Hello,
I enjoyed reading your perspective of our magazine, but I think you may have missed some aspects of what we do. For instance, Ross Conrad is a regular contributor of ours…author of Natural Beekeeping…and though some of our editorial is aimed at how the majority of beekeepers pursue the craft, we certainly cover all aspects….chemical free is certainly important to all of us, and that was apparent in that Bee Culture sponsored the EAS meeting this summer with a strong emphasis on no chemicals, few chemicals and definitely using resistant bees. My point is that there is more to Bee Culture magazine, and beekeeping in general, than treatments and chemicals…especially the latest in IPM management skills needed to keep your bees healthy and alive…don’t give up on us after only one issue…
Kim Flottum

You can also check it out here. Rest assured I’m not going to cancel my subscription and ask for my money back. I still think Bee Culture has valuable information and more important to note that although there is peer pressure to use medications and treatments, no one is putting a gun to my head and telling me that I have to. We all have the ability to filter what we read and take the information we want and throw out the information we don’t want. I have to admit that complaint may have been premature in that I fired it off only after seeing one issue of Bee Culture but most magazines have a running tone depending on what the owning company believes in or where the bills are paid.

I want to thank Kim for responding as quickly as he did. I’m delighted to see that Bee Culture is listening and looking forward to reading future issues. Kudos to you and the magazine. The response he gave makes me think that he and Bee Culture could be a powerful ally in getting the word out about beekeeping with no chemicals.

Update: Oh boy. I feel embarrassed. Kim is a he, not a she. I was alerted to that fact by Scot McPherson on the Yahoo group. Thank you Scot. I should know better and do my homework on people and not assume gender based on names. Considering that my name is also unisex, that’s a double faux pas for me. The post has been corrected.

I’ve learned more about beekeeping through the Organic Beekeepers Group on Yahoo and by reading entries in the Backwards Beekeepers than anywhere else. I’ve learned about the industry off of the Bee Source forums but as far as taking care of bees I think I’d take the information with a grain of salt unless it’s from someone I know that has the same goals. I know Michael Bush frequents the forum. I’m just disappointed that Bee Culture has no organic section and I realize that would be hard to do since we advocate no treatments of any kind, no artificial feeds (only sugar, and that is a last resort). The industry is built on treatments, medications, feeds and other artificial means. The magazine couldn’t survive without the funding those ads provide.

I’m fine with the fact that I belong to a minority of beekeepers. I know I’m doing the right thing by the bees I’ll be getting. So I’m also fine with the thought; Bee Culture is not my culture.

Language As A Barrier

I love immigration. It’s great that individuals and their families can move here and become a citizen. However there’s a problem with the immigrants that have been coming here. They’re trying to recreate what they had back where they came from instead of trying to become full fledged fully absorbed Americans. Back in WWII when we had a rush of immigrants we had people coming in who wanted to be Americans. They brought many things from their homeland, traditions, food, music and other things and America was enriched as a result. They realized and respected that America has its own traditions, values and language. They took the time to learn American history, traditions and the English language. Most of the immigrants today apparently just want the freedom without becoming an American or learning the language. So now we have communities based on cultures that self segregate in parts of a city. Take a look at my home town, Los Angeles. We have Little Tokyo, Little China, Little Armenia and many other  “sectors”. I’ve run across many individuals who use language as a weapon, or worst an excuse, and here lies my beef. Now, not everyone does this so I’m not saying that every immigrant who can’t speak English doesn’t learn. It’s the people who don’t who give a bad name to everyone else.

I’ve had many instances where people have used their native language as a weapon. I’ve gone in to nail shops (yes, I’ve had manicures) where the workers are predominantly (read all of them) are from Philippines or Vietnam. If you’ve been there too you’ll understand where I’m coming from. Conversations between the workers are in their native language, not English. You know when you’re being talked about as they glance at you and converse. Feels weird doesn’t it? It’s also disrespectful. You get angry that they show you that disrespect. I’ve also had instances where a person fakes that they don’t speak English because they want to get away with something or that they want to make communication very difficult. So you hear in their language that they don’t understand. These people use language as a weapon.

Then there’s people who simply haven’t learned the language. They’ve never tried. Sure they can speak broken English. Picked up over the years. This is where I’m trying to get to. This is where the story begins. We have a garden at the Sepulveda Garden Center. We’ve only had it for about two years. It’s been a source of pride for both Erin and myself. However the center isn’t run very well, but that’s another post, I plan to rake the administrator across the coals. My plot neighbors are a plethora of different individuals. All sorts of different backgrounds. A few even have more than their fair share of plots. One of my neighbors is Russian. We even call him, “The Russian” because we don’t know his name.  The Russian has many plots throughout the center. He and his wife have accumulated them before the rule of having a maximum of three plots. “The Russian”, only speaks Russian.  His English is broken. It’s nearly impossible to communicate with him. Since we had a problem communicating we had a misunderstanding come up. You see, The Russian had grape stock that is basically all over the center. If he thinks you’re a good gardener, he gives you a vine to plant in your garden. This is a kind and noble gesture even though the vine was going dormant looked like it had Pierce’s disease and it was of shit stock. So to be nice we originally accepted his offer of a vine. I really didn’t want it. Not because it was a crappy stock but that we had found a better place and we were on the verge of deciding if we were staying or going to give the plot up and leave. He had us dig a hole 2 feet deep and two feet wide. The he told us not to plant it till we had all sorts of mulch and amendments, controlling isn’t he? He wanted us to come next weekend so he can plant the vine. We weren’t able to, something had come up and we had no way of contacting him. We didn’t meet again till three weeks later. When he came up to us he was irritated. It was pretty much a tantrum. He threw his hands up and walked away. All these years in the United States and he hasn’t learned English. Either by picking it up or going to classes. He couldn’t communicate to us what he wanted and we couldn’t communicate to him. I felt like he wanted us to cater to him. Where did this sense of entitlement come from? I felt insulted that he didn’t bother to learn English. Am I wrong to feel this way? Some people would say yes. Other people wouldn’t. We ended a friendship with both parties walking away in frustration. Now, things will be tense between us at the garden when we’re both there. All because he couldn’t speak English. Yes, America is a melting pot. However a melting pot means integration. He decided that he didn’t have to, and that’s insulting. There have been many instances where this situation comes up. I’ve been told time and time again stories of people being yelled at by individuals who don’t speak English asking why they don’t speak their language. This holds especially true with our neighbors to the South. Since they’re so close, there’s really no incentive to learn English. A friend of mine was yelled at because they couldn’t speak Spanish while they were at their job as a cashier.  This was insulting to hear. If you want to come and live in my country I expect you to learn English, just as I would be expected to learn the native language of a country I immigrate to, if I were to, and I would out of respect for that country. Apparently, since I’m a white American male born in this country, I’m not allowed to expect that.