Bee Politics

A few weeks ago, the country had a national election. I (Andrew) won’t make any comments about how free and fair the elections were. If anyone is interested, they can look up the report by European Commission Observers. Basically, it was said that there was “not a level playing field”.

Each party had a symbol to help differentiate them from the rest. One party was the “cow” party; one party was the “thumbs up” party, and the current ruling party was the “bee” party. All of the pens, hats, watches, and tee shirts distributed by the parties bore their symbol. I had a friend of mine get me a tee shirt of the “bee” party. I was advised not to wear it in order to appear neutral, but I still thought it would be a neat to keep as a souvenir. I began thinking about the bee as a political symbol. Bees are social insects that only function with an active queen. The queen is responsible for nearly every decision in the hive. There is no voting, no referendums, no representation; in a word, no democracy. I assume that the ruling party was thinking of other qualities when they chose the bee as their symbol. Maybe unity, or hard work perhaps? Either way, it is ironically telling that the “bee” party has been in power for the last 20 years with very little sign of allowing free and fair elections.

I suppose one ironic thing about bee politics is that ultimately it is the worker bees that decide when to dispose of their queen. If a queen is too old or is not laying enough eggs, the colony will make for themselves a new leader and get rid of the old one. I suppose that is the essence of democracy—the ability to peacefully oust a ruler who is not performing to the colony’s standards.