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If you were in Cuba this weekend, you may have been treated to the sight of happy Cubans proudly buying computers. Here in the real world, where some of us have computers in our
shoes and
marital aids, the purchase of a new computer might not raise any eyebrows, but in Cuba it qualifies as a very big deal indeed. You see, Cubans haven't been allowed to have personal computers until now. (One can only imagine what primitive technology they use to keep their feet warm or to pleasure their wives with.)
The one snag is that most Cubans still don't have access to the Internet yet - the government has long restricted access. Even if those restrictions were lifted somehow, there's also the small matter of the trade embargo between the US and Cuba - one of the consequences being that we don't ever ship any Internet too them (I don't really understand how the Internet works.)
What I do understand is that computers aren't much fun without the Internet. Sure you've got your word processing and your minesweeper and your disk defragmenter. I guess there's also spreadsheets, but considering that the average monthly income for a Cuban is something like $20, I don't imagine their personal finances are that complicated. Truthfully, computers can get boring pretty quickly. When was the last time you processed some words for fun?
However, given the recent reforms the Cuban government's been implementing, Internet access for Cubans is at least marginally likely in the future. Which means that Cuba might actually become reconnected to the rest of the world soon, and find out what a shit-show we've turned it into. So in preparation for that moment, I've compiled some useful info for any current or future Cuban Internet pioneers (here I'm imagining that when first getting online they'll Google "Holy shit, I'm Cuban and am on the Internet" which will lead them to this page.)
As I see it, the main problem with getting to the Internet twenty years late is that you'll be really far behind on all the Internet meme's that have come and gone, so you won't get any of the references on our T-shirts. Seeing as amusing T-shirts make up something like 5% of the U.S. GDP, this is a pretty serious problem, so to ward off any chances of the demise of our sponsors, below I've cataloged the biggest Internet fads of the last 20 years.