The Ghanaian woman who made millions fighting skin-bleaching

African Dream: Ghana's Grace Amey-Obeng

Ghana's Grace Amey-Obeng, one of West Africa's most successful businesswomen, made her fortune promoting products which emphasised the beauty of the black skin, at a time when many of her competitors were selling dangerous skin-bleaching formulas.

The business empire she started a quarter of a century ago with around $100 (£63) now has an annual turnover of between $8m and $10m.

"The women in the market had destroyed their skin with all this kind of beauty products, bleaching products” - Grace Amey-Obeng

Grace Amey-Obeng

• Age: 55
• Studied Beauty Therapy at Croydon College, London, UK
• CEO FC Group of Companies
• Annual turnover: $8-10 million
• Start-up capital: $100
• Number of employees: 95
• Exports to: Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ivory Coast, UK, Switzerland
• Branches in Ghana: Eight
• Trainees: 286 currently in hairdressing/beauty therapy
• Hobbies: Collecting African art

 

Her FC Group of Companies - which includes a beauty clinic, a firm that supplies salon equipment and cosmetics, and a college - has eight branches in Ghana and exports to Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ivory Coast, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Mrs Amey-Obeng has won dozens of accolades and industry awards for her skincare beauty products and marketing.

But one of the things that make her especially proud is her FC Beauty College which, since its opening in 1999, has trained more than 5,000 young people, mostly women.

"It's like a family bond. I'm so proud that they have managed to go through the programme," she told the BBC's series African Dream.

Equally important to her is her role as a medical aesthetician and she cites seeing a skin condition resolved as something that gives her "joy".

"I'm so happy that God has given me that talent and that touch to heal people," she said.
'Irreparable damage'
Mrs Amey-Obeng studied beauty therapy in the United Kingdom and after graduation, in the 1980s, returned to her native Ghana.

She knew that in her country women take great pride in their appearance and was convinced that there was a niche market she could "tap into".

Working out of her bag and going from house to house she advised people on skincare.

Soon, however, she became aware that there was "a lot of skin-bleaching going on", a trend she found "alarming" and something that is common in much of Africa.

"The women in the market had destroyed their skin with all this kind of beauty products, bleaching products, and so I saw the need for assisting them to reverse the process because otherwise it would become a social problem," she said.

"The level of damage - in this climate - bleaching does is irreparable," she added.

Not long after her return to Ghana, she opened her first beauty clinic with financial support from her family.

"I couldn't access any funds from the bank. I didn't even think about it because everybody said 'In this country nobody will give you money'".

Business loan offers came pouring in only after her business had been running for three years.

Although access to bank loans in Ghana might be relatively easier these days, she advises that budding entrepreneurs should take care not to borrow too much.
Made in Ghana
Mrs Amey-Obeng explained that, once her clinic was running, she realised that the imported products they were recommending often proved too expensive for their clients.

Since its opening, the FC Beauty College has trained more than 5,000 young people

This was often a result of currency exchange rate fluctuations.

"It was a challenge. They would come back with worse conditions, and so we said: 'OK, why don't we start our own line that we can sell to our people?'".

Her skincare line, which she started in 1998, would soon have a huge success not only because of the products' prices - which currently range from $3 to $15 - but also, in her opinion, because they were made taking into account black skins and the West African climate.

In view of her concerns about skin bleaching, the name of her brand, Forever Clair (Clear), may seem controversial to some.

However, she argues that "clair" there refers to "light, hope and strength", not skin colour.

"The joy of putting smiles on the faces of people that this business offers, that's what makes me want to do it forever”

"Light shows the way. It's not about complexion, it's about the heart," the entrepreneur said.

And she seems indeed bent on helping others to gain hope and strength. She is well-known in Ghana for her philanthropic work, especially through the Grace Amey-Obeng International Foundation.

Women leaders, she says, should offer a helping hand to less fortunate women, encourage them and share expertise.

"The joy of putting smiles on the faces of people that this business offers, that's what makes me want to do it forever."

African Dream is broadcast on the BBC Focus on Africa radio programme every Thursday afternoon, and on BBC World News throughout the day on Fridays

Most parents 'lie to their children'

 

 

 
The tooth fairy, bringing wishes to stressed parents

Most parents tells lies to their children as a tactic to change their behaviour, suggests a study of families in the United States and China.

The most frequent example was parents threatening to leave children alone in public unless they behaved.

Persuasion ranged from invoking the support of the tooth fairy to telling children they would go blind unless they ate particular vegetables.

Another strategic example was: "That was beautiful piano playing."

The study, published in the International Journal of Psychology, examined the use of "instrumental lying" - and found that such tactically-deployed falsehoods were used by an overwhelming majority of parents in both the United States and China - based on interviews with about 200 families.
'I'll buy it next time'
The most commonly used lie - popular with both US and Chinese families - was parents pretending to a child that they were going to walk away and leave the child to his or her tantrum.

"The pervasiveness of this lie may relate to the universality of the challenge parents face in trying to leave a place against their child's wishes," say the researchers.

Another lie that was common in both countries was the "false promise to buy a requested toy at some indefinite time in the future".

 

"Your pet went to live on your uncle's farm where he will have more space to run around”

Well-intentioned or immoral? An example of what parents told their children

Researchers established different categories of these untruths.

There were "untrue statements related to misbehaviour", which included: ''If you don't behave, I will call the police," and: "If you don't quiet down and start behaving, the lady over there will be angry with you.''

If these seem rather unheroic examples of parenting by proxy threat, there are some more startling lies recorded.

Under the category of "Untrue statements related to leaving or staying" a parent was recorded as saying: "If you don't follow me, a kidnapper will come to kidnap you while I'm gone."

There were also lies motivated by protecting a child's feelings - labelled as "Untrue statements related to positive feelings."

This included the optimistic: "Your pet went to live on your uncle's farm where he will have more space to run around."

A rather self-serving untruth was used for a quick getaway from a toy shop: ''I did not bring money with me today. We can come back another day."

There was also a selection of lies relating to "fantasy characters", also used to enforce good behaviour, such as in the run-up to Christmas.
'Broccoli makes you taller'
The study found no clear difference between the lies used by mothers and fathers, according to researchers, who were from psychology departments at the University of California San Diego in the US, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua in China and the University of Toronto, Canada.

Although levels of such "instrumental lying" were high in both countries, they were highest in China.

The study found there was an acceptance of such lies among parents when they were used as a way of reinforcing desirable social behaviour.

For example, the lie told to children that they would grow taller for every bite of broccoli was seen as encouraging healthy eating habits.

The study raises the longer-term issue of the impact on families of such opportunistic approaches to the truth. It suggests it could influence family relationships as children get older.

Researchers concluded that this raises "important moral questions for parents about when, if ever, parental lying is justified".

 

By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent

Apple’s Iconic Ad!

 

This was the ad that created history. This 60-second commercial ran only once on the Super Bowl in 1984 and achieved the distinction of earning an unprecedented US $150 million in media in value being replayed as the subject of commentary on leading international television channels such as ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC and CBC. It is considered as one of the greatest television commercials ever.
The brief by Steve Jobs for the 1984 ad was simple: He said, I want to stop the world in its tracks. When Jobs introduced this spot at Apple’s annual sales meeting at Hawaii in October 1983, he cast IBM in the role of Big Brother.
The Big Brother was not IBM, but the collective fear of technology, not a corporation either real or imagined. The Big Brother was any government dedicated to keeping its populace in the dark.
Apple wanted to democratize technology telling people that the power was now literally in their hands. They knew that computers and communications could change all that.
Here’s the complete script of the commercial:
(In walk the drones)
Today we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information of Purification Directives.
(Apple’s Hammer-thrower enters, pursued by Storm Troopers)
We have created for the first time in all history a garden of pure ideology, where every worker may bloom, secure from the pests of any contradictory true thoughts.
Our unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth.
We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause.
Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion.
(Hammer is thrown on Screen)
We shall Prevail!
(Boom!)

Focus, Focus, Focus!

 

What is focus?
Steve Jobs described focus the best in his own inimitable style soon after his return to Apple, the company he once CO-founded, at the Apple Developers’ Conference in 1997 during the Q&A session. He said: Focus is about saying No. And the result of that focus is going to be some really great products, where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts.
Focus is also about sacrifice. It is tempting for brand managers to leverage as much value as they can from the equities of their brand – something at the expense of why your brand matters in the first place. It is simply not possible to appeal to all customers in all segments however versatile your brand may be. A brand manager, like a good parent sometimes has to just say No. The more you say no, the more focused and valuable the brand becomes.
Saying no is not going to be easy. There will always be tempting, quantifiable opportunities to promote your brand in a number of indications that seems to make eminent sense, but you may intuitively feel and know that doing that will distract the brand from its reason for being. Focus, therefore is precise positioning of your product in the minds of the consumers.
Here is a brief case showing what clear focus can help you achieve.
The Case of Fefol and Livogen Capsules
The multi-hematinic market in India during the 1980s was highly fragmented with over a hundred-and-one brands. The market size was around ₹ 200 million with an annual growth rate of 1.2 per cent. Most of the brands did not have a clearly defined positioning strategy. A typical list of indications for no-position hematinic looked like this: In anaemias due to diverse causes such as increased requirements of hematinics during pregnancy, lactation, convalescence, due to malnutrition, due to restricted diet in obesity, chronic infectious diseases, tuberculosis, anorexia nervosa, achlorhydria, post-gastroctomy or gastro-jejunoctomy, chronic haemorrhoids, hookworm infestation , etc.
Only two brands, Fefol (Eskay Labs then and now part of GSK) and Livogen Capsules (Allenburys division of Glaxo) had a clear positioning strategy. Both were positioned as Pregnancy Hematinics. Why? Because, prescription research indicated that pregnancy accounted for about seventy per cent of the hematinic prescriptions and usage.
Fefol stayed with the theme Part of the routine during pregnancy and lactation consistently for many years. They had put their might behind this position (the mother and baby contests as one unique promotional strategy they had adopted to reinforce their positioning) and reaped a rich harvest of prescriptions.
Close on their heels was Livogen Capsules, which stayed on with its very strong, persuasive and distinctive theme, the only hematinic that provides 11 Blood-building Factors for the Mother and 5 mg of folic acid for the Fetus. This is not to say that other hematinics were not promoted in pregnancy. Pregnancy was one of the several indications in which other hematinics were promoted. Whereas both Fefol, and Livogen Capsules were positioned only in pregnancy and stayed on with that position unwaveringly and unflinchingly!
It had always been a neck-to-neck race to brand leadership for Fefol and Livogen Capsules, with a negligible difference of less than one per cent of market share points. Fefol had a market share of 11.6 per cent and Livogen Capsules about 10.9 per cent in 1992. Later, Merck had acquired Livogen Capsules brand.
What is the secret behind the success of these two brand leaders: Fefol and Livogen Capsules?
Focus, Focus, Focus!

Top Slogan Turns Twenty-five!

 

The top slogan turns twenty-five!
Ranked as the second most powerful advertising slogan of the twentieth century by the leading advertising magazine in the world, The Advertising Age, Nike Shoe Company’s JUST DO IT slogan is turning twenty-five this year.
One of the core components of Nike’s brand, JUST DO IT is a highly recognized trademark of the shoe company Nike. JUST DO IT slogan was coined in 1988 at an ad agency (Wieden+Kennedy) meeting. Dan Wieden, the cofounder of the agency credits the inspiration for his JUST DO IT Nike Slogan to Gary Gilmore’s last words, just before his execution. Gary Gilmore, the notorious spree-killer, uttered the words ’Let’s do it’, just before the firing squad executed him in Utah in 1977. Eleven years later, the phrase became the inspiration for Nike’s JUST DO IT campaign. Nike tweaked these last words and made it JUST DO IT.
Wieden said that he liked the Do part of the slogan and JUST DO IT might make a good slogan for athletic gear. It became one of the most successful slogans of the century and people started reading things into it much more than sport. The slogan propelled Nike to improve its domestic sport-shoe business from 18 to 43 per cent during the decade starting from 1988 to 1998.
The original JUST DO IT campaign was aimed at Nike’s traditional target, 18 to 40 year old males, as well as younger teens and females. The campaign reached consumers on a humorous level and tapped into the fitness craze, which began at the time. The ads worked to shame people into exercising, and when exercising to wear Nike’s.
The strategy aimed at creating a belief that Nike was a pre-requisite to attain physical fitness. When you think of it, JUST DO IT acts as a very powerful and influential element in positive self-talk and affirmation. The super athletes and super sports-persons of world repute endorsed the Nike brand in the JUST DO IT commercials. The print ads contained some of the most inspiring copy in the advertising history. The campaign became so successful that by owning Nikes you were instantly a member of very desirable group. The ads struck a strong emotional chord in all the aspiring athletes-at-heart in addition to people who have a strong bent of mind to become athletics.
Neville Symington, a prominent British psychoanalyst in his work on therapeutic change in psychoanalysis suggests that a shift from the old routine to a new way of being requires an act of freedom, which means having a mind of one’s own, acting in faith in oneself and one’s good objects, and taking a chance. We must cut the ties to the old way to try something new. Nike’s slogan, JUST DO IT, represents this act of freedom. Jennifer Kunst, a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst writes that psychological progress occurs in the face of anxiety and conflict. If we wait for the anxiety and conflict to subside first, we will never do anything. While thinking before acting is necessary and helpful, at some point, you have to JUST DO IT.
The tagline or the ad slogan of Nike, JUST DO IT is twenty-five years old and going strong. Although the tagline is fundamentally simple, it is distinct in its meaning. JUST DO IT means don’t think, don’t ask, don’t talk about it, don’t regret it, JUST DO IT. It appeals to the desire to be free, independent, overcoming all obstacles and social and physical inhibitions and limitations, both to the athlete and athlete at heart!
Click here to watch the first JUST DO IT television commercial.

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Management Paradigms: Old and New

Peter Ferdinand Drucker (November 19, 1909 – November 11, 2005), the Austrian-born American management consultant contributed to the modern management thought significantly as an educator and author. He was a prolific writer and his writings influenced the way many organizations think and work even today.
Peter Drucker has been recognized as the father of the science of management. Starting with his first book in 1939, The End of Economic Man, Drucker wrote many ground breaking books such as Managing for Results, The Effective Executive, Managing for the Future, The Post-Capitalist Society, and Peter Drucker on the Profession of Management among others.
Peter Drucker had a distinguished career of teaching for over sixty-two years . For more than twenty years he taught at New York University as a Professor of Management and later at Claremont Graduate University in California from 1971 to 2002. He taught his last class in 2002.
Drucker developed one of the country’s first executive MBA programs for working professionals at Claremont Graduate University, which was later named the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management in his honor in 1987.
At the beginning of the new millennium he wrote a book, Management Challenges for the 21st Century, in which he described the shifting paradigms of management. These are as valid and relevant today as they were when he wrote, which was about twelve years ago.

Old Paradigm	New Paradigm
1. Management is business management.	Management principles apply to all organizations.
2. There is, or there must be one right organizational structure.	Look for, develop and test the organization structure that fits the task.
3. There is, or there must be one right way to manage people.	Don’t manage people. Lead them.
4. Employees are just what they are, employees. What they need is a pay check and some motivation. You get the work done by commanding and controlling.	You need to treat employees as volunteers, not just employees. They want more than a paycheck; they seek interesting and rewarding work. You inspire them by leading, not commanding.
5. Innovations in your industry come from your own industry.	Innovations in your industry don’t necessarily come from within your own industry. They are likely to come from outside as well.
6. The economy is defined by national boundaries.	National boundaries restrain but don’t define.
7. Technologies, markets and end-users are predefined for each industry.	Customers, with their increasing disposable incomes dictate policy and strategy. Technologies crisscross.
8. National boundaries define economies.	National boundaries restrain but don’t define.
9. Cheap labor is a major competitive advantage.	Cheap labor won’t give a company a substantial advantage as manual labor is becoming smaller and smaller part of total costs. Labor productivity and not cheap labor per say will be a competitive advantage.
10. Change has to be managed.	You cannot manage change. You can only stay ahead of change to win at the marketplace.

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Think Different!

 

Steve Jobs when he came back to Apple to resurrect the failing company in the mid-1990s, wanted to create a campaign that reflected the philosophy of the campaign to be reinforced and resonated across the company and ensure that the entire Apple team embraces it and owns it.
In many ways, Think Different campaign would mark the beginning of Apple’s resurgence as a technological giant that it is today. The company rose from the brink of bankruptcy to the world’s most valued company today.
The Television campaign first aired on September 28, 1997 followed by print ads, billboards, and posters. In 1998, the television spot won the second annual primetime Emmy Award for the best commercial from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). The ad also won a Belding, A silver Lion at Cannes. The long-term campaign won an Effie award (American Marketing Association’s Award for Advertising and Marketing Effectiveness) for marketing effectiveness.
The Think Different campaign very effectively reinforced the counter-culture image that Apple had created in the earlier years. The one-minute television commercial featured a black and white footage of seventeen historical personalities including Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Alfred Hitchcock, John Lennon, Amelia Earhart, Martha Graham, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Maria Callas, Jim Henson, Joan Baez, Pablo Picasso, Mohammed Ali, and the like.
Here’s a complete transcript of the famous television commercial, which was narrated by actor Richard Dreyfus.

Think Different
Here’s to the crazy ones,
The misfits,
The rebels,
The troublemakers,
The round pegs in the square holes
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules
And they have no respect for the status quo
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them,
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine. They heal.
They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can
change the world, are the ones who do.
Click here to see one of the greatest television commercials ever, Think Different.
Can you draw some inspiration from this great copy and television commercial and start thinking differently and give it your best shot at changing our world!

Lance Armstrong movie planned by Paramount and Abrams

 

   Lance Armstrong spoke to Oprah Winfrey last week

 

Paramount Pictures has confirmed it is planning a biopic about disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.

The Hollywood studio, along with J.J. Abrams' production company, Bad Robot, have secured the rights to an upcoming book about the athlete.
Juliet Macur's Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong is due out in June.
The cyclist has now publicly admitted taking performance enhancing drugs during his career.
Until an interview with Oprah Winfrey in early January, Armstrong had repeatedly denied doping.


In 2012, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour De France titles after being labelled a "serial cheat" by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada).
The International Olympic Committee also stripped him of the Olympic bronze medal he won in 2000.
The book's author, Juliet Macur, is a reporter for the New York Times and covered Armstrong's wins for more than a decade.
There is currently no director, writer, star or start date for the film.
J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot company was behind films such as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Super 8 and Star Trek.



   Abrams was behind Star Trek reboot, Mission Impossible films and TV series Lost

Australia library in Armstrong pledge prank

 

            Lance Armstrong came clean about years of doping last week

An Australian library sign promising to reshelve books by disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong in the fiction section has sparked approval online.

The sign was posted in Manly library in Sydney over the weekend.

All non-fiction books by the cyclist, including "Lance Armstrong: Images of a Champion", would soon be moved to the fiction section, it read.

A council spokesman said the sign was a joke and that local libraries could not arbitrarily reclassify books.

Last week Lance Armstrong ended years of denial by admitting he used performance-enhancing drugs during all seven of his Tour de France wins.

The 41-year-old confessed during an interview with chat show host Oprah Winfrey that was watched around the world.

"This was a prank, it happened on Saturday and a member of the public has taken a photo and posted it on social media and it's gone viral on social media," said Chris Parsons of Manly Council.

"However you can't simple reclassify books from fiction to non-fiction," he said, explaining that classifications were decided at a central level.

Local reports said the sign was posted by a student working part-time in the library. Mr Parsons did not confirm this but said a "little review" would take place at the library.

"It's a big, busy library and someone has played a practical joke - it's gone unnoticed for a while and once staff noticed they changed it," he said.

Pictures of the sign - which ends with a smiley face - have been widely circulated on social media, with many commentators congratulating the library on its stance.

"Librarians do have a sense of humour," said one Twitter user. "Awesome. Slow clap Manly Beach Library," said another

Childhood asthma 'admissions down' after smoking ban

 

 

Smoking restrictions came into force in 2007

There was a sharp fall in the number of children admitted to hospital with severe asthma after smoke-free legislation was introduced in England, say researchers.

A study showed a 12% drop in the first year after the law to stop smoking in enclosed public places came into force.

The authors say there is growing evidence that many people are opting for smoke-free homes as well.

Asthma UK says the findings are "encouraging".

Researchers at Imperial College in London looked at NHS figures going back to April 2002.

Presenting their findings in the journal Paediatrics, they said the number of children admitted to hospital with severe asthma attacks was rising by more than 2% a year before the restrictions were introduced in July 2007.

Taking that into account, they calculated the fall in admissions in the next 12 months was 12%, and a further 3% in each of the following two years. They say over the three-year period, this was equivalent of about 6,800 admissions.

The fall was seen among boys and girls of all ages, across wealthy and deprived neighbourhoods, in cities and in rural areas.
'Unexpected' benefit
Prior to the smoke-free law much of the debate on the legislation centred on protection of bar workers from passive smoke.

At the time many critics said smokers would respond by lighting up more at home - harming the health of their families. But the authors of this study say there is growing evidence that more people are insisting on smoke-free homes.

The lead researcher, Prof Christopher Millett, said the legislation has prompted unexpected, but very welcome, changes in behaviour.

"We increasingly think it's because people are adopting smoke-free homes when these smoke-free laws are introduced and this is because they see the benefits of smoke-free laws in public places such as restaurants and they increasingly want to adopt them in their home.

"This benefits children because they're less likely to be exposed to second hand smoke."

These findings reinforce evidence on the impact of smoke-free legislation from studies in North America and Scotland, which also showed a fall in hospital admissions for children with severe asthma attacks. The law in England has also resulted in fewer admissions for heart attack.
'Particularly encouraging'
Emily Humphreys from the health charity, Asthma UK, welcomed the findings: "This is something we campaigned for, so it is particularly encouraging that there has been a fall in children's hospital admissions for asthma since its introduction.

"We have long known that smoking and second hand smoke are harmful - they not only trigger asthma attacks which put children in hospital but can even cause them to develop the condition."

She said the need now was to do more to prevent children and young people from taking up smoking, and she repeated the charity's call for the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco.
By Adam Brimelow Health Correspondent, BBC News

Jose Mujica: The world's 'poorest' president

It's a common grumble that politicians' lifestyles are far removed from those of their electorate. Not so in Uruguay. Meet the president - who lives on a ramshackle farm and gives away most of his pay.

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-legged dog, keep watch outside.

This is the residence of the president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, whose lifestyle clearly differs sharply from that of most other world leaders.

President Mujica 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.

The president and his wife work the land themselves, growing flowers.

This austere lifestyle - and the fact that Mujica donates about 90% of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000 (£7,500), to charity - has led him to be labelled the poorest president in the world.

"I may appear to be an eccentric old man... But this is a free choice."

"I've lived like this most of my life," he says, sitting on an old chair in his garden, using a cushion favoured by Manuela the dog.

"I can live well with what I have."

His charitable donations - which benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs - mean his salary is roughly in line with the average Uruguayan income of $775 (£485) a month.

All the president's wealth - a 1987 VW Beetle

In 2010, his annual personal wealth declaration - mandatory for officials in Uruguay - was $1,800 (£1,100), the value of his 1987 Volkswagen Beetle.

This year, he added half of his wife's assets - land, tractors and a house - reaching $215,000 (£135,000).

That's still only about two-thirds of Vice-President Danilo Astori's declared wealth, and a third of the figure declared by Mujica's predecessor as president, Tabare Vasquez.

Elected in 2009, Mujica spent the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Uruguayan guerrilla Tupamaros, a leftist armed group inspired by the Cuban revolution.

He was shot six times and spent 14 years in jail. Most of his detention was spent in harsh conditions and isolation, until he was freed in 1985 when Uruguay returned to democracy.

Those years in jail, Mujica says, helped shape his outlook on life.

Tupamaros: Guerrillas to government

• Left-wing guerrilla group formed initially from poor sugar cane workers and students
• Named after Inca king Tupac Amaru
• Key tactic was political kidnapping - UK ambassador Geoffrey Jackson held for eight months in 1971
• Crushed after 1973 coup led by President Juan Maria Bordaberry
• Mujica was one of many rebels jailed, spending 14 years behind bars - until constitutional government returned in 1985
• He played key role in transforming Tupamaros into a legitimate political party, which joined the Frente Amplio (broad front) coalition

"I'm called 'the poorest president', but I don't feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more," he says.

"This is a matter of freedom. If you don't have many possessions then you don't need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself," he says.

"I may appear to be an eccentric old man... But this is a free choice."

The Uruguayan leader made a similar point when he addressed the Rio+20 summit in June this year: "We've been talking all afternoon about sustainable development. To get the masses out of poverty.

"But what are we thinking? Do we want the model of development and consumption of the rich countries? 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 seven or eight billion 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."

Mujica accuses most world leaders of having a "blind obsession to achieve growth with consumption, as if the contrary would mean the end of the world".

Mujica could have followed his predecessors into a grand official residence

But however large the gulf between the vegetarian Mujica and these other leaders, he is no more immune than they are to the ups and downs of political life.

"Many sympathise with President Mujica because of how he lives. But this does not stop him for being criticised for how the government is doing," says Ignacio Zuasnabar, a Uruguayan pollster.

The Uruguayan opposition says the country's recent economic prosperity has not resulted in better public services in health and education, and for the first time since Mujica's election in 2009 his popularity has fallen below 50%.

This year he has also been under fire because of two controversial moves. Uruguay's Congress recently passed a bill which legalised abortions for pregnancies up to 12 weeks. Unlike his predecessor, Mujica did not veto it.

 

Instead, he chose to stay on his wife's farm

He is also supporting a debate on the legalisation of the consumption of cannabis, in a bill that would also give the state the monopoly over its trade.

"Consumption of cannabis is not the most worrying thing, drug-dealing is the real problem," he says.

However, he doesn't have to worry too much about his popularity rating - Uruguayan law means he is not allowed to seek re-election in 2014. Also, at 77, he is likely to retire from politics altogether before long.

When he does, he will be eligible for a state pension - and unlike some other former presidents, he may not find the drop in income too hard to get used to.
By Vladimir Hernandez BBC Mundo, Montevideo

Tanya Angus, woman who couldn't stop growing, dies aged 34

Las Vegas woman Tanya Angus, who stood more than two metres tall and weighed about 180 kilograms, has died aged 34. Angus suffered from a rare disorder called acromegaly that wouldn't let her stop growing. Source: AP

Tanya Angus, seen in 1999, was a model before contracting her growth disease. Source: AP

 

AS a teenager growing up in Las Vegas, Tanya Angus strutted along fashion runways.

Back then, she was 5 feet 8 inches tall (172.5cm). But at the time of her death Monday, the 34-year-old Angus stood 7 feet 2 inches (218cm) and weighed about 400 pounds (181 kilograms).
Angus was a victim of a rare disorder called acromegaly that wouldn't let her stop growing. In children the condition is known as gigantism.
"'Mom, I don't know why I got it,'" Karen Strutynski recalled her daughter saying. "'But I guess God decided that I could handle it.'"
Handle it she did - by appearing on television specials and in the news, and talking about the condition that left her face misshapen and gave her chronic growing pains.
Her condition was the result of the release of too much growth hormone caused by a non-cancerous tumour on her pituitary gland.

The disorder affected just about everything for Angus. She couldn't pull even the largest of shirts over her head, because she couldn't fit through the collar. She needed specially made shoes, and jewelers stretched her rings to size 20.
"There's nothing made for giants," her mother explained.
Some people judged her daughter, Ms Strutynski said, believing she used a wheelchair because she lacked the discipline to keep her weight down. What they didn't know is that she ate one meal a day, and her medications caused her face to swell, her mother said.
"People were very cruel until she went into the media," Ms Strutynski said.
After television appearances, Angus became an advocate for those with the disease, corresponding with people from some 60 countries to help them.
She saw her mission as helping others get diagnosed before it was too late and the disease got out of control, her mother said.
An autopsy is pending, but Mr Strutynski said it appears Angus died after catching a cold and developing a tear in her heart.
Her mother plans to keep up Angus' website and continue corresponding with patients struggling to deal with the disease.
"We can't let it end. It's just too important," Mr Strutynski said, her voice cracking.
"We can't just let it die with Tanya."