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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Mon Jun 9, 2014, 04:03 PM Jun 2014

Uruguay's Mujica: New global role model?

Uruguay's Mujica: New global role model?

Uruguay's 'humble' president defies imperial and corporate hegemony with a series of unorthodox policies.

Last updated: 08 Jun 2014 09:51
Belen Fernandez

Let's play a word association game. What's the first thing that comes to mind when I say "humility"?

Chances are it's not "heads of state".

To be sure, the conduct of government leaders across the globe would suggest a general eschewal of such virtues. A few egregious examples: the late Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan erected a gold statue of himself that rotated in accordance with the position of the sun. Former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin proclaimed himself "Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea", while former US president George W Bush claimed to receive battle commands directly from God.

Recurring Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has boasted of sleeping with eight women in one night, in addition to self-identifying as "the Jesus Christ of politics".

Amidst these tendencies of the global political class, Uruguay's Jose "Pepe" Mujica looks like a veritable freak of nature.

President since 2010, the 79-year-old Mujica lives in a one-bedroom farmhouse, attends official meetings in sandals and donates 90 percent of his salary to charity.

The doting owner of a three-legged dog and an avid grower of chrysanthemums, he drives an old Volkswagen and rejects the notion that he is poor: "Those who describe me so are the poor ones… My definition of poor are those who need too much. Because those who need too much are never satisfied."

More:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/06/uruguay-mujica-new-global-role-m-20146871239650936.html














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