I read this story and I ask
myself if people like this still exist. Read and …be inspired I guess!
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Meet the Uruguayan president –
who lives on a ramshackle farm and gives away most of his pay.
Jose Mujica’s 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.
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.
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.
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.
“I may appear to be an eccentric
old man … But this is a free choice.”
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.
