economistadentata Economista. Gin fancier. Not Writing a Book.

This is the image I can’t get out of my head: 

A young woman stands in front of a bulldozer.  She weighs under 70kg.  It weighs about 49 tons.  It is no contest, none at all.  But still she stands there.

The bulldozer has been sent there to tear down houses.  The bulldozer belongs to a regional superpower, supported by the most powerful countries in the world.  The houses belong to…who knows? The young woman knows, so still she stands there.

The regional superpower has an army.  The people whose houses it wants to tear down are armed, true, some of them. But it is no contest, none at all. The army is there to back up the bulldozer against the people in the houses.  So still she stands there.

Obviously, people will say it’s not so simple, there’s history, geopolitics, international law, millenia of hurt on both sides, all the pain of scars ripped back open again and again.

But this is the image I can’t get out of my head:  A young woman stands in front of a bulldozer.

And still she stands there.