Uruguay's 'Humble' President Jose Mujica: New Global Role Model? Belen Fernandez - Al Jazeera
go to original June 9, 2014

Smoking Weed with the President of Uruguay: At the end of 2013, Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalize marijuana. VICE correspondent Krishna Andavolu headed over to Uruguay to check out how the country is adjusting to a legally regulated marijuana market. Along the way, he meets up with Uruguay's president, José Mujica, to burn one down and talk about the president's goal of a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage, and six cannabis plants per household. (VICE)

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."

That's all very endearing, you might be saying, but what's Pepe actually done?

Read the rest at Al Jazeera

Photo: Agence France-Presse

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