Bees at work (III): Before starting to dive into the bees’ life.
Clearing up a future misunderstanding with the bees.
Have a beautiful week in January. Before proceeding further with our material, I considered it was important to clarify certain things.
First, I would like to state that we did not choose the bees erratically, neither we select this specific species because of its organizational structure, which has been wrongly tagged because of its matriarchal and organized life around the sovereign majesty´s bee workforce. The working roles of the bees were tagged under a monarchical truth that was taking place when the regal kingdoms were the rule of thumb. At that epoch, the bees´ working organization was labeled and classified by those who studied them, at the time in which democracies did not exist.
The context in which all the erudite experts of bees have explained the bees´ matriarchal working organization was understood under the monarchic regimes. So please, do not misconceive our saga. We don´t want to confuse our readers as if we support what was baptized as a monarchal organization. No. That is not our aim. The last thing we want with this saga is to provoke the impression that the bee’s workforce organization under the queen-workforce-drones label must be applied to our human species. We can´t apply the model of the working bees to our societies because we are not bees. As simple as that. We are humans, and we have different wants and needs than the bees.
Second. Each species to its own. We choose the bees because we enjoy making you think that each species on earth has a particular social organization that works for the intentions and drives of that species. We wish you to begin to think about the species beyond the scientists and those who are entitled to do it. We all are stewards of the fauna and the flora. From the richest of the wealthy to the poorest of the underprivileged. As administrators and caregivers of the species, we all need to see animals and plants with different notions and visions, and we need to relearn this since kindergarten.
The community of bees is naturally organized with a certain specific approach, no one has taught them how to do it, the bees simply are as they are, because God made them as such hundreds of millions of years ago. They are naturally programmed to do, what they do, and they learn their own rules in their hives. The same occurs with the community of lions, as much as with the society of ants, the congregation of the whales, the community of the guinea pigs, or the league of eagles. Each species has its own organizational format for working, reproducing, and perpetuating the cycle of living for its own species. Each species to its own.
Third. Our working systems are tied to our political-economic systems. In the case of human communities or societies, we have been trying to find our own organizational plus-quoi-perfect arrangement, and we have been doing it for thousands of years. For centuries, our ancestors were inaccurately propelling a working organization that doesn´t work for the basic, intermediate, or advanced human wants and needs. For the last 5,000 years, humans have done horrible mistakes by choosing the immoral working schemes tied to slavery, a historical peculiar unfair servitude model secured to our past social-political-economic systems. After the French Revolution, humans have been trying to eradicate slavery, in between other mortal sins like racism, uneven treatment towards women, and poverty. Eleonora Escalante Strategy has already told you that we have started to change during the latest 200 years. For example, we can´t deny that the slavery working model that was ruling the times of the exploration of the new world was tied to the monarchical/feudal political-economic systems of that epoch.
The bees are merely an example that we wish to use to deliver a clear message. Our commitment with the bees is to extract certain key lovely features of their existence that are common to what humans are experiencing, and we wish to deliver a clear message beyond the workforce organization of the bees.
There is a lot to do. Humans need to adapt to the new challenges that are raising, and coming with our human evolution. The last thing we desire is to offer a stamp of approval to the autocratic model of our past monarchies that kept servitude, oppression, bondage, captivity, and slavery alive. We also are against working models that reduce the middle-class, even if they seem to take-out people from extreme poverty. Autocratic, despotic, totalitarian systems should be left behind because these were unfair under the Bible´s promises of God and Jesus Christ. We are glad that these oppressive dictatorial working society organizations (inherited from the kingdoms of the past) have started to be replaced, petit a petit, by incipient democracies. In many countries, during the XX century, all generations have worked hard to establish their still embryonic democratic models. There are plenty of countries for which the democracy has “really functioned”, but still there is a huge workload to do. There is a lot to do. Thriving democracies’ formats and flavors vary from here and there, but all of them are positioned in the center of the economical-political system’s spectrum. As usual, Eleonora Escalante Strategy celebrates and cherishes democracies as the only way to emerge and fix all the issues that we have carried on from our feudal past of empires and kingdoms that have proved to be wrong over and over again.
I have no reason to criticize the existing monarchies on earth. But I assume, these families have learned to adapt, and they have changed their roles in society. I hope they comprehend that democracies are the only way to move forward from a past that is not just incorrect but is completely immoral from every angle that you notice it. The current existing royal highness in the planet should ignite and defend democracies more than us because they have suffered losses and pain from their historical heritage.
Let´s begin to explore the key features of the life of the bees at the hive. After our clarification from above, we will begin with our material of the bee’s life. We won´t be able to extend so much, given our tight schedule. So, if you wish to read more about the bees’ secrets, find the links below. For the time being, we will start to provide key ideas or glimpses of interesting things that we all must know about the bees. The bee’s colony is one community of excellent pollinators that has helped us to survive, not because they are honey producers, but because bees are performing a role beyond theirs. Bees help us without knowing it.
The bees as pollinators of excellence. Bees, the rest of the species, and humans, we all are in trouble for our future survival, if we, humans, don´t take seriously our role of keepers, curators, or custodians of the well-being of our planet.
If you wish to download the material click here:
Who are the bees?
- The bees are a community of insects with a remarkable biology that entitles them to produce honey (a natural sweetener) and wax (for making candles and other products) (1).
- There are more than 20,000 sub-species of bees, being the honeybee (Apis mellifera), the most popular one for honey production.
- According to Cornell University expert, the bee Professor Seeley (2), who has spent all his life studying them; the universe of the bees is so diverse and ample. He explaines, some are smaller than a rice of grain, and other bees are as bigger to fill a half of a little teacup or an Italian expresso coffee cup.
- Bees have attracted the erudite scholars since ages. There are historic records of scientists trying to understand this community of animals. As far as the times of Egypt flourishing empire (2,400 BC), or at the times of Aristotle (384-322 BC), the bees ‘stakeholders (honey industry producers, researchers at prestigious universities, public and private sector scientists, beekeepers, commodity organizations, regulators, bees’ associations, farmers, and traders) have been actively involved in understanding the bee evolution, its biology, genetics, behavior, communication strategies and honey production management.
- Honeybees are social insects that live together in large numbers (we are leaving out of this saga all types of solitary bees’ species).
- Honeybees need to live in a house: The apiary or beehive. Naturally, before starting to build their lodging and respective chambers, these lovely insects look for a perfect location (where they can feed themselves with flower power nectar; pollen to produce honey for their needs and wants; and keep their house fully functional). The house of a bee community is very important. Everything they do is connected to their headquarters, which are built in different levels, using the design of wax multiple tiny hexagonal cells.
- A healthy typical colony of honeybees’ averages between 20,000 to 60,000 of them (3). As of today, we will use the term colony, to describe a bee’s community. Within a colony, honeybees are divided into three biologically and physiologically distinct adult castes:
- A single reproductive female known as the queen
- Several hundred to thousands reproductive males called drones
- Thousands of sterile or unfertile female workers.
- To be continued…
In our next chapter, we will continue explaining, what are bees doing all the time? how do they live in the hive? and how are they organized in their houses? Now we will proceed to our music strategic analysis section.
Why did we choose the song Silent Night in our last post? We were not able to share any Christmas songs, since we were on holiday. So, we had to use the occasion of the Epiphany (Kings´ day) for that. Joshua Bell, one of the interpreters that we conveyed, is a famous violinist who did an experiment supported by the Washington Post a few years ago. In 2007, Mr. Bell, a prodigious violinist since early ages, dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, and a black baseball cap. He went into the entrance of L´Enfant Plaza metro station in Washington DC, under an incognito flag; and performed an over-the-top piece of classical music, with a Stradivarius of several million dollars.
Joshua started to play his violin, next to a couple of trash garbage plastic hampers. The objective of the experiment was to measure and observe people’s behaviors, perceptions of beauty, and priorities when humans are under an itinerant traveling mood. Of course, after 45 minutes of playing the violin, the results of the conduct test were compelling. More than 1,000 people passed by. Seven people stopped at least for a minute, whatever they were doing to hang around, and took interest in the performance. Twenty-seven gave him money, most of them on the run — for a total of $32, and only one transient recognized him (4). When the story was published by Gene Weingarten, under the name “Pearls Before Breakfast”, it was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing.
We wonder since humans are living in rush-hour moods (particularly with the Smartphone) all the time, how many times do we unrecognize talent, how many times we can´t identify or distinguish quality and genius when it is right in front of us? How many times do we hurt the most intelligent cerebral and bright people (in their respective disciplines) just because they are not wearing luxury brands or trendy smart clothing or do not speak English like native speakers?
We wonder why do people think that working in incognito is not worth it? How many times do we overlook what is really valuable, based on perceptions of indigent poverty? How many times do we ignore the art of excellence, just because we don´t know what is the meaning of fineness, we don´t grasp the condition of merit, and we have gotten used to the horrendous mediocrity in all we do as a result of lack of training-practice-education, not just in music, but in everything, particularly with the usage of disruptive new technologies?
The song of today: We have picked Baba Yetu (in the Swahili language, which means the prayer “Our Father”). Three versions. The first one, directed by Christopher Tin with the Stellenbosch University Choir. The second one is “Baba Yetu, Lord’s Prayer in Swahili” by Alex Boyé and the BYU Men’s Chorus & Philarmonic. The third one is performed by the Angel City Chorale. Enjoy!
Thank you for reading to me, next week we will continue with our bee’s journey.
Sources of reference were utilized to write this article.
- https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-role-native-bees-united-states
- http://pages.nbb.cornell.edu/seeley.shtml
- https://ppp.purdue.edu/resources/ppp-publications/the-complex-life-of-the-honey-bee/
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/pearls-before-breakfast-can-one-of-the-nations-great-musicians-cut-through-the-fog-of-a-dc-rush-hour-lets-find-out/2014/09/23/8a6d46da-4331-11e4-b47c-f5889e061e5f_story.html
Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. Nevertheless, the majority of the pictures, images, or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.
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