World’s richest man tells Lebanese students education and jobs best way to fight poverty

World’s richest man visits Lebanon, ancestral home

BEIRUT — The world’s richest man told a group of university students in Lebanon, his ancestral home, on Wednesday that education and jobs are the best way to fight poverty.

Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim is the first man from a developing nation to become the world’s richest person. With a recovery in the value of his cell phone holdings pushing his estimated fortune to $53.5 billion, Slim jumped past Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett when Forbes magazine released its 2010 list of the world’s wealthiest last week.

Slim, the son of a Lebanese immigrant, is currently on a one week visit to Lebanon, where he met officials and Christian religious leaders.

President Michel Suleiman granted him last week the Golden Medal of Honor for his achievements.

Slim, 70, described his trip to Lebanon, the first in 40 years, as “very emotional.” Asked whether he plans to invest in debt-ridden Lebanon, Slim said he did not come “to look what business to do but to know the country.”

During the weekend, he toured his ancestral southern Lebanese hometown of Jezzine where he visited the home that was once owned by his grandfather.

Lebanon has a debt of $51.5 billion or 153 percent of the gross domestic product, making it among the highest in the world.

Speaking to students at the American University of Beirut, Slim said “education is the main support of the society.” He added that children should start early education when they are six months or a year rather than at the age of five.

As he spoke about 15 left-wing students wearing masks protested outside the hall, which contained hundreds listening to Slim.

The protesters carried a banner in Spanish that read “down with capitalist terrorism.” Another read in English “share the trees not the fruits.”

“From Mexico to Lebanon the poor around the world are the same,” read a third in Arabic.

Slim’s conglomerate of retail, telecom, manufacturing and construction companies so dominate the Mexican commercial landscape it is often easy for Mexicans to find themselves talking over a Slim-operated cell phone at a Slim-owned shopping center waiting to pay a bill to a Slim-owned company at a Slim-owned bank. If the line is too long, they can catch a quick coffee at a Slim-owned restaurant.

“Economic activity creates jobs and the way to finish poverty is jobs, jobs, jobs,” Slim said.

A civil engineer by training, he has bought up troubled or government-owned companies of all types, fixed them up and resold them for huge profits. That kind of thrifty eye for undervalued businesses has served him well, especially after the market downturns in recent years.

Slim said that his father, Julian, immigrated in the early 20th century from Lebanon looking for religious freedom from the Ottoman Empire. He described his father as his inspiration.

His advice is to “live without fear and guilt. Fear is the worst feeling a man can have.” He added.

“We should learn from our failure.”