26 de octubre de 2013
Jose Mujica: ‘I earn more than I need’ The man described as the world’s ‘poorest president’ discusses Uruguay’s move to legalise marijuana.
“The thing is I have a way of life that I don’t change just because I am a president. I earn more than I need, even if it’s not enough for others.” He may look like a working class grandfather, but 78-year-old Mujica is a man with a powerful message, a leader who is a one of a kind. Also known as Pepe Mujica, he refused to move to the luxurious house the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders, and Ver Video chose instead to stay in the modest home he shares with his President Jose Mujica, the world’s ‘poorest’ president, has senator wife in the capital. surprised the world by making Uruguay the first country to His lifestyle and the fact that he donates 90 percent of his entirely legalise marijuana. salary to charity has earned him the label ‘the poorest presiA law already passed in the lower house of Congress and dent in the world’. expected to pass in the Senate later this year would make Uruguay the first country in the world to license and enforce “Those who describe me so are the poor ones,” he says. “My rules for the production, distribution and sale of marijuana for definition of poor are those who need too much. Because those who need too much are never satisfied.” adult consumers. Uruguay is hoping to act as a potential test case for an idea Mujica is a man who practices the simplicity he preaches and slowly gaining steam across Latin America - that the legali- never minces words, a style some of his countrymen criticise sation and regulation of some drugs could combat the cartel as unpresidential, but which makes him a hero to others. violence devastating much of the region. On this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, President Jose Mujica Mujica’s recent speech to the UN General Assembly denoun- discusses his peculiar approach towards marijuana and drug trafficking, his particular way of living and understanding life, cing excess and frivolity, also received global attention: and the repercussions the country’s new policies, if appro“We have sacrificed the old immaterial Gods, and now we are ved, might have in the region. occupying the temple of the Market-God. He organises our economy, our politics, our habits, our lives and even provides us with rates and credit cards and gives us the appearance of happiness,” he said. “It seems that we have been born only to consume, and to consume, and when we can no longer consume, we have a feeling of frustration and we suffer from poverty, and we are auto marginalised.”