Right under our Noses

English version Right under our noses They made us believe that we are small, foolish, and fragile. While all the natural things beneath our very noses were forcibly taken away, exported, and used without any consent. They made us slaves — moving beings, carriers, muleteers, caretakers, sinners... They enslaved us by giving us their own values of life, through a single perspective that they built over everyone as the “ideal.” The greatest sin of all was to deprive us of the possibility of discovering our own identity and purpose as a united community, aware of its true potential and worth. Something that is stolen, even if found one day, loses for a moment the connection between the object and its true original owner. It can disorient him. But even if it is never found, may fury and revolt make its original owner realize what was lost, and rise up — against so many other contemporary invasions, above all, against the manipulation of their identity that is intentionally undermined. Alice Lima, 2025. From Brazil, living in Ireland.