The new richest man in the world doesn’t know me, but he sure loves the seventy-some Nuevo Soles we pay every month for our Telmex satellite TV service. Telmex is of course one of Carlos Slim’s main entreprises.

Funny story, when we first rented our apartment in Cusco the landlord said that “… cable was included …”, we just had to pay an extra $10 per month to her, not to Telefonica (the cable company). Hmmm, how did that work out you ask? Well, about a week after SuperBowl XLII (Giants – Patriots), the cable guys from Telefonica came through our neighborhood and cut the shared coax cable between all of the apartments. There was coax everywhere, all of the buildings in our complex had their shared cable taken away 😦

I have since learned that you can actually bribe the cable guys and they will let you keep the shared cable when they come through every so often, but we now have Telmex because it’s cheaper than cable or DirectTV.

On a more serious note, Peruanista has a good blog post about the relationship between Bill Clinton and Carlos Slim. Pure coincidence no doubt that donations to a good cause here and there happen to lead to big business deals in the same places. There is also some controversy over the way Telmex was privatized to the benefit of Carlos Slim and his partners.

Anyway, I won’t make it to the super-rich list, ever. I’ve given up on that, but I’ll take all the luck I’ve had in life and family and count my blessings any day 🙂