By MARK KAPCHANGA – SDE
It is unimaginable for a financially privileged person not to live a lifestyle to match. It is without a doubt rare to hear of a multi-million shilling lottery winner who lives in a modest house, or a filthy-rich businessman leading a middle-class lifestyle.
Perhaps the closest match to this is billionaire Warren Buffet, who still lives in a house he bought in the 1950s. But the bona fide example of someone who exemplifies humility is Uruguay’s President, José Mujica (pictured). He was elected in a landslide victory in the 2009 polls, taking office in 2010. The man, who has caught the imagination of the young and the poor with a blunt lifestyle, gives 90 per cent of his salary to charity. At the end of the month, he only remains with an estimated Sh68,000.
With no children, the President cultivates flowers on a small farm in a rural area outside the capital, Montevideo, having shunned the opulent presidential palace or use of its staff.
His modest lifestyle is reflected by his choice of an aging Volkswagen Beetle as transport. President Mujica, popularly known as Pepe, has a simple lifestyle, he says, so he has time to live how he wants to.
A vegetarian with a proclivity for cardigans and rutted trousers, the owner of a three-legged dog campaigned using public transport and carrying a rucksack.
To him, life is not about elegant clothes or money; it is all about working as little as possible so as to enjoy it more. Mujica believes it’s not what one has but having an endless craving for more that makes one poor.
Mujica’s past gives clues to why he does what he does at present. He is a former leader of a leftist group, known as Tupamaros that used Robin Hood-like strategies on behalf of the poor. His activities with the Tupamaros landed him in prison for 14 years, where he says he spent much time in solitary confinement.
His leftist leanings live on, and are clearly reflected in the policies he supports today, including same-sex marriage, abortion rights, renewable energy and the legalisation of marijuana.