THE RICH FOOL

In this little parable (Luke 12,16)

 Jesus told us of the rich fool who, in his greedy, would do this and that, and who, as though there were no such thing as death, and as though the soul could live by bread, thought that "my fruits" and "my goods",  and "my barns", and to "eat and drink and be merry", could for many years sustain what was left him of a soul. His fault lay in his forgetting the Giver; forgetting that he was but a steward of His possessions; forgetting that the soul cannot live by them; forgetting how soon death might make him relax his grasp of them. To this rich fool from heaven pealed as a terrible echo of his words the heart-thrilling sentence of awful irony, "You fool, this night!" (Farrar)

JOSE MUJICA - THE WORLD'S POOREST PRESIDENT.

President Mujica of Uruguay has shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders and opted to stay at his wife's farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital Montevideo. Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a well in a yard, overgrown with weeds. Only two police officers and Manuela, a three-leged dog, keep watch outside.. His charitable donations -which benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs - mean his salary is roughly in line with the average Uruguayan income of $ 775 per month.  In 2010, his annual personal wealth declaration - mandatory for officials in Uruguay - was $1,800,  the value of his 1987 Volkswagen Beetle. This austere lifestyle - and the fact that Mujica donates about 90% of his monthly salary to charity - has led him to be labelled the poorest president in the world.

The Uruguayan leader addressed the Rio +20 summit in June this year: " We've been talking all afternoon about sustainable  development. To get the mases out of poverty. But what are we thinking ?  Do we want the model of development and consumption of the rich countrys? I ask you now: what  would happen to this planet if Indians would have the same proportion of cars per household than Germans? How much oxygen would we have left? Does this planet have enough resources so  7 or 8 bilion can have the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our planet" (www.bbc.co.uk/ news /magazine 15/11/12)

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