Innovative poverty-reduction strategies

This 4th of July, the Americans could have one less thing to celebrate: the most powerful country in the world no longer has the richest man alive; Mexico's proud Carlos Slim* seems to have overtaken nerdy Bill Gates, at least according to a report that appeared on the Guardian: "Mexican tycoon overtakes Bill Gates as world's richest man".

This is indeed a triumph for Mexican society.

For those of you suspicious of the fact that something has gone terribly wrong when a poor country like Mexico has got the world's richest man, let me clear it all up.

Carlos Slim is really our pilot poverty-reduction strategy. Its motto is "fighting poverty one person at a time". The latest figures confirm that we've done fairly good with our man Carlos. . . well, perhaps we overdid it a little bit, but we are on the right track (after all, the Slim-man made his fortune by profiting from the privatizations of the 1990s, faithfully following the neoliberal doctrine in vogue).

In any case, one down, 104, 999, 999 people left to go. We're well on our way to eradicating poverty in Mexico . . .**

*do not be fooled by his last name, Mr. Slim suffers from neither anorexia nor bulimia . . . he's rather well-fed, in fact.

**never mind the fact that Mexico's one of the most unequal countries in the world where the poorest 10% account for 1.6% of income, while the richest 10% hog 39.4% - and the richest 20% amass an amazing 55.1% (UNDP, 2006 Human Development Report).