The system, a rapid bus network called TransMilenio, rolled out in 2000. Its buses weren’t as big or as fast as trains, but they were up and running in a fraction of the time and at a vastly lower cost. The idea of rapid buses became the rage from Jakarta to Mexico City, and Enrique Peñalosa, the Bogotá mayor who cooked up the idea for TransMilenio, became a globe-trotting celebrity after his term ended. But there was another colorful character whose contributions to TransMilenio I had to leave on the cutting room floor. (He explained the dropping of his pants by citing the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “symbolic violence.”)

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Persons: Enrique Peñalosa, George Harrison, Dalai, Peñalosa, —, TransMilenio, Antanas Mockus, Pierre Bourdieu’s Organizations: Grist, Super, Colombia’s National University, mooning Locations: Bogotá, Colombia, New York, Jakarta, Mexico City