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t-shirt issue 48:
Spare A Square?

Everyone has been caught in the bathroom with their pants down and no toilet paper but Cuba is in deep doo doo. In the grip of a serious economic crisis, Cuba is running short of toilet paper and may not get sufficient supplies until the end of the year.

Until more supplies are produced in Cuba, citizens are being encouraged to conserve toilet paper by tearing off fewer squares, switching from two-ply to one-ply or using cigar wrappers.

Jorge Sapingo, a Cuban official in charge of providing toiletries to consumers has even asked the Cuban Communist Party newspaper, Granma, to print editions without pictures of their leadership so “citizens who are loyal to our socialist motherland can feel free to remain clean without showing disrespect to revolutionary leaders.”

Apparently, using newspapers photos aren’t the only paper citizens have been using in the toilet even before the The Cuban T.P. Crisis. According to an anonymous blogger, Cuban university history books are often missing entire pages that once contained images of communist leaders and, we’re guessing, George W. Bush.

Of course, while this is all big news for everyone else in the world, especially Americans who use an average of 23.6 rolls per capita a year, Cubans would probably say that the toilet paper shortage is the least of their problems. After all, there is not much food in their stomach to require even a single square wipe. In fact, there has never really been enough toilet paper, coffee, milk, butter, cooking oil—not much of anything.

Nonetheless, all this talk of T.P. makes us wonder what the world might be like in the midst of a toilet paper crisis of our own.

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In the grip of a serious economic crisis, Cuba is running short of toilet paper and may not get sufficient supplies until the end of the year.

Could a basic necessity like TP become a luxury item reserved only for the wealthy? Will people simple go without and use their left hands like many countries do? Would unsightly skid marks in your underwear finally become acceptable? Or would we be forced to find other alternatives like leaves, magazines, towels or super furry animals?

Is toilet paper something you could live without? Many environmentalists believe you should. For Cubans, they might not have a choice.

Viva la revolution!

C.R.

Check out previous issues

designed by:
Stefan G. Bucher

Stefan G. Bucher is the writer, graphic designer, and illustrator behind California design studio 344 Design and the online drawing and storytelling experiment dailymonster.com.

He is the author of 100 Days of Monsters, All Access: The Making of Thirty Extraordinary Graphic Designers and The Graphic Eye: Photographs by International Graphic Designers.

His gratuitously ambitious designs have been sought-after by the likes of Sting, Tarsem, David Hockney, The New York Times and many other fortunate souls you can check out at 344design.com.

And if that wasn’t enough, Stefan even has his very own Wikipedia page. Seriously. We’re not shitting you.

“No matter how you feel about Cuba, it's tragic that after 50 years the Revolution has now come down to a toilet paper shortage,” says Stefan. “The illustration reconstructs the romantic ideal of Che Guevara -- the ur-T-shirt -- out of the most humble building blocks into a counterculture Shroud of Turin.”

C.R.

 

Comment on this issue
Comments (15)Add Comment
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written by Oh dear, November 07, 2009
Does the world need ANOTHER Che Guevera t-shirt?
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written by Mixitup2006, October 19, 2009
You just gotta to go to Cuba to make your own assumptions. Some of us have some skewed view of Cuba. I recently have been there myself. I have lived all my life in Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Mexico currently). And I will tell you, they might not have luxuries, but damn they eat pretty well. Of course there is poverty! But I hardly saw miserable and extreme poverty, as I have seen in many places. I rarely saw indigents on the streets. If you asked me where I would rather be poor, in Mexico or Cuba, I would definitely choose Cuba without a doubt. I least I know I will get something in my stomach whereas in Mexico I might go a day without food....
Just a thought. Depends on the way you see it. And by the way not all Cubans wants to leave....;)
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written by Lil, October 07, 2009
Cliché Guevera.
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written by jen, October 05, 2009


Actually, the illustration about this issue is crap. Its said often enough why.

My first words after I turned arround the shirt was: "what a dull person did this crap"
And yes.. Im right... thanks for you very intelligent comment stefan bucher. So every t-post-subscriber who had the similiar thoughts like me fells even more fooled now.


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written by Stefan Bucher, September 28, 2009
Hey Mat, Thanks for your comment. On the color, I asked for an army green shirt, but American Apparel were out of stock, so we went with this instead. Believe it or not, until your comment it didn't actually occur to me that it could read as the color of... you know... I'm always surprised how snow blind I can go on stuff like that.
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written by Mat_the_hater, September 28, 2009
I've been a T-Poster for two years now and this is the first time that I believe you issued a T-shirt that truly suck ass.
Besides it being another Che shirt carrying it's share of tired old cultural references, good and bad, this shirt is an eye sore. The fact that the designer
used a brown shirt to carry this month's issue is insulting to all T-post subscribers and the art of T-shirt prints in general. I can't believe that T-Post would let that one slide past them and deliver such a shit shirt. Hope next month's issue is the boomdigigdi or i'm out of this bitch.

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written by marko, September 28, 2009
"How you've become commercialised and commodified by the world and everything you stood for has become blurred (like the image on this month's tee) and all that's left on the surface is the symbolism. Of what? Student bedsits? T-shirts? Messenger bags? Posters?"

I'm Argentinian and what Che stood for is the absolute opposite of what the US is. as simple as that. It's absurd to see people use it to make fashion or even used by ignorants. I never agreed with socialism and won't. refuse to use this t-shirt. Even in Argentina Che is commercialised. Again, absurd.

The Loving You / Poketo shirt...on the other hand... fuckin A.
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written by Ferg, September 28, 2009
Nice tee. The size thing is an American Apparel thing. Different batches are made by different people and therefore there are variations in the size of a small, medium, large etc. If it says small, it's still small but just a little longer perhaps. Che oh Che! How you've become commercialised and commodified by the world and everything you stood for has become blurred (like the image on this month's tee) and all that's left on the surface is the symbolism. Of what? Student bedsits? T-shirts? Messenger bags? Posters?
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written by A MNTLY CHLNGD!, September 28, 2009
Jeez, its not makin' fun of him. It's simply a way to take a pop-icon and use it to make a sweet tee and also demonstrate a problem.

This is the first ever Che tee that im willing to wear. GJ T-postlers n' Stefan!
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written by RGA, September 28, 2009
He was a murderer.
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written by Sandra Martinez, September 28, 2009
Che is an icon for many in Latin America. If you want to make fun of someone, how about the slave owner George Washington.

Venceremos & El Che Vive
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written by Pedro, September 28, 2009
I can't see the image, but it is probably better that way. Che has been dead for over 40 years, so you really can't blame a TP shortage on him ... that would be like blaming JFK for the 2008 banking crisis.

Che has always been a hero for me ... and yes I know that he killed people. Newsflash - that's what a revolutionary does - and those war criminals deserved it.
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written by Hasta la Victoria Siempre !, September 28, 2009
"Che Guevara is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom, we will always honor his memory." --- NELSON MANDELA
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written by T-post, September 28, 2009
We simply think it's ugly, so we've replaced it with a sticker labeling the size instead. If the sticker is not there and you've gotten the wrong size, we apologies. Please get in thought with us on support@t-post.se and we'll sort this out asap.
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written by Olov, September 28, 2009
Why is the size tag cut away inside the t-shirt? Haven't tried it on yet but it seems bigger in size than the last issues...
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