It’s a common grumble that
politicians’ lifestyles are far
removed from those of their
electorate. Not so in Uruguay.
Meet the president `Jose
Mujica’– 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.
All the president’s wealth is 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.
“I’m called ‘the poorest
president’, but I don’t feel poor.
Poor people are those who only
work

what do you guys think of him??

^ I think he took his humbleness too far...imagin his car and annual acct declaration.

godstino: ^ I think he took his humbleness too far...imagin his car and annual acct declaration.

lmao.....godstino you wey I know......abi d president na lena....abeg make e go boil beans