Former Tupamaros Guerrilla and Current President of Uruguay - Jose Mujica - a Great Role Model

The inbox today invited me to meet Jose Mujica - The world's 'poorest' president. Great article, in it a person learns that Jose Mujica refuses to live in the state mansion instead living in his wife's ramshackle farmhouse off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo and that he  gives away most of his pay to charity. In 2005, Mujica married Lucía Topolansky, a fellow Tupamaro member and current senator, after many years of co-habitation. They cultivate flowers as an economic activity, drive an aging Volkswagen Beetle, and share their lives with their dogs. WOW

The Tupamaros were legendary among the 60s and 70s counter-culture revolutionaries and wannabes like me. In the late 60's they took to robbing banks and driving through the barrios throwing cash out the windows of their car. They made a lotta friends. Mujica was shot six times,  arrested, spent 14 years in jail and was tortured, as were most of the Tupamaros guerrillas.

When asked about his austere lifestyle Mujica answered, "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."

Mujica has learned that having enough can't happen through acquiring more, only by wanting less. Lucky Uruguay.