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.
當你在你所住的地方四處走動時, 大部份的時候, 你會覺得很安全也很自在,對嗎? 現在,想像一下, 如果地雷就埋在這裡, 散佈在周圍, 你永遠不會知道 你會不會踩到其中一個。 在我的祖國,哥倫比亞, 很多人的生活就是如此。 經過了五十年的內部武裝衝突, 有不知道多少數量的地雷, 埋在鄉間各處, 影響到超過三分之一的 哥倫比亞人口。 這些殺傷性地雷的設計, 是要讓目標受重傷殘廢,而非死亡。 這背後的邏輯十分可怕, 因為照顧傷殘的士兵所花費的資源, 比處理被殺死的人更多。
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.
約在五年前,我認識了 阿德瑞娜羅德里奎茲, 當時我在為哥倫比亞政府工作, 我是個紀錄片製作人。 在衝突期間, 她被迫離開了她的家, 懷中抱著她的孩子。 有一天,她一個鄰居被炸死了, 因為他踩到了一枚地雷。 其實當時他在一間 廢棄的房子裡面,不是在屋外。 阿德瑞娜被迫離開的, 也是類似那樣子的房子。 此後,她一直活在恐懼中, 擔心她或她的孩子可能會踩到地雷。
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.
哥倫比亞衝突持續了很久, 我或是我母親都沒有見過 我們的國家有和平的時候。 像我這樣的人, 過去一直超然生活在這苦難之外, 只有兩個選項: 我可以習慣它, 或是我可以全心全意來改變它。 我得要承認,幾乎三十年的時間, 讓我已經習慣了它。 但當我遇見我太太時,改變發生了。 她是個政治科學家, 對於哥倫比亞武裝衝突非常有熱忱。 她協助我了解 我們的國家受到地雷 及戰爭的影響有多深。 我們決定來到這裡,美國, 來尋找新技能, 讓我們能用一種公正的方式 來對我們的社會做出貢獻, 甚至協助治癒它。
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.
在研究所時, 我開始開發一種擴增實境, 應用非常廣, 它能協助軍人用 更安全的方式解除地雷。 在那時期,我也了解到 哥倫比亞並非世界上唯一 要擔心地雷的國家。 事實上,超過 58 個國家 仍然遍佈著各種爆破性裝置。 直到 2015 年,因為 一些國家的戰爭情況加劇, 例如利比亞、敘利亞、烏克蘭和葉門。 地雷受害者的數目幾乎倍增, 從 3,695 人變成 6,461 人。 想看看那狀況。 有些國家在試圖擺脫地雷, 其他國家卻用得更兇。
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.
當使用地雷的衝突結束之後, 會發生什麼事? 有兩個結果。 一方面, 國內背井離鄉的人口 會開始返回家園, 另一方面, 隱藏的地雷會更常被平民觸發 而爆炸。 那就是為什麼我決定加入 紐約大學的資訊科學系, 和克勞迪奧席爾瓦教授合作, 開始開發一個叫做 MineSafe (直譯:地雷安全)的 app。 MineSafe 用來自社區的資訊, 來建議最常有人通行 並且沒發生地雷意外的路徑。 這些交通模式也能被用來判定 哪些區域最需要掃雷。 幾乎有一千五百萬人現在 住在哥倫比亞的鄉間。 想像一下,如果我們 能向他們全體收集資訊, 來協助像阿德瑞娜及她的孩子的人, 找到安全可靠的路徑。 這些資訊不只能用在這上面。 這些資訊也能協助他們 變得更有生產力。 農夫將能夠知道 哪些地方的爆破性裝置已經被清除, 這麼一來,他們就能 找到新的肥沃土地, 再次開始種植作物。
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.
MineSafe 現在有和 哥倫比亞政府合作, 來做一個前導計畫, 現在我們也和柬埔寨 及索瑪利亞有了一些連結。 這個專案計畫是在美國 由私人資金所資助的, 但我們不想到此為止。 我們想做更大, 我們要把這個專案計畫 擴展到每一個受地雷威脅的地方。
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.
哥倫比亞武裝衝突終於要結束了, 但多年戰爭造成的後果, 仍然埋在我們的腳下。 我們 MineSafe 的這群人, 在努力協助人民以及土地 找到和平。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)