The Perfect Politician

[andrewducker]

Why can't we have a politician like this?

He focused on changing hearts and minds - not through preaching but through artistically creative strategies that employed the power of individual and community disapproval. He also spoke openly, with a lovely partial self-mockery, of his own failings, not suggesting that he was more moral than anyone else.

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.

Comments

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I posted that article to my journal yesterday, that guy's way too cool. A politician that actually cares about his people! OMGWTF, who'd've figured? These days it feels that unless you have some level of malice or slickness in your heart, you're not likely to hold an office in the US. Almost makes me want to move to Columbia, if there weren't other problems.