Living on a dime

By Omar Ghraieb *

Some times "living on a dime" is just an expression we use when we are cutting some stuff off or maybe running some savings but for some people in some places this expression can be a literally a style of living.

As we all know the world is divided into three parts: first world countries, second world countries and third world countries. Therefore, poverty rates differ between each division due to many political, social, strategic, cultural, economical and local states and situations.

Many countries have very high poverty rates where people have to live on scratch and just find ways to go through their daily life, feed their children, bathe them, put them to sleep in a safe place and find some clothes for them to wear when it sounds impossible to do all that. However, people use their minds because "need is the mother of all inventions" and manage to do some or all of that daily.

Palestine isn’t really different from any other third world country and also suffers from poverty rates, although it witnessed a huge increase in the last eight years according to the various events that came through.

Gaza strip is a small part of Palestine that extends on the coast, it's considered as one of the most densely populated places, and it suffers from very high rates of poverty and un-employment.

The strip has three main commercial ports that allow goods, materials, medical aid, building tools, food to enter. Unfortunately, they stay closed most of the time because of the political situation that we suffer from which leaves all gazans living on a dime whether they chose it or not.

No electricity, no fuel, no food, no water, no medicine and no life is our daily life here in Gaza but life can't stop, it just has to go on and gazans make sure that happens.

New fuel formula: they came up with a fuel formula that the world didn’t know before; they mix the cooking oil along with gasoline at very accurate percentages and come up with a fuel that can make cars work perfectly.
Advantages: it's very cheap as the people turn to the falafel shops and restaurants to take a huge tank of used cooking oil for half a dollar.
Disadvantages: it produces huge amounts of smokes that pollutes the air and causes the car some damage on the very long run.

Cooking tools: they even invented cooking tools and ovens that work using the same formula.
Advantages: it's very powerful and takes no time to cook plus the formula is very cheap.
Disadvantages: It produces very high heat that no one can stand plus it's very dangerous to start and operate.

Light bulbs and heating system: using the same formula you can also have a light bulb which is very useful due to the constant electricity outages plus a heating system that comes handy in winter.
Advantages: cheap sources of light and heat.
Disadvantages: It produces polluted smoke plus it's dangerous to operate and start.

Small (but effective) electric cooking tools: Cooking tools that depend on electricity to produce a huge amount of heat in no time using iron as the main component in manufacturing them.
Advantages: cooks in no time, very small and doesn’t take any space and very cheap (very affordable).
Disadvantages: the electricity is out most of the time, which makes the electric tools useless, very dangerous and contains naked wires.

Living tents: it's not an invention but they coped with living in tents like living in houses due to the demolish of their own homes.
Advantages: better than living in the street, a place to live and sleep in and without monthly rent payments.
Disadvantages: It doesn't protect from the rain, can burn while cooking, very hot in the morning and cold in the night, strained dogs can bite through it and hurt the whole family, and doesn’t apply as a healthy living place.

Gazans live on scratch literally, they use wood and flammable materials to make fire, tents to live in, any edible things for food, public or nearby faucets for water or children's bathing and dish washing, the beach to bathe their children and wash their clothes and dishes, sleep on the floor, and any kind of cloth to sew and stitch for their children to wear.

"Living on a dime" has a whole new sensation here in the Gaza strip that you have to come, see, feel and experience yourself.

* Omar Ghraieb is a 22 years reporter/journalist/writer/peace seeker living in Gaza – Palestine and trying to shed a light on what happens there.