human interest...

Since Israel's total closure of Gaza began over 16 months ago, the Palestinian residents of the tiny coastal strip have relied on smuggling to meet their basic subsistence needs.

The tunnel trade in Gaza has become one of the only ways for Palestinians to get essential goods into the besieged territory. (Iyad Albaba)

A recent United Nations report stated that Gaza's local market is beholden to the tunnel trade or "death trade," which has so far claimed the lives of 40 people. Known locally as "grave diggers," a few thousand men earn their living by digging tunnels where they transport essential goods from Egypt like food, cooking gas, petrol, live stock and even electric devices.

The tunnels are all closely lined up along the Philadelphia route on the Gaza-Egypt border. Gaza's markets are now filled with either Egyptian-made or Egyptian-imported goods. This is particularly true in the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, where the tunnel trade is concentrated.

"I feel comfortable finding something to sell rather than finding nothing, but I am not satisfied with myself as a merchant, depending on smuggled goods. The prices are relatively high, while the people's purchasing power is considerably low. Can you imagine, you must buy smuggled clothes for your children! It's America, Israel, and some Arabs who have forced an entire people to rely on smuggling," Abu Jamal, a 43-year-old merchant of electric devices explained.

In the early morning hours on Tuesday, Abu Yasser, a tunnel worker transporting cooking oil, shared Abu Jamal's sentiments, adding, "let Israel besiege us the way it wants, but we are here bringing what we want, also. At least we can now make bread, and we can cook, despite relatively high prices."

While placing gas canisters inside a van in front of his tunnel's tent, Abu Yasser explained that "Every day, we transport about 300 to 400 gas canisters from inside the Egyptian territories, with the help of some Egyptian brothers at the Egyptian side of this border. However, each canister costs 100 US dollars, it is still much better than lacking them totally."

While Abu Yaser's tunnel is active, others, like that of Abu Hassan, are still under construction. Digging a tunnel requires three to four months; Abu Hassan and other workers use an electric machine to pull out piles of sand from a hole that is 21-meters deep. A father of seven children, Abu Hassan explains that "what pushed me to work in these tunnels is the fact that over the past 16 months, I have been staying idle without job. How could I feed my family? I know it is dangerous work, but what can I do? I have no other option."

In the past several months, scores of tunnel workers have died, either while digging or because of Egyptian authorities collapsed some of these tunnels. However, the trade continues unabated, driven by Israel's ongoing blockade.

Abu Mohammad, a resident of Khan Younis, has worked as a tunnel contractor for the past eight years. Last summer his brother and nephew were killed while digging a tunnel. "After the death of my brother, Helmi, and nephew, I have felt so depressed and even sick. But what can I say, suppose I stop working, how could these people live, how? Many are staying idle without work and believe me, if you come in the afternoon, you can see how many are looking for work digging there!"

Recently, the Hamas-led government in Gaza has imposed new regulations and restrictions on the tunnel trade to avoid more deaths and to prevent the smuggling of drugs and prohibited substances to the Gaza Strip. However, the besieged Hamas government can not guarantee an end to the tunnel trade, unless the Israeli blockade comes to a halt.

"The repressive Israeli siege of Gaza has led the steadfast Palestinian people to think of creative means to sustain a living. We have been trying to organize movement at the border lines with Egypt, like giving instructions and monitoring goods coming in the Strip. I can say that this is an exceptional situation that can come to an end, if the Israeli blockade on the region is lifted completely," commented Ehab al-Ghosain, spokesperson of the Interior Ministry.

Israel began enforcing the siege after Hamas seized power in Gaza amidst factional fighting with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party. The Jewish state claims that the Gaza tunnels are used to smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza-based Palestinian resistance factions. It also blames the Egyptian authorities for not shutting down these tunnels. In June, Israel and the Palestinian factions agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel was supposed to lift the Gaza blockade gradually, but it has not done so. The UN has called for reopening official crossings between Gaza and Israel, including the Rafah crossing terminal in southern Gaza, which has been closed by Egypt in June 2007.

In spite of widespread deprivation because of Israel's siege, Abu Yasser remained defiant, stating as he loaded the cooking oil canisters, "Let Israel besieges us the way it wants, and we bring in what we want. At the end of the day, we will not let anyone repress us."

alphabet story...

A little girl once had a favorite stuffed animal.

But not only was this her favorite stuffed animal, it was her most favorite item she had ever owned.

Coming from a small family she liked playing with her sisters but nothing compared to the stuffed animal.

Don't ever under estimate the power of a kid and their most prized possession

Even after getting so many different kinds of clothes and toys this was her imagination center.

Forest was the name of the stuffed bear she cherished so much and he was easy to be amicable to.

Gump wasn't the last name before you even start laughing at it.

However, the little girl was very fond of "Forest Gump" the movie.

I never intended for the story to get off course so lets jump back to its name was Forest.

Just cause its name wasn't so original he always had a journey to share with the little girl.

Kids seem to be oblivious to the outside world when they are playing.

Later in life is when they start caring what people think of them and forget how easy it was to get lost with just themselves and a stuffed bear.

Mostly though, Forest gave the little girl comfort and a friend when she felt left out or alone.

None of her family really understood how she could be so entertained by a dragged around stuffed animal but they didn't say anything because they didnt want to start an altercation.

Overlooking the weirdness of having to take Forest every where they went, the family was just happy that the little girl was happy.

People would stare with deprecate when the little girl would run around the playground having the time of her life with Forest.

Quietly and demure at night the little girl would snuggle with Forest to fall asleep because she was terrified of the dark.

Running around with him clutched in her fist made him start being old and worn out.

Starting to be so worn out so much he was needing a bath more than a couple times a week.

Time would only tell how long Forest would really last with the little girl.

Usually kids are able to keep their favorite items till they become adults so they can look back and remember the times with them.

Vulnerable is what the little girl felt when she lost Forest on a family move.

Wondering when the next time the little girl would finally feel happy again is all the family could do.

X-rays would be the most ridiculous thing to do if they thought she was physically hurt.

Young kids soon grow out of stuffed animals and so did she, but she would never feel contrite because the memorable times she had with Forest.

Zig-zag is how her mind felt for a good while without him, but she knows that she is just thankful she has a special story to share with her kids one day.

its a dog world...

Juno Bug Loter is the name. Yes, I know the name comes off that movie but i can assure you my eggo is not preggo and I don't chug Sunny D on a daily basis. My relationship with my so called owner is more of a best friend fling. Most would say I'm her daughter, but to me were best friends. She pays more attention to me then the log of a dog Melon, spoiled Bella, or even the oldest family dog Dixie. Who I look up to as some sort of role model. Kat, my best friend, always takes me with her everywhere she goes. She talks to me like she talks to most humans, which probably isn't normal for their species, but I listen to every word she says even if what she says doesn't make a lick of sense to me. I know she's always going to love me and let me sleep on the bed even if I roll around in the dirt all day. Okay maybe I do kinda dust myself off a little so she doesn't know that, but still were always going to be each others best friends. Or that's what I thought.

Yeah I like to run around in the mud when it rains, but what dog doesn't? I didn't think she'd want to kill me because I didn't have time to wash myself off before I came inside. So she comes home after doing whatever she does, and she picks me up holding me arms length away from her body like she is trying extremely hard for me not to touch her. Of course, I start freaking out trying to jump on her head, face, feet, everything just cause I know she don't want to touch me. That's when the torture started.

Ripping off my adorable pink collar she chunks me in this huge sunken white boat looking figure. She kept telling me to just get in the dang tub. Tub? Tub? What the heck is this "tub" thing she kept saying? I'm assuming when she sat me down in this white scary thing that this was the "tub". The sound of crashing thunder came next. It was horrible. Water was filling up the "tub". All I could think was what could I have possibly done to make her mad enough to kill me. Dropping me off in the middle of no where would have been better then drowning me! What was she thinking? She started talking in this cute little voice saying, "Its okay Juno. This won't take long." Oh, oh I knew what she was doing, and I wasn't going to back down without a fight. So as soon as she started pouring the poison on my back I took a run for it. Unfortunatly I didn't make it out of the "tub." I thought I could just run and jump out of it, but as soon as I moved my feet the slightest bit, I busted my face in the water.

If you have ever seen me my fur isn't the shortest thing you've ever seen. So there I was being tortured, blind, and trying to figure out what caused all this anger out of my supposed to be best friend. I really thought this lasted over a day. I might just be over thinking the situation but thats how I felt.

Out of no where she picked me up out of this punishment center and laid me in a hot steamy towel. Bipolar, thats what I established she was, bipolar. One second she is killing me the next she is drying me off and telling me how much she loves me. Ridiculous I know, but what can I say she talks to me like I really understand what she's talking about half the time.

new years...

For New Years this year I had no idea what to do so I called up my friend Mitchell and told him to get some people together to come over. We had him, Amanda, Brice, Jade, Kase, Chance, Brad, Kassandra, and me over at my house. All we basically did was jacked around till bout one and act retarded the whole night. This included Brice running around outside unclothed. But after that very tormenting event we just enjoyed each others company while we watched the ball drop on t.v.