Bogotá: Can’t we all just get along?

Honesty means paying your bus fare. Simple!

The newest goal of the of the city’s “Te Amo Bogotá” campaign may be its most ambitious yet: encouraging Bogotanos to be nice to each other.

No, seriously.

Earlier this month, City Hall announced plans to promote 10 fundamental values that it believes will improve the quality of life for its nearly nine million inhabitants.

Provided, of course, enough of those inhabitants to make a difference actually adopt them.

The values are:

1. Respect
2. Patience
3. Prudence
4. Equality
5. Gratitude
6. Empathy
7. Responsibility
8. Honesty
9. Tolerance
10. Solidarity

As with the campaign’s earlier phases, the City is relying on bus boards to get the message out quickly and at scale, along with the hashtag #BogotáEsNuestraCasa (Bogotá is our home). Now, commuters are being greeted with a series of posters, each bearing one of the 10 fundamental values and a simple example of how to live it in their daily lives.

Each poster targets a civic sore spot currently playing out repeatedly on the Transmilenio, in the streets, and even in the home. For example:

• Responsibility: When you put your recycling into a white bag and your organic waste into a black bag. Close the bag properly and put it out at the scheduled time. Easy!
• Solidarity: When you see an elderly woman crossing the street, stop your car, give her a smile, and let her pass. Simple!
• Equality: When people, regardless of their income, share the same platform and the same public transportation. No mess!

Think for a minute what the opposite of these would be and you’ll see how far this city has to go.

It’s easy from a North American perspective to ask, “Shouldn’t these things be obvious?” and it’s easy to answer “Yes.”

Down here, though, they’re not.

At least not yet.

What Bogotanos lack in shared civility they compensate for with the Golden Rule “No dar papaya,” which, roughly translated, means “don’t make yourself a victim.” And while the city’s murder rate is at its lowest point since 1974, opportunistic and violent crimes are still common. Unfortunately for too many residents, Bogotá is still a city they navigate elbows up.

Even if it’s just to get on the bus.

“But wait,” I hear you say. “We visited and the people were all super nice!”

True. As I’ve written elsewhere, Colombians – including Bogotanos – are some of the warmest and most welcoming people you’ll meet…individually. In a day-to-day context and outside the tourist areas, they’re rarely civil to each other.

Respect means not starting fights with the other team’s fans.

Yes, you’ll see exceptions, especially in affluent areas such as Santa Ana. But courtesies in these areas have more to do with protecting social status and respecting protocol than acknowledging another person’s existence.

Particularly when that person is cutting your lawn.

Still, I can understand the reasons. Deeply conservative and class-conscious for generations, Bogotá is now in the midst of unprecedented social and political change. In 1950, its population stood at 630,000. Today it stands at nearly nine million. More than 500,000 people have come here in the last three years alone.

As a result, Bogotá is now one of the most densely populated cities on the continent with more than 4,000 people per square kilometre. Its traffic ranks as the sixth worst in the world.

Further, much of that growth has come from internally displaced people fleeing the country’s civil war. Some estimates put this number at four million. Most of these people are from rural areas and unaccustomed to city living. Too many still struggle to simply survive in areas such as Cuidad Bolívar, one of the poorest places in the country.

Given all this it’s natural to expect some friction as people make their way and find their place. Civility can be an afterthought when you’re struggling to feed yourself. But I’d argue it’s also unwise to leave the situation as it is. Nine million people living together in a state of mutual mistrust and suspicion can bring its own host of social problems.

Which is why this campaign so important.

Teaching Bogotanos to embrace these values is about more than how to separate their garbage. This campaign is teaching them essential skills for their post-conflict future.

Millions of small gestures can bring about significant change. For Bogotanos, that’s learning how to live together in peace in a country that’s had so very little of it for so very long.

¿Qué es la tolerancia? Asistentes al stand de #TeAmoBogotá en la @FILBogota nos cuentan… #BogotáEsNuestraCasa pic.twitter.com/bYaIp7FQ9N

— Alcaldía de Bogotá (@Bogota) April 29, 2018