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(Universal Children's Day)Feature: Gaza kids surf web to defy Israeli blockade
GAZA, Nov 10, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX) --
by Saud Abu Ramadan and Emad Drimly
Yasser al-Za'eem, a 14-year-old boy
from the impoverished Shatti refugee camp in western Gaza City,
spends most of his time sitting in front of a cheap computer,
linked to a slow internet server, chatting with friends from other
Arab and foreign countries.
Surfing the internet has become the only entertainment, not
only for al-Za'eem but for most of his friends. It is a way to
meet new friends, browse websites or play games. And they believe
it is the only way to break a three-year Israeli blockade imposed
on the Gaza Strip.
Al-Za'eem, who has never been out of Gaza since being born in
the refugee camp, said he had a large net of ties and
relationships on the internet with relatives and friends in the
West Bank and in other countries all over the world. "For me, the
web is a rare window to defy the ongoing siege," he told Xinhua.
The brilliant boy said he had begun to learn how to use a
computer five years ago, when he learned that some of his
neighbors and relatives had computers. He begged his father, who
has a poorly paid job, to buy him and his brothers a Compaq
computer.
Computers and laptops, mostly made in China, are priced at
between 500 and 2,000 U.S. dollars. Computers have been smuggled
into the Gaza Strip through underground tunnels on the border
between the blockaded Palestinian enclave and Egypt.
"When I used the computer for the first time, I was completely
ignorant of how to use it," said al-Za'eem. "After five years, I
can say I'm a little expert in computers and know how to surf the
web, which turned the universe into a little village. Simply, a
computer for me is so necessary and essential."
Despite suffering from poverty and unemployment, a vast
majority of the 1.5 million population of the narrow impoverished
territory have computers or laptops at home, with electronics
vendors and dealers saying demand has climbed after prices
declined.
MSN messenger, Skype and Yahoo have become so popular that
chatting with friends and relatives from all over the world while
seeing each other on webcams, is now an all-consuming passion in
Gaza.
"I surf the web and read on websites for children and download
games. I also search for data that help me in doing my school
thesis and research, mainly in geography and mathematics," said
al-Za'eem.
"But when I chat with friends, I envy them as I compare my
living conditions with theirs," he added.
Al-Za'eem regularly talks on the web with his cousin Mohamed,
who lives in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The two haven't seen
each other for more than two years, since Israel imposed a tight
blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas seized control of the
enclave in June 2007.
"When I have a live chat with my cousin Mohamed, we turn our
webcams and mikes on as if we are sitting together. He tells me
how Ramallah looks and what he does at school and I complain to
him about the difficult life in Gaza," said al-Za'eem.
Al-Za'eem, the fourth child among his brothers and sisters, is
a top student at school, where he uses the computer and the
information he finds on the web to enrich his knowledge.
Not only does he surf the web for children's websites, or for
games and information, but also follows the sports news. He is a
fan of the Spanish football team, Barcelona, and he keeps up to
date with what's happening at the club and knows the names of the
team's star players.
Al-Za'eem also likes design software Photoshop very much, which
he uses to edit his photos. He says he is now an expert in these
programs, while his favourite games include GTA, or Vice City
Beach, which includes car driving and fighting.
"Once I made a trick, when I dubbed a photo of my father
standing with another woman and I showed it to my mother and told
her that this woman is my father's girlfriend. She went mad, but
when I told her the truth, everybody in the family bursed out of
laughing," said al-Za'eem.
His mother said that she didn't leave her son alone in front of
the computer. "We control him by observing who the people he chats
with are, and we make sure that he doesn't watch pornography or
surf websites of Islamic fanatic groups to change the children's
thoughts," she said.
"The internet is so useful, but at the same time it is very
dangerous if the parents don't watch their children. We try to
make sure Yasser gets the benefits and improves his talents while
at the same time we control what he usually watches," she said as
she brought a glass of juice to her son.
Al-Za'eem said he hoped he could buy a better computer, faster
than the one he had and to be his own private PC without having to
share it with his brothers or sisters. However, he complained of
the daily power cutoff in the Gaza Strip.
Electricity in the enclave is usually disconnected at least
five hours every day because the Gaza power plant has difficulty
getting enough diesel due to the Israeli blockade.
"When electricity disconnects, I go to see my friends and
sometimes I go to internet cafes, which have electric generators,
to continue my web search and browsing," said al-Za'eem.
According to non-official statistics, there are around 330
internet cafes in the Gaza Strip where most of the customers are
children, teens and young men, who go there to surf the web or
chat with friends. Those who usually visit those cafes can't
afford to buy a computer.
Al-Za'eem also complained that the internet speed was very slow
in Gaza due to the large number of internet users, adding that his
father paid a monthly fee of 15 U.S. dollars to the Palestinian
telecommunication company for the internet. The speed at
al-Za'eem's house is only 128 kilobytes per second.
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) telecommunications
official Mashour Abu Dagga said internet use had developed
recently despite the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, and had
become one of the important sectors in the Palestinian economy.
While al-Za'eem loves computers and the internet, he dreams of
one day being an engineer specializing in computer programming and
the internet.
"I can earn lots of money, but I know it is not going to be
easy and I have to work hard in order to achieve this ambition,"
he said.
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