USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: The world's 'poorest' president

----Forwarded Message----
From: thirumalairaja@gmail.com

I ask you now: what would happen to this planet if Indians would have the
same proportion of cars per household than Germans? How much oxygen would
we have left?

"Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight billion can have
the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich
societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our
planet."





http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20243493

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[image: BBC News] <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/> Magazine
In association with

Jose Mujica: The world's 'poorest' presidentBy Vladimir Hernandez BBC
Mundo, Montevideo
[image: Jose Mujica and his dogs outside his home]

-

It's a common grumble that politicians' lifestyles are far removed from
those of their electorate. Not so in Uruguay.* Meet the president - who
lives on a ramshackle farm and gives away most of his pay.*
* *

*Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a well in a
yard, overgrown with weeds. Only two police officers and Manuela, a
three-legged dog, keep watch outside.*
* *

*This is the residence of the president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, whose
lifestyle clearly differs sharply from that of most other world leaders.*

*President Mujica has shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state
provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife's farmhouse, off a
dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo.*
* *

*The president and his wife work the land themselves, growing flowers.*

*This austere lifestyle - and the fact that Mujica donates about 90% of his
monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000 (£7,500), to charity - has led him to
be labelled the poorest president in the world.*
* *
* *
* ** ** *
* *
* ** *
* ** *

*"I may appear to be an eccentric old man... But this is a free choice."*
* *

*"I've lived like this most of my life," he says, sitting on an old chair
in his garden, using a cushion favoured by Manuela the dog.*
* *

*"I can live well with what I have."*
* *

*His charitable donations - which benefit poor people and small
entrepreneurs - mean his salary is roughly in line with the average
Uruguayan income of $775 (£485) a month.*
[image: President Mujica's VW Beetle] All the president's wealth - a 1987
VW Beetle

In 2010, his annual personal wealth declaration - mandatory for officials
in Uruguay - was $1,800 (£1,100), the value of his 1987 Volkswagen Beetle.

This year, he added half of his wife's assets - land, tractors and a house
- reaching $215,000 (£135,000).

That's still only about two-thirds of Vice-President Danilo Astori's
declared wealth, and a third of the figure declared by Mujica's predecessor
as president, Tabare Vasquez.

Elected in 2009, Mujica spent the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Uruguayan
guerrilla Tupamaros, a leftist armed group inspired by the Cuban revolution.

He was shot six times and spent 14 years in jail. Most of his detention was
spent in harsh conditions and isolation, until he was freed in 1985 when
Uruguay returned to democracy.

Those years in jail, Mujica says, helped shape his outlook on life.
Tupamaros: Guerrillas to government
[image: Jose Mujica - in silhouette - speaking at a rally to commemorate
the formation of the Frente Amplio]

- Left-wing guerrilla group formed initially from poor sugar cane
workers and students
- Named after Inca king Tupac Amaru
- Key tactic was political kidnapping - UK ambassador Geoffrey Jackson
held for eight months in 1971
- Crushed after 1973 coup led by President Juan Maria Bordaberry
- Mujica was one of many rebels jailed, spending 14 years behind bars -
until constitutional government returned in 1985
- He played key role in transforming Tupamaros into a legitimate
political party, which joined the Frente Amplio (broad front) coalition



"I'm called 'the poorest president', but I don't feel poor. Poor people are
those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want
more and more," he says.

"This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you
don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and
therefore you have more time for yourself," he says.

"I may appear to be an eccentric old man... But this is a free choice."

The Uruguayan leader made a similar point when he addressed the Rio+20
summit in June this year: "We've been talking all afternoon about
sustainable development. To get the masses out of poverty.

"But what are we thinking? Do we want the model of development and
consumption of the rich countries? I ask you now: what would happen to this
planet if Indians would have the same proportion of cars per household than
Germans? How much oxygen would we have left?

"Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight billion can have
the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich
societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our
planet."

Mujica accuses most world leaders of having a "blind obsession to achieve
growth with consumption, as if the contrary would mean the end of the
world".
[image: Tabare Vasquez, his supporters and relatives on a balcony at
Uruguay's official presidential residence] Mujica could have followed his
predecessors into a grand official residence

But however large the gulf between the vegetarian Mujica and these other
leaders, he is no more immune than they are to the ups and downs of
political life.

"Many sympathise with President Mujica because of how he lives. But this
does not stop him for being criticised for how the government is doing,"
says Ignacio Zuasnabar, a Uruguayan pollster.

The Uruguayan opposition says the country's recent economic prosperity has
not resulted in better public services in health and education, and for the
first time since Mujica's election in 2009 his popularity has fallen below
50%.

This year he has also been under fire because of two controversial moves.
Uruguay's Congress recently passed a bill which legalised abortions for
pregnancies up to 12 weeks. Unlike his predecessor, Mujica did not veto it.
[image: President Mujica's house] Instead, he chose to stay on his wife's
farm

He is also supporting a debate on the legalisation of the consumption of
cannabis, in a bill that would also give the state the monopoly over its
trade.

"Consumption of cannabis is not the most worrying thing, drug-dealing is
the real problem," he says.

However, he doesn't have to worry too much about his popularity rating -
Uruguayan law means he is not allowed to seek re-election in 2014. Also, at
77, he is likely to retire from politics altogether before long.

When he does, he will be eligible for a state pension - and unlike some
other former presidents, he may not find the drop in income too hard to get
used to.

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