traffic calmer Bogotá style

No-one batted an eyelid at this cyberman. "It's normal" said Andres, "He's a semaforo".

... It's because of their Mayor.

Antanas Mockus, a mathematician and philosopher, resigned as Rector (top dog) of of the prestigious Colombian National University and found another big challenge, one he described as "a 6.5 million person classroom."

Although he had no experience in politics Mockus became mayor of Bogotá mainly because people believed him to be honest. A truly innovative individual, he turned Bogotá into a social experiment.

By communicating through symbols, humour and metaphors Mokus changed a city choked with violence, lawless traffic, corruption and gangs of street children who mugged and stole into the place I described in my last post.

As part of the campaign he wore a Superman costume and acted out the role of a hero called "Supercitizen." Laughter and example worked! (he also went on TV naked to demonstrate how to save water while showering which resulted in a water saving of 40% in just one year)

Mockus' out-of-the-box ideas are informed by some heavyweight intellectual influences. He says they include Jürgen Habermas's work on the creation of social capital through dialogue and that of Nobel Prize-winning economist Douglass C North. The Mayor says that he's still inspired by teaching, which he apparently does by finding theatrical ways to gain peoples' attention, thereby making them think.

He already had something of a reputation before becoming Mayor of Bogotá as he had pulled down his pants and mooned an auditorium of rowdy arts students. That got him silence - in which he explained that he had done so using "valid artistic tools".

He's done a lot and achieved miraculous results. During his first "Night for Women" around 700,000 women went out while their men stayed at home with the kids. On that night all the police on duty were women as well.

He also hired 420 mimes to control traffic. That's what a semaforo is - a traffic controller (or traffic light). It seems that this cyber uniform is just part of that scene.

However, I'm not sure whether he's still Mayor now!