SHOCK OF SHOCKS: THE #3 RICHEST MAN ISN'T WHITE!

It's true! The #1, #2 and #4 are white, but the #3 richest man alive is Mexican. Can you believe it? There go all of my stereotypes out the window!!

Ha-ha, just kidding.

Anyway, so who is the #3 richest man on planet Earth? His name is Carlos Slim, although he is also known as Carlos Slim Helu. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Slim|his entry] at Wikipedia.Org, Slim has a very fat bank account--he's worth $30 billion. That puts him just $20 billion behind Bill Gates.

Here's a bit more from Slim's Wikipedia entry:

Slim has six children and lives in Mexico City. He is an engineer by profession, graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) (National Autonomous University of Mexico) in 1961, where before graduating he taught Algebra and Linear Programming. He has given lectures in public and private institutions, and also in international bodies such as the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA).

So he started somewhat small--more medium sized, really--and then moved up from there. Check out a bit more:

He has been vice-president of the Mexican Stock Exchange and President of the Mexican Association of Brokerage Houses. He was the first President of the Latin-American Committee of the New York Stock Exchange Administration Council, and was in office from 1996 through 1998. He is on the Board of Directors of the Altria (Previously Philip Morris) Group and Alcatel, as well as for SBC Communications, a position from which he retired in July 2004 to devote more time to the Latin American Development Fund, focusing on infrastructure, health and education, amongst the most relevant work. He later built an important Mexican financial-industrial empire, Grupo Carso, that owns, among other companies the CompUSA electronic retail chain.

Sheesh--a Mexican owns a company with "USA" in the title. I've got nothing against Mexicans, but it seems a little disingenuous to me. I would say "more power to him" for being a non-white insanely rich guy, but you know what? It's totally not about being white, Mexican, black, Asian or whatever--it's about what you do with your money/power. Sure, he may be trying to help the Mexican economy, but he's on the BoD for Altria (fka Philip Morris, the cancer spreaders) so he's clearly yet another guy who is only interested in the financial bottom line rather than the well-being of humanity or even his customers.

I think he's worth of "Honorary White Guy" status on these grounds.