maybe that’s what life is, or ends up being most of the time: a rehearsal for a performance that never eventually materializes. (p155) - Arundhati Roy

Neither question nor answer was meant as anything more than a polite preamble to conversation.

Some days he walked along the banks of the river that smelled of shit and pesticides bought with World Bank loans.

The United States supported Saddam Hussein and made sure that he ruled with an iron fist for all those years. Then they used the sanctions to break the back of civil society. Then they made Iraq disarm. Then they attacked Iraq. And now they’ve taken over all its assets. p. 126-127