PART II – Demonstrating Bees Disappear – Occupy Bees: Sold Out or Bought In?

29 January 2015

THE FIRST CHAPTER

            Last week’s article, Part I of this series, reviewed events leading up to the mysterious disappearance of a group of demonstrating bees.  In 2009, a swarm of honeybees arrived at the White House and occupied a bush.   The White House bee security team (a part-time beekeeper) acted swiftly.  After the reported capture of the first bee, there was a complete media blackout (or . . . no one was really interested enough to follow-up on the story). 

            Strangest of all, there hasn’t been a single theory about the fate of these bees until . . . , well, . . . until this author invented one last week.   After reviewing a mountain of conjecture (there really are no facts), this author was “forced” to ask:  What happened to the disappearing bees?

            When the demonstrating bees arrived at the White House, they didn’t march or take to the streets.  Instead, the swarm “occupied” a bush.  Was their “occupation” of the bush a message? Were the disappearing bees an advance party for what would later come to known as the Occupy Wall Street Movement?!

            These burning questions demanded an answer!  

THE HONEYBEES MAKE THEIR “OCCUPATION” MOVE

            Consider:

            Just after the bee swarm's “occupation” of the White House bush . . . (well, OK, it wasn’t just after.  Actually, the Wall Street swarm appeared on May 31, 2010, about 1 year and 2 months after their “unsuccessful” White House “occupation.”)  

            Anyway, sometime after a swarm of bees “occupied” the White House bush, a protesting swarm of honeybees appeared on Wall Street – for the “final battle” between these humble industrious honeybees and the financial giants of corrupt banking and corporate manipulation.   

            But, even if the honeybees lost the battle, they still might win the media war.  This confrontation could “get ugly.”  And, the whole world would be watching as these poor honeybees faced off against the “exterminators” of the “vile banksters” and “shady speculators” -- always to be found lurking near the very epicenter of corrupt international intrigue.

THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT

            But don’t underestimate Wall Street. 

            The White House was less than prepared for a swarm of demonstrating honeybees, but Wall Street and the NYPD took the honeybee swarm’s arrival in stride. As the swarm prepared to enter a restaurant, “Cipriani Wall Street” (either to catch an expensive lunch or occupy the high-end restaurant in protest), the insects found themselves swirling in the rush of air produced by the NYPD beekeeper’s low-pressure vacuum.  This special device captures bees by sucking them out of the air, but does not otherwise injure the insects.   The “swarm” was, quickly and quietly, over.

            (Kind of makes you stop and think.  Wall Street was already prepared for something like this.  (1) Unlike the White House, the NYPD has a full-time beekeeper on staff.  (2) The White House part-time beekeeper was armed only with a cardboard box from a local supermarket.  The NYPD beekeeper was prepared with a specially-made, high-tech piece of equipment designed to deal with honeybee swarms in a fast, efficient and thoroughly humane way, . . . at least, if the swarm is threatening Wall Street.  (3) I guess F. Scott Fitzgerald was right – “The rich are different.”)

            But this time, the media didn’t “drop the ball” in the follow-up.  They wanted to know why the bees were swarming. 

            Unfortunately, investigating reporters, first, made the mistake of asking several Wall Street pundits who opined, “The swarming probably resulted from increased concern over the sudden weakening of the dollar in international markets.”  The pundits concluded, “That listeners, like the swarming bees, should relax because these overseas monetary developments are really no threat to the typically conservative investment portfolio.”

            Realizing their mistake, reporters, then, asked Officer Anthony Planakis, NYPD’s beekeeper, who speculated that “the bees likely were looking for a new home.”  This behavior was probably triggered by “overcrowding in the hive or, maybe, the queen was failing.”

            Then, reporters tackled the real question.  What happened to the would-bee “occupying” bees?  At first, there was no comment.  But then the dogged persistence of the media earned for them, at least, a small dividend.  One piece of information leaked out.  The bees were “relocated.”   But where?  Were these bees languishing in the insect version of a secret detainment camp?

            No.  The bees were moved to Connecticut.

HONEYBEES?  SELLING OUT?

            Moved to Connecticut!  How could a bunch of homeless, protesting honeybees afford to move to Connecticut?  I couldn’t afford to move to Connecticut.  I doubt that all but a few readers could manage that upscale move . . . at least, at the moment.

            So, as we speak, a group of honeybees are probably living the high-life in the Connecticut countryside.  But how?  Why? 

            We don’t actually know, but let’s be honest.  It’s only too obvious.  Isn’t it?    

            In a typically corrupt move, Wall Street, sensing the public relations threat from the homeless bees, didn’t conspire to have the insects punished.  Instead, the financial manipulators moved to “co-opt” the bees with large payoffs, bribes and the offer of participation in other high-end compensation schemes.  It’s sort of like the things the banking industry is doing when it makes political “donations” as part of it's efforts to lobby Congress.

            Sadly, this isn’t the last chapter.  Shortly after the “disappearance” of the occupying honeybees into the country club infested hills of Connecticut, something else happened.  Honeybees began to appear as regular long-term guests in the finest New York Hotels.  And not just at New York City’s Waldorf.  Honeybees have been blending into the high-society social scenes at the finest hotels throughout New York City.  Lately, honeybees can be found in almost every other high-end hotel in every major city in the United States. 

            It’s one thing when you can afford to live in Connecticut.  It’s another when you can shuttle, for whole seasons, from your Connecticut home for a stay in some of New York City’s finest hotels.  That kind of money doesn’t come from bribes.  Instead, it must come from . . . something else.

ARE “SELL-OUT” HONEYBEES . . . BUYING IN!

            Could the Connecticut honeybees have received more than just bribes to abandon their protest?  Could these bees have gone farther than just “selling out?”   Could the bees have made an even “sweeter” deal by which they received investment packages and options together with low interest loans to allow them to reap the full benefits of their ill-gotten gains?

            Again, no one can be sure.  But a bee can’t afford the New York hotel scene without something more than “honey-money.”   But, now that these bees are rich, the next question is:  What are these wealthy bees investing in? 

            Are these bees investing in industries that employ their less affluent sister bees in a socially responsible, natural, and sustainable way?   Or . . . are these nouveau riche insects reaping obscene profits from irresponsible investments in derivative securities along with those other “shady” investment products so notorious in modern times?

            It could be worse!  We can only hope that this small, but increasingly corrupt, class of honey bees doesn’t fall victim to a cold indifference to the plight of their many sisters.  Wealthy honeybees should not invest in large scale, industrialized agricultural concerns – those industries that work their poor sisters to exhaustion.  From there, it’s only a short walk down the “road to perdition” with investments in pesticide producers without any thought beyond making the biggest and quickest buck in the deal.

            One is horrified at the thought of a small handful bees, the most socially oriented and responsible of insects, seeking a life of vast wealth and luxury at the expense of the overwhelming majority of sister bees!  I can’t imagine a relative handful of any species rewarding itself with useless luxuries while the vast majority of their siblings languish in . . . ah, er . . . relative . . . .  

            On second thought, I can imagine one other species engaging in this type of behavior, but that is a subject for a different post on a different day.

          

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