Ruins
“Things are hard here. I am a security officer. How do you say… a captain, yes? I am a captain in the PLO security. But it has been nine months since they paid us. I am also fixing things, electrical things, appliances, as a second job. I was an electrical engineer when I studied in university. But there are no spare parts in the city. It is easier to buy it new from Israel than fix it in Palestine.
“There are the ruins of a Roman theatre in Nablus. How do you call it? An amphitheatre. Yes that’s right. A Roman amphitheatre in the hill by the old city. These people, the Romans, they were better than us. At least they made something. Even the slave who makes the stone chair—it is beautiful, with leaves on the side, shaped into stone. You cannot make something like this without putting yourself into it, even if you are not free, even if you are a slave. We are not slaves, but we do not make anything to leave behind.”