4 ms·

One super funny thing about the Wifi cards referenced in the article that I saw when I was there earlier this year. You are only able to officially buy the wif

One super funny thing about the Wifi cards referenced in the article that I saw when I was there earlier this year. You are only able to officially buy the wifi cards at certain government offices. Of course, many of these have weird locations, long lines, and inconvenient hours. You also need to show your ID, and there are certain rules about the cards you can buy. Understandably, this has led to an underground Wifi card selling business - which is strictly illegal. I shit you not - go to a wifi park in Cuba, walk around for a bit, and a sketchy man might glance at you or secretly flash you a wifi card. You then can discretely approach him and pay him $3 (CUC) for the officially priced $2 card. But be careful buying the card... you never know who's watching and you probably don't want to end up in Cuban jail.

Nutomic 10y ago
I was in Cuba this January, and I didn't get the feel that this was illegal. We bought the cards on a busy street in Havanna with no problems at all. Also, we paid 2 CUC and were told the official price was 1 CUC.
- dandelany 10y ago
  I did the same last October. It's definitely illegal, only ETECSA kiosks are allowed to sell the cards. But resellers are ubiquitous and it seems that the authorities mostly turn a blind eye.
  - fiatjaf 10y ago
    Like in all other mixed economies, EVERYTHING is illegal, but the authorities mostly turn a blind eye. EXCEPT when they want to destroy your life or make you suffer for any reason, then they'll look at you specifically.
    - lerpa 10y ago
      Make everyone a criminal so you have an excuse to get rid of those you don't like.
    - jdietrich 10y ago
      It's not just mixed economies: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229 https://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp...
      - fiatjaf 10y ago
        US is a mixed economy too :P
        eriknstr 10y ago
        The U.S. Embassy in Germany agrees with you. >The United States is said to have a mixed economy because privately owned businesses and government both play important roles. http://usa.usembassy.de/economy-conditions.htm http://usa.usembassy.de/economy-conditions.htm
- tuna-piano 10y ago
  From what I saw a few times, it seemed to be pretty similar to a drug dealer standing on a street corner in a bad part of town in the US. Careful, but still kind of obvious. A couple times they made "pssst" noises to me as they showed me a card. I have no actual idea how much authorities targeted the dealings, besides seeing the level of inconspicuousness of the sales.
lordnacho 10y ago
I doubt anything will happen to you as long as you keep things discreet. When I was in Cuba, there were constantly people coming up to me wanting to sell cocaine/lobsters/girls/cigars. It was quite evident that you weren't going to get caught. Some of them are quite desperate, and they're happy to do business. Interestingly, they told me they really wanted shirts. So basically be happy to swap a shirt for a box of cigars. Also branded clothes like sports jerseys seemed to be something they wanted to barter for.
amirmc 10y ago
And in the wifi hotspots, there'll be a separate network and you pay a dude 1CUC to type in the password (access for 1hr). It's obviously not legit but it works and people get online this way.
emilsedgh 10y ago
That reminds me of a funny story. I used to live on Tehran, Iran. All restaurants, stores and businesses must be closed after 12:00 AM in Tehran. So one night me and a friend were driving around the town in midnight and we were quite hungry. So we found a nice guy selling tea in the winter and there were other people around. We asked them if we can find food anywhere in town in this hour. One of them gave us an address and told us we should just go there and wait in the car. We didn't really believe, but we gave it a shot. I kid you not. At 4:00 AM in the morning, in an alley, we stopped and a sketchy man came over and handed us a menu! It was fast food. Pizza, burgers and chicken strips. It wasn't really good. It was a few years ago. Nowadays there are always a few people hanging around and they sometimes open the doors and let people in.
- stavros 10y ago
  Similar story, I was in Barcelona, and if you walk around the beach at night, you see dodgy-looking immigrants that will approach you and quietly ask if you want a cold beer. See, it's illegal for stores to sell alcohol past a certain hour, so these guys provide a valuable service. However, I was with a friend who wanted to smoke some weed instead, so he went and asked one of the guys "do you have any weed?" The guy looked horrified and quickly blurted out "No, no, only beer! You can't get that stuff!" before moving along. It just struck me as funny that they would dodgily sell you illegal beer but that they would be righteously indignant at weed. "That, sir, is where I draw the line of illegality!"
  - smallnamespace 10y ago
    Maybe it's righteous indignation, or maybe they don't know your friend isn't an undercover cop.
    - 1propionyl 10y ago
      Because alcohol laws don't tend to get enforced unless there's a problem, because most of Southern Europe operates on a "village and neighboring villages" field of view and it would be socially uncouth. Weed on the other hand is very strictly enforced for the most part, except in more touristy and "Americanized" places.

Nutomic 10y ago

I was in Cuba this January, and I didn't get the feel that this was illegal. We bought the cards on a busy street in Havanna with no problems at all. Also, we paid 2 CUC and were told the official price was 1 CUC.

dandelany 10y ago
I did the same last October. It's definitely illegal, only ETECSA kiosks are allowed to sell the cards. But resellers are ubiquitous and it seems that the authorities mostly turn a blind eye.
- fiatjaf 10y ago
  Like in all other mixed economies, EVERYTHING is illegal, but the authorities mostly turn a blind eye. EXCEPT when they want to destroy your life or make you suffer for any reason, then they'll look at you specifically.
  - lerpa 10y ago
    Make everyone a criminal so you have an excuse to get rid of those you don't like.
  - jdietrich 10y ago
    It's not just mixed economies: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229 https://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp...
    - fiatjaf 10y ago
      US is a mixed economy too :P
      - eriknstr 10y ago
        The U.S. Embassy in Germany agrees with you. >The United States is said to have a mixed economy because privately owned businesses and government both play important roles. http://usa.usembassy.de/economy-conditions.htm http://usa.usembassy.de/economy-conditions.htm
tuna-piano 10y ago
From what I saw a few times, it seemed to be pretty similar to a drug dealer standing on a street corner in a bad part of town in the US. Careful, but still kind of obvious. A couple times they made "pssst" noises to me as they showed me a card. I have no actual idea how much authorities targeted the dealings, besides seeing the level of inconspicuousness of the sales.

lordnacho 10y ago

I doubt anything will happen to you as long as you keep things discreet. When I was in Cuba, there were constantly people coming up to me wanting to sell cocaine/lobsters/girls/cigars. It was quite evident that you weren't going to get caught. Some of them are quite desperate, and they're happy to do business. Interestingly, they told me they really wanted shirts. So basically be happy to swap a shirt for a box of cigars. Also branded clothes like sports jerseys seemed to be something they wanted to barter for.

amirmc 10y ago

And in the wifi hotspots, there'll be a separate network and you pay a dude 1CUC to type in the password (access for 1hr). It's obviously not legit but it works and people get online this way.

emilsedgh 10y ago

That reminds me of a funny story. I used to live on Tehran, Iran. All restaurants, stores and businesses must be closed after 12:00 AM in Tehran. So one night me and a friend were driving around the town in midnight and we were quite hungry. So we found a nice guy selling tea in the winter and there were other people around. We asked them if we can find food anywhere in town in this hour. One of them gave us an address and told us we should just go there and wait in the car. We didn't really believe, but we gave it a shot. I kid you not. At 4:00 AM in the morning, in an alley, we stopped and a sketchy man came over and handed us a menu! It was fast food. Pizza, burgers and chicken strips. It wasn't really good. It was a few years ago. Nowadays there are always a few people hanging around and they sometimes open the doors and let people in.

stavros 10y ago
Similar story, I was in Barcelona, and if you walk around the beach at night, you see dodgy-looking immigrants that will approach you and quietly ask if you want a cold beer. See, it's illegal for stores to sell alcohol past a certain hour, so these guys provide a valuable service. However, I was with a friend who wanted to smoke some weed instead, so he went and asked one of the guys "do you have any weed?" The guy looked horrified and quickly blurted out "No, no, only beer! You can't get that stuff!" before moving along. It just struck me as funny that they would dodgily sell you illegal beer but that they would be righteously indignant at weed. "That, sir, is where I draw the line of illegality!"
- smallnamespace 10y ago
  Maybe it's righteous indignation, or maybe they don't know your friend isn't an undercover cop.
  - 1propionyl 10y ago
    Because alcohol laws don't tend to get enforced unless there's a problem, because most of Southern Europe operates on a "village and neighboring villages" field of view and it would be socially uncouth. Weed on the other hand is very strictly enforced for the most part, except in more touristy and "Americanized" places.