5 ms·

Immediately searched for "moving to Uruguay" after reading this. The thought of a sane politician is so refreshing.

by xweb 13y ago

grecy 13y ago
It's very beautiful, and people are extremely friendly and happy. I highly recommend a visit, if nothing else.
- ggambetta 13y ago
  "Visit and nothing else" is a great idea. Living there isn't.
  - grecy 13y ago
    Have you been? What's your firs hand experience? I spent over 2 years in Central and South America, many months in a few countries. I didn't get to spend very long in Uruguay, but it seemed great to me.
    - ggambetta 13y ago
      Not "been" - I was born and raised, and lived the first 30 years of my life there. For my first-hand experience, and why I left, read my comments here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6886261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6886261 , especially my second one.
baddox 13y ago
I don't know much about the guy, but I would recommend doing more extensive research on his and politics in Uruguay before thinking about moving there.
jere 13y ago
I had a similar thought. AMURICA? More like A Mujica? Am I right? >1972 Imprisoned again. Remains in jail for more than a decade, including two years' solitary confinement at the bottom of a well, where he speaks to frogs and insects to maintain his sanity. There's something amazing about politicians who spend decades in prison but still have the drive to go into politics afterwards (e.g. Mandela).
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  fascinating. "The president is a former member of the Tupamaros guerrilla group, which was notorious in the early 1970s for bank robberies, kidnappings and distributing stolen food and money among the poor. He was shot by police six times and spent 14 years in a military prison, much of it in dungeon-like conditions." Is t-word applicable here ? :)
  - mullingitover 13y ago
    Don't be so quick to cast judgment until we've established whether he was a left-wing terrorist or a right-wing freedom fighter. /s
  - tcdent 13y ago
    That depends on wether you're a banker, or a peasant.
- dep_b 13y ago
  ....or Menem....
saryant 13y ago
Move to Wyoming. I used to run into the governor and his daughter at Baskin Robbins, no security detail or entourage.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
  - saryant 13y ago
    I... what? Are we really so divided as a nation that our choice of ice cream now has political consequences?
  - ars_technician 13y ago
    It's a good thing that icky, conservative Baskin Robbins is banned from blue states. Oh wait: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=baskin+robbins,+san+jose,+ca https://maps.google.com/maps?q=baskin+robbins,+san+jose,+ca
  - notanidiot5 13y ago
    Oh, the horrors of fiscal responsibility!
    - toomuchtodo 13y ago
      Red states leach on blue states: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_reckoning/2012/10/25/blue_state_red_face_guess_who_benefits_more_from_your_taxes.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_reckoning/2012/10/25/blue_sta...
soneca 13y ago
http://www.buzzfeed.com/conzpreti/reasons-why-you-need-to-move-to-uruguay-in-2014 http://www.buzzfeed.com/conzpreti/reasons-why-you-need-to-mo... Superficial lists aside, I lived in Uruguay for some months and I loved it. Uruguay and the uruguayans are great!
hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
Not so fast. South america is a weird place (disclaimer: I live in Brazil). The overall vision is that the coming of democracy, after a history filled colonization, monarchies and military dictatorships in most countries, has been a net win; but at the same time, the presidential figure gets a disproportionate amount of worshiping in all of those, which is a sign that the democracy has not fully matured. As positive as the bills passed by Mujica may be, the notion that the president has to be some sort of Robin Hood, Batman of the poor, is problematic, as it inflates the State, turns the legislative power useless, and has a tendency to pass popular policies, as opposed to good policies. EDIT: Brazil is falling prey to that ideology, as many other countries around here, where the approval of the president is at an all time high, despite the government's failure in addressing all the systemic issues (education, crime, public health, infra-structure, foreign investment). There's an awful cognitive dissonance between what the population perceives and what results are, mainly because the poor are misinformed and cannot judge (the government will always blame an external force: the opposition, capitalism, USA, whatever), and the middle-class prefers to ignore reality (for them, it's better to have an incompetent, but left-wing government than to forfeit their ideologies).
- unhe 13y ago
  dude... if you think democracy will save the world, then you might as well believe in the spanish inquisition... well, only if you believe in american democracy. But what democracy is there when Bush was elected twice and Obama twice as well, and , in the name of democracy, declared a war on a poor little country.... for me you can call Tor quemada to be the next american president and i will still prefer the democracy those south american countries have...
- DominikR 13y ago
  > has a tendency to pass popular policies, as opposed to good policies Isn't that the point of a democracy? What do you think how many wars, regime changes and dictatorships (all sponsored by the US) South America would have seen in the last 50 years if every single one of those aggressions had to pass a popular democratic vote in the first place? I do not think that there ever has been a majority in any country (where the basic needs of everyone is met) that would consistently vote pro war. I my view the real problem is that we only get those "good policies" and never the chance to choose or at least vote for policies we actually like.
ggambetta 13y ago
Hahaha, no. Please read my comments about him, and about why I ran out of the country, here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6886261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6886261

Immediately searched for "moving to Uruguay" after reading this. The thought of a sane politician is so refreshing.

by xweb 13y ago

Immediately searched for "moving to Uruguay" after reading this. The thought of a sane politician is so refreshing.

grecy 13y ago

It's very beautiful, and people are extremely friendly and happy. I highly recommend a visit, if nothing else.

ggambetta 13y ago
"Visit and nothing else" is a great idea. Living there isn't.
- grecy 13y ago
  Have you been? What's your firs hand experience? I spent over 2 years in Central and South America, many months in a few countries. I didn't get to spend very long in Uruguay, but it seemed great to me.
  - ggambetta 13y ago
    Not "been" - I was born and raised, and lived the first 30 years of my life there. For my first-hand experience, and why I left, read my comments here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6886261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6886261 , especially my second one.

baddox 13y ago

I don't know much about the guy, but I would recommend doing more extensive research on his and politics in Uruguay before thinking about moving there.

jere 13y ago

I had a similar thought. AMURICA? More like A Mujica? Am I right? >1972 Imprisoned again. Remains in jail for more than a decade, including two years' solitary confinement at the bottom of a well, where he speaks to frogs and insects to maintain his sanity. There's something amazing about politicians who spend decades in prison but still have the drive to go into politics afterwards (e.g. Mandela).

VladRussian2 13y ago
fascinating. "The president is a former member of the Tupamaros guerrilla group, which was notorious in the early 1970s for bank robberies, kidnappings and distributing stolen food and money among the poor. He was shot by police six times and spent 14 years in a military prison, much of it in dungeon-like conditions." Is t-word applicable here ? :)
- mullingitover 13y ago
  Don't be so quick to cast judgment until we've established whether he was a left-wing terrorist or a right-wing freedom fighter. /s
- tcdent 13y ago
  That depends on wether you're a banker, or a peasant.
dep_b 13y ago
....or Menem....

saryant 13y ago

Move to Wyoming. I used to run into the governor and his daughter at Baskin Robbins, no security detail or entourage.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- saryant 13y ago
  I... what? Are we really so divided as a nation that our choice of ice cream now has political consequences?
- ars_technician 13y ago
  It's a good thing that icky, conservative Baskin Robbins is banned from blue states. Oh wait: https://maps.google.com/maps?q=baskin+robbins,+san+jose,+ca https://maps.google.com/maps?q=baskin+robbins,+san+jose,+ca
- notanidiot5 13y ago
  Oh, the horrors of fiscal responsibility!
  - toomuchtodo 13y ago
    Red states leach on blue states: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_reckoning/2012/10/25/blue_state_red_face_guess_who_benefits_more_from_your_taxes.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_reckoning/2012/10/25/blue_sta...

soneca 13y ago

http://www.buzzfeed.com/conzpreti/reasons-why-you-need-to-move-to-uruguay-in-2014 http://www.buzzfeed.com/conzpreti/reasons-why-you-need-to-mo... Superficial lists aside, I lived in Uruguay for some months and I loved it. Uruguay and the uruguayans are great!

hcarvalhoalves 13y ago

Not so fast. South america is a weird place (disclaimer: I live in Brazil). The overall vision is that the coming of democracy, after a history filled colonization, monarchies and military dictatorships in most countries, has been a net win; but at the same time, the presidential figure gets a disproportionate amount of worshiping in all of those, which is a sign that the democracy has not fully matured. As positive as the bills passed by Mujica may be, the notion that the president has to be some sort of Robin Hood, Batman of the poor, is problematic, as it inflates the State, turns the legislative power useless, and has a tendency to pass popular policies, as opposed to good policies. EDIT: Brazil is falling prey to that ideology, as many other countries around here, where the approval of the president is at an all time high, despite the government's failure in addressing all the systemic issues (education, crime, public health, infra-structure, foreign investment). There's an awful cognitive dissonance between what the population perceives and what results are, mainly because the poor are misinformed and cannot judge (the government will always blame an external force: the opposition, capitalism, USA, whatever), and the middle-class prefers to ignore reality (for them, it's better to have an incompetent, but left-wing government than to forfeit their ideologies).

unhe 13y ago
dude... if you think democracy will save the world, then you might as well believe in the spanish inquisition... well, only if you believe in american democracy. But what democracy is there when Bush was elected twice and Obama twice as well, and , in the name of democracy, declared a war on a poor little country.... for me you can call Tor quemada to be the next american president and i will still prefer the democracy those south american countries have...
DominikR 13y ago
> has a tendency to pass popular policies, as opposed to good policies Isn't that the point of a democracy? What do you think how many wars, regime changes and dictatorships (all sponsored by the US) South America would have seen in the last 50 years if every single one of those aggressions had to pass a popular democratic vote in the first place? I do not think that there ever has been a majority in any country (where the basic needs of everyone is met) that would consistently vote pro war. I my view the real problem is that we only get those "good policies" and never the chance to choose or at least vote for policies we actually like.

ggambetta 13y ago

Hahaha, no. Please read my comments about him, and about why I ran out of the country, here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6886261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6886261