There is a difference between sacrifice, asceticism and simple living. Jose Mujica, president of Uruguay, seems to appreciate the subtle differences on both a political and practical level. The practical part is that if you have what you need and it is sufficient for leisure but not hedonism, then you have no need for more. The political part is that it will be hard for voters to gripe that the president is using hard-earned taxes of the people to live it up like a Roman potentate on the Nile.
African presidents know a thing or two of being modern-day Caligulas and Kenyan presidents have done everything in their considerable power to live like European royalty and, by and large, they have succeeded. Scions of presidential families can boast of having the finest things in life: education, healthcare, personal safety, and entertainment. And they have all behaved like princes, swanning around with their bodyguards and their multi-mllion shilling automobiles, living it up like money was going out of style.
It is always the Latin American bits of the global south that lead the way in social advancement. Chile's last presidential election had two women as the leading candidates on different ideological grounds. The eventual winner was a previous president, but not an incumbent. Brazil and Argentina have female presidents too, with Argentina's being the widow of the former president who died in office, while in Brazil, she inherited the socialist mantle of the immediate former president.
Brazil has managed to pull many of its people out of poverty because of programmes such as Bolsa Familia that guarantee families minimum welfare cheques if they see that their children are immunised and attend school. Despite Mexico City's reputation as the centre of kidnapping-for-ransom after Bogota, Colombia, it has one of the best technical universities in the world: Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).
Even in the field of sports the global south's giants are to be found in Latin America. We may be celebrating the exploits of various footballers, but do not forget that Latin America also produces world class swimmers, tennis pros, golfers, equestrians and rugby players. And so it goes on in the world of the arts, especially classical and pop musicians, they lead the way.
Save for a few macho presidents, Latin American presidents are not in the style and form of Donald Trump or Jean-Bedel Bokassa. They are not crass and loud. They do not secure the benefits of taxation only for themselves and their cronies. They truly believe that the State is a force for good. It is why even mayors in formerly troubled Latin American cities such as Bogota and Rio de Janeiro put Kenyn presidents to shame, never mind governors of counties. If it was not for the relative difficulty of mastering either Poruguese or Spanish (he two predominant languages in Latin America), hundreds of Kenyans, nay thousands, would have made their way to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia or Uruguay seeking fortune - and sanity.
We can learn a few lessons form Latin America if we intend to double or triple the agricultural land under irrigation, double or triple agricultural output, reduce poverty, care for the elderly and the weak in society, educate the young to the highest level, and reduce the gaps of inequality between the powerful and the rest. Kenya is justly proud of its advancements but, compared to the NARC-fuelled optimism of 2003, we are angrier, more disillusioned, disappointed, poorer and divided than ever before. Not even the continued dominance of Kenyan athletes can seem to unite us anymore, or the astonishing success of the fifteens' rugby team of late. At every turn, it seems that it is the rich getting richer, the politicians getting more powerful, our rights getting shrunk and the country's fissures widening into gorges. In Jose Mujica are lessons we must learn, if only to know where we are going wrong if not for much else.
We can learn a few lessons form Latin America if we intend to double or triple the agricultural land under irrigation, double or triple agricultural output, reduce poverty, care for the elderly and the weak in society, educate the young to the highest level, and reduce the gaps of inequality between the powerful and the rest. Kenya is justly proud of its advancements but, compared to the NARC-fuelled optimism of 2003, we are angrier, more disillusioned, disappointed, poorer and divided than ever before. Not even the continued dominance of Kenyan athletes can seem to unite us anymore, or the astonishing success of the fifteens' rugby team of late. At every turn, it seems that it is the rich getting richer, the politicians getting more powerful, our rights getting shrunk and the country's fissures widening into gorges. In Jose Mujica are lessons we must learn, if only to know where we are going wrong if not for much else.
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