Our Future Lies in Nurturing Bees, Not Guarding Honey | From Stolen Honey to a Nation of Builders
NV Paulose, Chairman, Global TV +91 98441 82044
We begin with a stark, unsettling fact. In Punjab, the CBI seized assets from a single police officer: ₹7.5 crore in cash, 2.5 kg of gold, 50 properties, and a trove of luxury watches. This is not an anomaly; it is a symptom. It is the harvested, bottled, and stolen honey.
For too long, we have defined our national wealth by this “honey” that is actually a static capital with an inherited cancer within it. The piles of cash and the glittering properties are temporary pleasures. We take such corruption as theft and make big fury about them. We miss a more fundamental truth, one that nature’s most diligent creator teaches us.
The True Wealth Isn’t the Honey, It’s the Bee.
A hive’s most vital asset is not the honey in its combs. That is merely the output, the residue of a process. The true, irreplaceable wealth is the hive’s capacity to make honey; the collective of bees, the pollination flights, the cooperation and collaboration within, and the life-giving buzz itself. This capacity cannot be seized in a raid. It cannot be locked in a vault. It is a living, breathing force. Ever growing.
The corrupt officials are like the bear raiding the hive. They only see the finished product. They steal the capital, but they cannot steal the capital-generating capacity of the people. They are predators of things. They are deaf, dumb and blind to the process that creates them.
The Great Paradox: Immaterial Capital
This is the core of the modern economic scenario. The so-called Capital has become immaterial today in the life of the people. It is no longer just land and gold; it is trust, ideas, networks, and human potential, that create lasting wealth in the world. When a corrupt official takes money, the real loss isn’t just the money itself. The real loss is everything that money would have become. Yet, the society goes ahead in a renewed path, some times to reach a greater destination as destined.
Corruption is a tragic failure of imagination. It is brutal, outdated and a dirty way for capital mobilization. It is looting the harvest instead of nurturing the field. It makes capital inert, trapping it in lockers and land deeds, removing it from the circulatory system of the economy.
The Path Forward: From Hives to Ecosystems
So, how do we surpass this? Not by building bigger locks for the honey, but by creating more bees and healthier fields.
Become Pollinators, Not Predators: The joy in preparing fresh honey is more than the joy in stealing them from another beehive. We should redesign a reward system; for inspiration. This means:
Transparent Systems as the New Hive: We should create platforms to ensure the nectar reaches its intended destination, bypassing the sticky fingers of intermediaries. We need more of this in addressing the fundamental issues in the world. Hunger, Education and Employment are the areas that we should focus our attention. Education and Creative Engagement of students, youth and women can do wonders in India.
Empowering the Worker Bees: The principal stealing from the mid-day meal scheme starves the future workforce. Investing in education, healthcare, and skills isn’t an expense; it is feeding the larvae that will become the next generation of productive bees.
Connect the Human Hive: Wealth should be created at every instance and it should be distributed equitably as well. The most powerful strategy to eradicate hunger is to transform the fight against it into an economic engine, where those facing food insecurity become active architects of the solution. By channelling seed money from diverse sources, including sponsors from promotional initiatives in media, art, tourism, healthcare and education; we can fund community kitchens that engage people to prepare snacks for themselves and others.
Those who can contribute; others distribute. This is self-reinforcing and replacing the static stockpiling of aid. This method will build a dynamic economy of dignity and integrity. Solving hunger generates income and empowers everyone involved as both a contributor and a beneficiary.
Celebrate the Process, Not Just the Product: A nation obsessed with its GDP (the honey) often neglects the dignity of its citizens and its environment (the hive). The real miracle in India is not progress despite corruption, ii is the people who continue to create and innovate in spite of all of it. Imagine the energy, unleashed. Aim; not a trillion-dollar economy, aim to build at least a social system free from corruption.
The real task before us is to redirect our national energy away from guarding the honey and towards nurturing the bees; the millions of Indians whose talent, integrity, and hard work are the true, undisputable wealth of this nation. The bees will then take care of themselves. The heartbeats of a billion productive people, connected and empowered, is a fortune that no one can ever seize. Let us bank on ourselves.
