I had a plan. Rent a truck, fill it with plastic bottles and dump it on the road in front of the Red House. Block the road with a mound of plastic trash. This was back when the Red House still housed the nation's Parliament. I didn't want any old truck, but a big quarry dump truck. A big rig that can carry tens of thousands of bottles, like the ones the criminal gangs use to transport illegal quarry aggregate.
The idea was to shame Parliament into dealing with the enforcement of litter laws, enact recycling and implement proper waste disposal–that is, no longer throw junk into the swamp. Simple things really, just day-to-day logistics of keeping a society litter-free and presumably a lot happier and healthier than living surrounded by trash.
I relished the thought of radical, direct action. I sought advice from a lawyer about the possible fine, which I was willing to pay. Then she smothered my idea by saying: "But then you will be a litterer just like them." Silence on my part. I'd come for legal advice. Instead I got moral judgment. I was shamed. Somebody whom I respected imposed a social norm on me.
Shame changed my intended behaviour. I too am a herd animal, just like you. We all just want to belong. Can shame be used to stop littering? What about traffic behaviour and violence? The default philosophy is that we need laws, an efficient judicial system and enforcement to deal with crime. That is a true statement but it does not take into account our ineffective government that makes it unlikely that these prerequisites will be met. Can we think of tactics that do not involve burdening the judiciary or prisons with nonviolent crimes?
In T&T we shame people on social media for sitting on turtles. For generations we ate turtles and our parents and grandparents encouraged us to sit on them. They were both tasty and fun. That was the social norm. Then we learnt that we had overexploited them and that sitting on them could harm them, even kill them. That knowledge did not change behaviour but shame did.
When pictures of people sitting on turtles went viral on social media that changed. We were introduced to a new social norm that expects us to protect turtles and allows the condemnation and ridiculing of people who harass turtles. Turtle rules have changed and if you need help adapting to this change your fellow citizens will help you. Thus was born the viral turtle sitting picture.
Public shaming is fun for people who do the shaming but the subject might be stigmatised for life. A viral video does not fade away. This kind of shaming can be damaging psychologically and amount to disproportionate punishment. Punishment is not the purpose of rules, getting the desired behaviour is. Can shaming be done in a kinder, gentler way?
Antanas Mockus did exactly this when he was the mayor of Bogota from 1995-1998 and 2001-2003. Back then Bogota was crime-ridden and full of dangerous drivers. The cops were corrupt and inefficient, the judicial system overburdened. He had to figure out a way to make his city liveable with few resources.
He managed to drop homicide rates by 70 per cent and traffic fatalities by 50 per cent. He did weird, innovative things. Tens of thousands of residents were given a placebo vaccine against violence. People were encouraged to take out their anger on balloons instead of one another.
One of his coups was replacing traffic wardens in one part of the city with mimes. If you jaywalked, the mime would follow and mimic you. You were profoundly shamed in a way that you would never forget. It was done playfully but at the same time you would feel as if you were the worst citizen if you were the butt of the joke. People changed their behaviour to avoid being shamed.
Mockus printed thousands of cards with a thumb up, or a thumb down. Drivers were rewarded with a thumb up for good behaviour or a thumb down for bad. There was no fine involved. No court case. Just the knowledge that your peers are watching and judging you. It was satisfying for onlookers to see rule-breakers.
Imagine walking through downtown Port-of-Spain, throwing a bottle into the drain, and then being shadowed by a mime who mimics the way you walk, the style of your hair. That's an instant calypso tent. The crowd will love it, you won't. Shaming can be an education and it doesn't cost much.
T&T is ravaged by high crime, littering and dangerous drivers but these are only symptoms of a society that has lost social norms. People no longer seem to know who to look at for guidance. We have lost the words to explain what is going on. Mockus explained his policy by saying: "Innovative behaviours can be useful when you run out of words."
Imagine walking through downtown Port-of-Spain, throwing a bottle into the drain, and then being shadowed by a mime who mimics the way you walk, the style of your hair. That's an instant calypso tent. The crowd will love it, you won't. Shaming can be an education and it doesn't cost much.