Jose Mujica, 80, former president of Uruguay who is described as “the world’s poorest president,” has made his first visit to Japan. He captured the world’s attention in 2012 when he delivered a legendary speech at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil. People were deeply moved by his message that development cannot go against happiness.
In his speech, he questioned whether the current development – hyper consumption ruled by globalized capitalism, environmental destruction and people losing freedom and devoting their life to repaying loans – is really what we wanted. “Is it possible to speak of solidarity and of being all together in an economy based on ruthless competition?” he asked.
His remarks clearly hit the mark about threats to industries, local communities and cooperatives which face fierce competition for survival under neoliberalism. He said that the problem lies in ourselves. “A poor person is not someone who has little but one who needs infinitely more and more and more,” he said, quoting the words of past thinkers, and called on the need to reexamine our way of life and society.
In his youth, Mujica was involved in guerrilla activities and was imprisoned for nearly 15 years. While he was serving as president, he donated 90 percent of his monthly salary to charity, flew economy class for overseas trips and chose to live in his own home instead of in an official residence. Last year, he ended his term and returned to his life as a farmer. According to Ie no Hikari, a magazine for women engaged in farming which reported on his life in its December 2015 issue, he wears worn out clothes, lives in a three-room farmhouse with his wife and drives a tractor in his farm.
How did Japan look to his eyes? A country with people who are materially rich but spiritually poor?