I stood in a queue at the bank and I usually take a book.  I read "The end of poverty".  The line had a snake shape; when we came to the kink an older lady looked at the cover of the book.  She read the title out loud and sarcastically said, "That’s whishful thinking."  I asked her why she would say something like that.  She responded with "It’s a losing battle."  We had a short and poignant interchange and that was it …