David Rolstone's Letters from Palestine

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Friday, 12 December 2003 - Don't give me fish, teach me to fish

Don't give me fish, teach me to fish: let me try to put this Chinese saying into a Palestinian context with a story! Last year during November and December Israeli tanks set up a check point at the top of Amman Road closing the major junction there. This was a daily occurrence during the two months of my stay and according to the wim of the particular tank commander it could be calm or cataclysmic.

One commander would arrive at 7:00am and announce his arrival by firing the Tanks main armament at the Makatah across the valley from the check point.

I was usually up by this time but as I was sleeping near the Makatah it made certain that I and everyone else in the area was awake. The municipality dumped a lot of sand at the junction to try and prevent damage to the road but as these tanks weigh 60 tons everything eventually got wrecked. Some days the tank would just go berserk and knock down trees and telegraph poles, street lights etc. Eventually nothing was left intact.

Now the municipality has repaired the road and constructed traffic islands and repaired the pavements and the foundations for street light have been put in. But there is nothing to prevent the army coming in and destroying everything again. The money for this reconstruction is coming from Europe.One of my Palestinian friends was saying there is no money coming in for rebuilding the industrial and business sector of Nablus and although the repairing of roads created some jobs which put some money into the community most people had no jobs.

Later in the day I visited another businessman and he was telling me that before the intifada a retired English businessman had come to Nablus to help him restructure his business in a proper way. So what I was thinking is this, there must be lots of successful businessmen who have retired out there who might like to help their fellow man by coming to Palestine and giving advise within their own field. I don't see that the Israelis could stop them coming here if they came officially. They would be bringing a lifetime of experience and also useful contacts within their own business sector. There are plenty of businesses here that would have the potential to produce and export goods, all they need is some advise on modern practices. So if you know anyone who could fit this description or have any ideas of how to look for and approach these sort of people let me know. What ever happens politically people will have to rebuild all sectors of the country and the Palestinians are already thinking and working on this.

(I would not usually have anything to do with the business world but I can not see how the Palestinians can get out of this mess without some thing like this. They are very much traders and businessmen and are going to go down this road anyway so we might as well help them. ?)

All for now peace and bright moments, Dave

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