflict, she was forced to leave her house ... with her kids in her arms. One day, one of her neighbors was killed while he stepped on a land mine. He was actually inside an abandoned house, not outside, a house exactly like the one Adriana was forced to leave. Ever since, she has been living with the fear that she, or her children, might step on a land mine.
Upoznao sam Adrijanu Rodrigez pre oko pet godina dok sam radio za kolumbijsku vladu kao režiser dokumentarnih filmova. Za vreme sukoba bila je primorana da napusti svoju kuću sa decom u naručju. Jednog dana njen komšija je bio ubijen kada je stao na nagaznu minu. Bio je, u stvari, u napuštenoj kući, ne izvan nje, u kući nalik onoj koju je Adrijana bila primorana da napusti. Od tada živi u strahu da bi ona ili njena deca mogli stati na nagaznu minu.
You know, the Colombian conflict has been running for so long that neither me nor my mom have seen our country in peace, and for someone like me, who has been living detached from all this suffering, there was only two options: either I get used to it, or I can try to change it with all my heart. And I have to admit that for almost 30 years, I was getting used to it, you know? But something changed for me when I met my wife. She is a political scientist completely passionate about the Colombian armed conflict. She helped me to understand how deeply our country has been affected by land mines and by war. We decided to come here to the United States in search of new skills that would enable us to contribute in a fair way to our society, and maybe even help heal it.
Vidite, sukob u Kolumbiji traje toliko dugo da ni ja ni moja mama nismo videli našu državu u miru, a za nekog kao što sam ja, osobe koji živi odvojena od svih ovih patnji, postajala su samo dva izbora: da se naviknem na to ili da svim srcem pokušam da to promenim. Znate, moram da priznam da sam se skoro trideset godina privikavao na to. Međutim, nešto se promenilo kada sam upoznao svoju suprugu. Ona se bavi političkim naukama i potpuno je ostrašćena po pitanju oružanog sukoba u Kolumbiji. Pomogla mi je da razumem koliko je jako naša država pogođena nagaznim minama i ratom. Odlučili smo da dođemo ovde, u Sjedinjene Države, u potrazi za novim veštinama koje bi nam omogućile da na pravičan način doprinesemo našem društvu i da čak možda pomognemo da se izleči.
While in grad school, I started developing an augmented reality, really broad application to help military personnel to deactivate land mines more safely. During that time, I also realized that Colombia is not the only country in the world that has to worry about land mines. In fact, more than 58 countries are still contaminated with any sort of explosive device. Only in 2015, due to an escalation of war in countries like Libya, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen, the number of [land mine casualties] almost doubled, from 3,695 to 6,461 people. Imagine that. While some countries are trying to get rid of land mines, some others are increasing their use.
Dok sam studirao počeo sam da razvijam aplikaciju proširene stvarnosti sa širokom lepezom primene da bih pomogao vojnom osoblju da bezbednije deaktivira nagazne mine. Tada sam, takođe, shvatio da Kolumbija nije jedina država na svetu koja mora da brine o nagaznim minama. U stvari, više od 58 država je i dalje kontaminirano raznim vrstama eksplozivnih naprava. Samo 2015. godine zbog eskalacije rata u državama kao što su Libija, Sirija, Ukrajina i Jemen, broj poginulih zbog nagaznih mina se skoro udvostručio - sa 3 695 na 6 461 ljudi. Prosto neverovatno. Dok neke države pokušavaju da se reše nagaznih mina, druge povećavaju njihovu upotrebu.
But what happens when a conflict that involved land mines comes to an end? There are two consequences. On the one hand, the internally displaced population will start returning to their lands, and on the other hand, hidden land mines are going to start exploding more often on the civilian side. That's the reason why I decided to join the Computer Science Department at NYU, along with Professor Claudio Silva to start to develop an app called MineSafe. MineSafe uses information from the community to suggest paths that have been declared as the most transited without accident or incident caused by a land mine. These traffic patterns can also be used to determine the top priority zones to be de-mined. Almost 15 million people are living now in the countryside of Colombia. Imagine, for a moment, if we can crowdsource information from all of them to help people like Adriana and her children to find safe and reliable paths. This information can not only be used for that. This information can also help them to become more productive. Farmers will be able to find which lands have been cleared from explosive devices, and in that way, they will be able to find new, fertile grounds to start growing food again.
Međutim, šta se dešava kada se sukob koji je koristio nagazne mine okonča? Postoje dve posledice. Sa jedne strane, raseljeno stanovništvo će početi da se vraća na svoju zemlju, a sa druge strane, skrivene nagazne mine će početi da eksplodiraju sve češće na civilnoj strani. To je razlog zbog kojeg sam odlučio da se pridružim Odseku za kompjuterske nauke na Njujorškom univerzitetu zajedno sa profesorom Klaudijem Silvom da započnem razvoj aplikacije pod nazivom „Minska bezbednost“. „Minska bezbednost“ koristi podatke iz zajednice da predloži staze koje su proglašene kao najčešće korišćene bez nesreće ili nezgode prouzrokovane nagaznom minom. Ovi obrasci putovanja se, takođe, mogu koristiti da se odrede najvažnije zone za uklanjanje mina. Skoro 15 miliona ljudi sada živi u seoskim predelima u Kolumbiji. Zamislite, na trenutak, kako bi bilo kada bismo mogli prikupiti informacije od svih njih da pomognemo ljudima kao što su Adrijana i njena deca da nađu bezbedne i pouzdane staze. Ova informacija se može koristiti ne samo za to, već i da im pomogne da postanu produktivniji. Farmeri će moći da saznaju koje zemljište je očišćeno od eksplozivnih naprava i tako će moći da nađu novo plodno zemljište da bi ponovo započeli proizvodnju hrane.
MineSafe has now a partnership with the Colombian government for the initial pilot, and we have now some connections with Cambodia and Somalia as well. This project is being funded by private money here in the United States, but we don't want to stop here. We want to go big, and we want to scale the project to every single place where land mines are still a threat.
Projekat „Minska bezbednost“ je sada u partnerstvu sa kolumbijskom vladom po pitanju pilot projekta, a sada imamo određene veze sa Kambodžom i Somalijom, takođe. Projekat se finansira iz privatnih izvora ovde u Sjedinjenim Državama, ali ne želimo ovde da se zaustavimo. Želimo da se razvijemo i da proporcionalno razvijemo projekat prema svakom pojedinačnom mestu gde nagazne mine još uvek predstavljaju opasnost.
The Colombian armed conflict is finally coming to an end, but the consequences of years of war are still buried under our feet. We at MineSafe are working to help both people and land to find peace.
Oružani sukob u Kolumbiji konačno se bliži kraju, ali posledice višegodišnjeg rata i dalje su zakopane pod našim nogama. U kompaniji „Minska bezbednost“ radimo da pomognemo ljudima i državi da nađu mir.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)