Uruguay’s beloved Pepe bows out to spend time with his Beetle and 3-legged dog
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
The thing is, he's not actually retiring. He's president of the senate and leads the largest faction of the governing coalition. Once he steps down from the presidency he'll still be the major power broker in the government and 3rd in line to be president again if anything should happen to Vasquez (new president) and Sendic (new vice president).
He's a friendly old uncle figure who everybody finds adorable. But don't for a minute think that he isn't an incredibly savvy political player. I think he plays up the act because it's not as scary than having somebody who's a libertarian marxist as president.
Do they have universal education up to the university level? Do you know how their public healthcare compares to the Brazilian SUS (Brazil's universal healthcare system)?
> There's laptops for all kids
This was indeed a great achievement, but not all kids, this is for the public (state) education.
> no taxes on tech companies
This is not like that, there are certain businesses that are exempt from certain taxes because of what they do, but that statemt is simply not true, and taxation in Uruguay is pretty pretty high, 22% VAT plus a very high income tax on basically everything plus all other sort of taxes.
In fact if you're a small tech company in Uruguay, taxation will be a heavy burden.
> free universal education and universal healthcare.
True, but they are completely understaffed and underpaid, the conditions in many of the public hospitals are deplorable, basically no one from upper middle class upwards uses it, you pay for public hospitals with taxes and pay for private sector hospitals.
Take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gYCS_FHjzU it's in spanish but you'll get a point.
> free internet for everybody
Where? For whom? There is no such thing as free internet for everyone in Uruguay.
> He's a friendly old uncle figure who everybody finds adorable
I could just show you screenshots of my facebook timeline, some people really hate him, quite a lot in fact, he was involved in guerrilla fighting, that will raise some controversy at least, he is quite popular but the country is very fragmented!
> libertarian marxist
For good or for bad, I don't think his policies have either been libertarian or marxist.
> things are going pretty well
That is if you don't take into consideration small issue like insecurity and extreme poverty.
Hey, I'm not even an opposer of him, he's done some great things in my opinion, but since his media attention and his portrayal of saint, most have seemed to lose there objectivity in something as complicated as politics.
- There's laptops for all kids Of public schools, that in most cases, are pretty bad. Also not from Mujica's adminstration but from Vazquez's (same party, different president)
- Free internet for everybody up to 1GB, also, I dont think this is merit from Mujica.
- No taxes on tech companies I don't think this is true, maybe tech companies have some exemptions, but that's all.
I like Mujica, but not everything good that happens is because of him, also he likes to throw ideas all the time, without the seriousness you would expect from a president.
All in all, I think he is a good president, but not the hero the world wants it to be.
I mean, presidency is not a vow of poverty, the president is not the people's redeemer. What matters is administration competency, efficiency, results...
I would like to know why presidents are held almost as emperors here in latin america.
I'm not even arguing whether Mujica has done good things or not (I think he has done), but, think of this:
"USA's Beloved Obama who spent his presidency fighting for a more fair medical system in the US and has advocated LGBT rights is retiring to be more with his wonderful family."
Yeah, right, politics are much more complicated than that aren't they?
The thing is, most of the time nothing will happen to you, but, it is pretty usual to get robbed.
Anecdotally, we've had two home invasion in my family in the last two years and two laptop stolen. My family members where also present in an armed robbery in a supermarket, so it's out there.
Most of the times, you can live your life normally, unless you get unlucky, which is not that uncommon.
All in all I'd say you can live a pretty normal happy life but the risk is always there, it is good to be a little bit cautious.
It depends on the neighborhood and how aware of your surroundings you are. Everyone knows someone who got mugged either a relative or a friend. Relative of mine was having dinner at a restaurant, 4 armed robbers came in, took everything from customers plus the money from the business. One of them shoots his gun inside, aiming at the roof. There were people in the second floor eating too, fortunately nobody got hurt. Personally, I just take cabs everywhere at night, and walk during the day if I know the neighborhood.