After Hugo Comes Jose!

[georgephillip]

"MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Some world leaders live in palaces. Some enjoy perks like having a discreet butler, a fleet of yachts or a wine cellar with vintage Champagnes.

"Then there is José Mujica, the former guerrilla who is Uruguay’s president.

"He lives in a run-down house on Montevideo’s outskirts with no servants at all.

"His security detail: two plainclothes officers parked on a dirt road."

Mujica has forsaken the presidential estate and transformed it into a homeless shelter.
Imagine the angst of Uruguay's 1%?

"As illness drives President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela from the political stage, suddenly leaving the continent without the larger-than-life figure who has held such sway on the left, Mr. Mujica’s practiced asceticism is a study in contrasts.

"For democracy to function properly, he argues, elected leaders should be taken down a notch."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/world/americas/after-years-in-solitary-an-austere-life-as-uruguays-president.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[georgephillip]

"THE leader at the helm of Uruguay’s changes, known to his many detractors and supporters alike as Pepe, is someone few thought could ever rise to such a position.

"Before Mr. Mujica became a gardener of chrysanthemums, he was a leader of the Tupamaros, the urban guerrilla group that drew inspiration from the Cuban revolution, carrying out armed bank robberies and kidnappings on Montevideo’s streets..."

"A brutal counterinsurgency subdued the Tupamaros, and the police captured Mr. Mujica in 1972. He spent 14 years in prison, including more than a decade in solitary confinement, often in a hole in the ground.

"During that time, he would go more than a year without bathing, and his companions, he said, were a tiny frog and rats with whom he shared crumbs of bread."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/world/americas/after-years-in-solitary-an-austere-life-as-uruguays-president.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[georgephillip]

"During that time, he would go more than a year without bathing, and his companions, he said, were a tiny frog and rats with whom he shared crumbs of bread.

"Some of the other Tupamaros who were placed for years in solitary confinement failed to grasp the benefits of befriending rodents.

"One of them, Henry Engler, a medical student, underwent a severe mental breakdown before his release in 1985.

"Mr. Mujica rarely speaks about his time in prison. Seated at a table in his garden, sipping his mate, he said it gave him time to reflect. 'I learned that one can always start again,' he said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/world/americas/after-years-in-solitary-an-austere-life-as-uruguays-president.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

[georgephillip]

According to Jose:

"Mujica’s Definition of Poor: Always Craving More

"Mujica, who earns the equivalent of US $12,000/month, shunned the Presidential Mansion to continue to live in his modest house on a dirt road in a rural area outside Montevideo.

"He chooses to have a simple lifestyle, he says, so he has time to live how he wants to live.

"More impressive is the fact that he donates around 90% of his monthly salary to causes that benefit the poor, and small scale entrepreneurs. This brings the amount he lives on, approximately $800/month, to that of the average Uruguayan’s.

"While that may be modest, he doesn’t feel poor.

"Mujica believes it’s not what one has, but having an endless craving more, that makes one poor."

The World's 'Poorest' President May also be the Richest: Meet José Mujica

 

[editec]

Fascinating guy if the reports are accurate.

 

[georgephillip]

He doesn't seem to be getting much attention in the corporate press.
Apparently he has little appetite for a second term.
The 1% probably don't want him to achieve the same level of celebrity that Hugo did.
'Makes me wonder if private wealth isn't where the concept of Original Sin came from?