Bogotá: Academic turns city into a social experiment

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Bogotá: Academic turns city into a social experiment

 

(Harvard Gazette)

 

Mayor Mockus of Bogotá and his spectacularly applied theory

 

By María Cristina Caballero, Special to the Harvard News Office

 

 

Antanas Mockus had just resigned from the top job of Colombian

National University. A mathematician and philosopher, Mockus

looked around for another big challenge and found it: to be in charge

of, as he describes it, " a 6.5 million person classroom. "

 

Mockus, who had no political experience, ran for mayor of Bogotá; he

was successful mainly because people in Colombia's capital city saw

him as an honest guy. With an educator's inventiveness, Mockus

turned Bogotá into a social experiment just as the city was choked

with violence, lawless traffic, corruption, and gangs of street children

who mugged and stole. It was a city perceived by some to be on the

verge of chaos.

 

People were desperate for a change, for a moral leader of some sort.

The eccentric Mockus, who communicates through symbols, humor,

and metaphors, filled the role. When many hated the disordered and

disorderly city of Bogotá, he wore a Superman costume and acted as a

superhero called " Super citizen. " People laughed at Mockus' antics,

but the laughter began to break the ice of their extreme skepticism....

 

 

A theatrical teacher

 

The slim, bearded, 51-year-old former mayor explained himself thus:

" What really moves me to do things that other people consider

original is my passion to teach. " He has long been known for

theatrical displays to gain people's attention and, then, to make them

think.

 

Mockus, the only son of a Lithuanian artist, burst onto the

Colombian political scene in 1993 when, faced with a rowdy

auditorium of the school of arts' students, he dropped his pants and

mooned them to gain quiet. The gesture, he said at the time, should

be understood " as a part of the resources which an artist can use. " He

resigned as rector, the top job of Colombian National University, and

soon decided to run for mayor.

 

The fact that he was seen as an unusual leader gave the new mayor

the opportunity to try extraordinary things, such as hiring 420 mimes

to control traffic in Bogotá's chaotic and dangerous streets. He

launched a " Night for Women " and asked the city's men to stay

home in the evening and care for the children; 700,000 women went

out on the first of three nights that Mockus dedicated to them.

 

When there was a water shortage, Mockus appeared on TV programs

taking a shower and turning off the water as he soaped, asking his

fellow citizens to do the same. In just two months people were using

14 percent less water, a savings that increased when people realized

how much money they were also saving because of economic

incentives approved by Mockus; water use is now 40 percent less than

before the shortage.

 

" The distribution of knowledge is the key contemporary task, "

Mockus said. " Knowledge empowers people. If people know the

rules, and are sensitized by art, humor, and creativity, they are much

more likely to accept change. "

 

Mockus taught vivid lessons with these tools. One time, he asked

citizen to put their power to use with 350,000 " thumbs-up " and

" thumbs-down " cards that his office distributed to the populace. The

cards were meant to approve or disapprove of other citizens'

behavior; it was a device that many people actively - and peacefully -

used in the streets.

 

He also asked people to pay 10 percent extra in voluntary taxes. To the

surprise of many, 63,000 people voluntarily paid the extra taxes. A

dramatic indicator of the shift in the attitude of " Bogotanos " during

Mockus' tenure is that, in 2002, the city collected more than three

times the revenues it had garnered in 1990.

 

Another Mockus inspiration was to ask people to call his office if they

found a kind and honest taxi driver; 150 people called and the mayor

organized a meeting with all those good taxi drivers, who advised

him about how to improve the behavior of mean taxi drivers. The

good taxi drivers were named " Knights of the Zebra, " a club

supported by the mayor's office.

 

Yet Mockus doesn't like to be called a leader. " There is a tendency to

be dependent on individual leaders, " he said. " To me, it is important

to develop collective leadership. I don't like to get credit for all that

we achieved. Millions of people contributed to the results that we

achieved ...I like more egalitarian relationships. I especially like to

orient people to learn. "

 

 

Taking a moral stand

 

Still, there were times when Mockus felt he needed to impose his

will, such as when he launched the " Carrot Law, " demanding that

every bar and entertainment place close at 1 a.m. with the goal of

diminishing drinking and violence.

 

Most important to Mockus was his campaign about the importance

and sacredness of life. " In a society where human life has lost value, "

he said, " there cannot be another priority than re-establishing respect

for life as the main right and duty of citizens. " Mockus sees the

reduction of homicides from 80 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1993 to 22

per 100,000 inhabitants in 2003 as a major achievement, noting also

that traffic fatalities dropped by more than half in the same time

period, from an average of 1,300 per year to about 600. Contributing to

this success was the mayor's inspired decision to paint stars on the

spots where pedestrians (1,500 of them) had been killed in traffic

accidents.

 

" Saving a single life justifies the effort, " Mockus said.

 

The former mayor had to address many fronts simultaneously. In his

struggle against corruption, he closed down the transit police because

many of those 2,000 members were notoriously bribable.

 

Mockus was a constant presence in the media, promoting his civic

campaigns. " My messages about the importance of protecting

children from being burned with fireworks, protecting children from

domestic violence, and the sacredness of life reached many, including

the children, " he said.

 

Once the mother of a 3-year-old girl called his office to say that

meeting Mockus was her daughter's only birthday wish.

 

But the meeting also revealed, said Mockus, that Colombian society

has a long way to go. During the visit, the mother told him: " When I

am going to hit her, she runs to the telephone and says that she is

going to call Mockus. She doesn't even know how to dial a number,

but obviously she thinks that you would protect her. " Mockus, who

has two daughters himself, was shocked at the woman's nonchalance

about striking her daughter.

 

 

Women's night and mimes

 

There is almost always a civics lesson behind Mockus' antics.

Florence Thomas, a feminist and a professor at Colombian National

University, pointed out to Mockus that in Bogotá women were afraid

to go out at night. " At that time, we were also looking for what would

be the best image of a safe city, and I realized that if you see streets

with many women you feel safer, " Mockus explained.

 

So he asked men to stay home and suggested that both sexes should

take advantage of the " Night for Women " to reflect on women's role

in society. About 700,000 women went out, flocking to free, open-

air concerts. They flooded into bars that offered women-only drink

specials and strolled down a central boulevard that had been

converted into a pedestrian zone.

 

To avoid legal challenges, the mayor stated that the men's curfew was

strictly voluntary. Men who simply couldn't bear to stay indoors

during the six-hour restriction were asked to carry self-styled " safe

conduct " passes. About 200,000 men went out that night, some of

them angrily calling Mockus a " clown " in TV interviews.

 

But most men graciously embraced Mockus' campaign. In the lower-

middle-class neighborhood of San Cristobal, women marched

through the streets to celebrate their night. When they saw a man

staying at home, carrying a baby, or taking care of children, the

women stopped and applauded.

 

That night the police commander was a woman, and 1,500 women

police were in charge of Bogotá's security.

 

Another innovative idea was to use mimes to improve both traffic

and citizens' behavior. Initially 20 professional mimes shadowed

pedestrians who didn't follow crossing rules: A pedestrian running

across the road would be tracked by a mime who mocked his every

move. Mimes also poked fun at reckless drivers. The program was so

popular that another 400 people were trained as mimes.

 

" It was a pacifist counterweight, " Mockus said. " With neither words

nor weapons, the mimes were doubly unarmed. My goal was to show

the importance of cultural regulations. "

 

 

More of Mockus in Bogotá

 

Here are a few more innovations from Antanas Mockus' two

mayoral terms: Mockus mobilized people to protest against violence

and terrorist attacks. He invented a " vaccine against violence, " asking

people to draw the faces of the people who had hurt them on

balloons, which they then popped. About 50,000 people participated

in this campaign.

 

Mockus also embraced the concept of community policing. He tried to

bring the community and the police closer together through the

creation of Schools of Civic Security and local security fronts. In 2003,

there were about 7,000 local security fronts in Bogotá. " It is very

important to understand that the Schools and Fronts respond to a

civic ideal. They have nothing to do with firearms but basically

promote community organization, " Mockus points out.

 

Voluntary disarmament days were held in December 1996 and again

in 2003. Though less than 1 percent of the firearms in the city were

given up, homicides fell by 26 percent, thanks in part to the attention

given to the program by the media. The percentage of people who

think that it is better to have firearms in order to protect themselves

fell from 24.8 percent in 2001 to 10.4 percent in 2003.

 

In 2003, the Mockus administration provided 1,235,000 homes with

sewage service and 1,316,500 with water services. The city's provision

of drinking water rose from 78.7 percent of homes in 1993 to 100

percent in 2003. The sewage service rose from 70.8 percent of homes

in 1993 to 94.9 percent in 2003.

 

When Mockus assumed power, many city positions were distributed

according to council members' recommendations. " I stopped that,

and some called me an anti-patronage fundamentalist, " Mockus said.

He remembers that when he handed a text explaining his goals of

transparency to one key council member, the council member first

smiled, but later resigned.

 

 

A bigger classroom?

 

Mockus noted that his administrations were enlightened by academic

concepts, including the work of Nobel Prize-winning economist

Douglass North, who has investigated the tension between formal

and informal rules and how economic development is restrained

when those rules clash; and Jürgen Habermas' work on how dialogue

creates social capital. Mockus also mentions Socrates, who said that if

people understood well, they probably would not act in the wrong

way.

 

Luis Eduardo Garzón, the new mayor of Bogotá, is the first leftist who

has been in charge of the second-most important political position in

Colombia. Said Mockus, " His election expresses a consensus around

the importance of addressing social issues. Garzón has the challenge

of opening space to New political forces in a country that has been

dominated by a ''bipartidismo bobo' (dumb two-party system). "

 

Mockus - a sterling exemplar of the current vogue in Latin America

for " anti-politicians " - says that transforming Bogotá's people and

their sense of civic culture was the key to solving many of the city's

problems. He is looking forward to returning to the classroom at

Colombian National University after a sabbatical year. But Mockus is

also considering the possibility of launching a presidential campaign -

and perhaps being in charge of a 42 million student classroom.

 

* * *

 

María Cristina Caballero, a native of Bogotá, is a fellow at Harvard

University's Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy

School of Government. maria_cristina_caballero

 

 

Copyright 2004 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

 

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