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Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

theguardian.com

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Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#61

Post by _delirium »

ilamont wrote: post #7

Pope Francis has also rejected some of the traditional trappings of the Papacy (1): For his unveiling as pope Wednesday to the throng in St. Peter's Square, he shunned a special fur-trimmed red half-cloak and golden cross in favor of plain white vestments and his usual iron cross. To go pray at a church in central Rome on Thursday, he hopped into a regular Vatican sedan, not the papal limousine. He prefers a simple m…

There's been somewhat of a trend in that direction since Pope John Paul I in 1978 kicked it off by downplaying some of the royal-seeming aspects of the papacy: he switched to using "I" instead of the royal "we", and opted for a simpler inauguration ceremony instead of being crowned with the papal tiara in the traditional coronation. John Paul II continued some of that trend towards more informality, though Benedict moved a few things back in the other direction (not so far as to bring back the tiara, though).

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#62

Post by locusm »

bpodgursky wrote: post #11

Uruguay's population is 3.3 million, which is a bit smaller than Oklahoma, for comparison. It's not shocking to me that a head of state of a small country like that doesn't have all the trappings and security a of a country of 100mm / 300mm / a billion people.

So did New Zealand 20 years ago. Not sure what your point is.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#63

Post by mistermumble »

tptacek wrote: post #12
ilamont wrote: post #7

Pope Francis has also rejected some of the traditional trappings of the Papacy (1): For his unveiling as pope Wednesday to the throng in St. Peter's Square, he shunned a special fur-trimmed red half-cloak and golden cross in favor of plain white vestments and his usual iron cross. To go pray at a church in central Rome on Thursday, he hopped into a regular Vatican sedan, not the papal limousine. He prefers a simple m…

He apparently did the same thing as a cardinal in B.A.; he took an apartment near the "palace" the cardinal normally resides in; you can see pictures of it online.

There is also the example of Evo Morales of Bolivia, who chose not to move into the Presidential Palace, and still lives in the same small modest apartment with his wife and roommates.

See picture of the apartment here: http://estaticos03.elmundo.es/suplementos/imagenes/2006/05/0...

Original article in Spanish newspaper El Mundo: http://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2006/549/

Translated version here: http://www.ibaibarriaga.com/reportages-detalle.php?id=11

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#64

Post by grecy »

mynameishere wrote: post #51
grecy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rather than spending money "defending" your leaders, wouldn't it be better if you addressed the issues and actually figured out why people want to cause harm to their leaders? You know, many developed countries don't even have a security force for their leaders, and for example, the ex-Prime Minister of Australia went jogging all the time by himself, in whatever city he happens to be in.

figured out why people want to cause harm to their leaders Here's why people try to assassinate politicians: #1 They're nuts (Hinkley, Czolgosz, Squeaky Fromme). #2 They have some reason for doing so (Gavrilo Princip, Booth, probably Oswald). There. Figured it out. As it happens, there are probably 100x as many nuts in the US as Uruguay, and probably 10,000,000 times more possible motives to kill the head of state/he…

> Now you try and fix those two things.

You mean with care for the mentally ill, etc. like in developed countries?

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#65

Post by patrickg_zill »

xweb wrote: post #43

Gee, it sounds awful. On recent tax reform: "Especially surprising was the lack of opposition from the upper strata of Uruguayan society, who would almost assuredly pay more taxes as a result of the reforms.... There are few associations or organizations that unite the country’s elite even today, and Uruguay’s political parties tend to develop broad “catch-all” coalitions that refrain from aligning to closely with th…

I think any elite above a certain dollar amount or level of power, would just go elsewhere. Isn't Uruguay right beside Argentina, and Paraguay, for instance? And you can get a residency visa for Uruguay if you can show $500 a month income (I am told).

Actually, Uruguay seems like a cool place to hang out... will add to bucket list.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#66

Post by memracom »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #65
xweb wrote: post #43

Gee, it sounds awful. On recent tax reform: "Especially surprising was the lack of opposition from the upper strata of Uruguayan society, who would almost assuredly pay more taxes as a result of the reforms.... There are few associations or organizations that unite the country’s elite even today, and Uruguay’s political parties tend to develop broad “catch-all” coalitions that refrain from aligning to closely with th…

I think any elite above a certain dollar amount or level of power, would just go elsewhere. Isn't Uruguay right beside Argentina, and Paraguay, for instance? And you can get a residency visa for Uruguay if you can show $500 a month income (I am told). Actually, Uruguay seems like a cool place to hang out... will add to bucket list.

Think about it. Everyone gets a free computer from the state. Of course only a percentage of those will learn how to program it, but imagine what an experienced professional software developer could do in a country like that, with a ready source of junior developers who all speak fluent Spanish, the second largest language group worldwide after Mandarin. If you are good at coaching/mentoring younger developers then Uruguay sounds like a good country to move to and start a software business. You would handle the English language versions and your colleagues would do the Spanish language version. Mobile apps, web apps.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#67

Post by aortega »

ilamont wrote: post #7

Pope Francis has also rejected some of the traditional trappings of the Papacy (1): For his unveiling as pope Wednesday to the throng in St. Peter's Square, he shunned a special fur-trimmed red half-cloak and golden cross in favor of plain white vestments and his usual iron cross. To go pray at a church in central Rome on Thursday, he hopped into a regular Vatican sedan, not the papal limousine. He prefers a simple m…

I think it's no coincidence that both the Pope and Mujica are luxury-averse. Demonstrations of wealth in Argentina (and Uruguay, as we are almost the same country) are considered poor taste or even indecent. We even have a word for it, "Grasa" meaning "fat".

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#68

Post by iterationx »

ilamont wrote: post #7

Pope Francis has also rejected some of the traditional trappings of the Papacy (1): For his unveiling as pope Wednesday to the throng in St. Peter's Square, he shunned a special fur-trimmed red half-cloak and golden cross in favor of plain white vestments and his usual iron cross. To go pray at a church in central Rome on Thursday, he hopped into a regular Vatican sedan, not the papal limousine. He prefers a simple m…

Minute 7:42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn9t0m6eG4Q

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#69

Post by Brakenshire »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #65
xweb wrote: post #43

Gee, it sounds awful. On recent tax reform: "Especially surprising was the lack of opposition from the upper strata of Uruguayan society, who would almost assuredly pay more taxes as a result of the reforms.... There are few associations or organizations that unite the country’s elite even today, and Uruguay’s political parties tend to develop broad “catch-all” coalitions that refrain from aligning to closely with th…

I think any elite above a certain dollar amount or level of power, would just go elsewhere. Isn't Uruguay right beside Argentina, and Paraguay, for instance? And you can get a residency visa for Uruguay if you can show $500 a month income (I am told). Actually, Uruguay seems like a cool place to hang out... will add to bucket list.

> I think any elite above a certain dollar amount or level of power, would just go elsewhere. Isn't Uruguay right beside Argentina, and Paraguay, for instance?

I suspect they might have a culture similar to Spain, in the respect that it's much less common for people to move around. Young adults often live at home well into their twenties, and go to university in their home town, and friend and family groups are usually in the local area. If almost everyone you know lives in one place, to move away is a much greater step, even if you are wealthy.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#70

Post by poulsbohemian »

eudox wrote: post #9

I'm so god damn tired. First Gawker, then HuffPo, and now the Guardian. "The President is so austere!". With his own money. This is who he is: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&tl=en&u=ht... "Weed!" That only the State can grow and sell (Smoking it was always legal, and buying/selling has always been and will continue to be illegal). If you think Uruguay is a "liberal dreamboat", as one Gawker article…

Can you give more specifics about your complaints, especially about Uruguay? I've had the opportunity to work with several people in the past year in Uruguay, Columbia, Brazil, and Argentina. The consensus has been uniformly positive that Uruguay's economy and politics are stable, the tech workers have plenty of opportunity and good wages. Some of the taxes and import duties are tough, but better there than in Argentina, for example. Thoughts? I'm honestly curious.
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