Distributism envisions an ideal society where property ownership is widespread and protected, and where means of production are owned by families not corporations. Distributism envisions a state that supports and maximizes family ownership of businesses and land.

Thomas Storck, a Catholic writer and philosopher, argues that “distributism seeks to subordinate economic activity to human life as a whole, to our spiritual life, our intellectual life, our family life.” That is a reality we should all aspire to.

While the Honduran state, nor our local government are far from supportive of empowering families in that manner, nevertheless a majority of Roatan’s business are family owned. Hybur, Serrano’s, Galaxy and Island Shipping are shining examples that families can sustain and grow business over generations empowering their employees and keeping wealth on the island. BIP, MaxCom and Eldon’s are examples how driven single individuals can out compete foreign corporations.

The island cooperatives and small family businesses have thrived on Roatan since 1800s. In fact, Roatan’s many industries are still decentralized, family owned and based on distributism system. The seafood packing industry is held by several island families since 1960s. The construction industry is managed by families and individuals or sometime partners.

Living on Roatan we interact with individuals, not corporations which is ever increasingly the case in US. For example, I know my Roatan doctor personally. I don’t choose her because I pay in some huge insurance scheme that limits my choices. I also know my carpenter, plasterer and my electrician, neither of whom work for a corporation. All these professionals stand behind the quality of their work. Interacting with them and knowing who they are enriches my life.

Biggest land holder on Roatan is another corporation with unclear owners.

The base of independent spirit of a community often lies in ability for that community to educate its own children with their own means and according to their own values. That is also the case with Roatan. The island’s educational roots from 1840s rest in private, family educational system. Even today the island has a healthy private education system that is not beyond the reach of the people with stable employment.

Distributism follows the principle that the means of production should not be held by the state stratocracy as it is in China, Cuba or Saudi Arabia. The economic power should not rest in the hands of a few individuals (plutocracy) as in today’s Mexico, United States, or Switzerland. Distributism also sees a major problem where the means of productions are held by corporations (corporatocracy) as it is in today’s Germany, Sweden and France.

By early XXI century most countries have become hybrid economic models where multiple types of economic players monopolize power. US, China, France have now become examples of places where monopoly of power is held not by families, but with the state, corporations and oligarchs.

Some smaller countries, like Honduras, have resisted this globalization trend. Living here we still have relative freedom to pursue family life, individual spiritual life and personal autonomy. These opportunities attracted people to Honduras and Roatan for the last 200 years. While our island is still very much an attractive, know your neighbor, grocer and shoemaker type of place, these values are gradually being eroded.

In fact, capitalism has been making inroads on the island for decades. Capitalism has arrived with international corporations: Banco Atlántida, Royal Caribbean and Diamonds International and 10 years ago RECO from a coop model became a corporation. Próspera is one of the newest arrivals to the island and its vague ownership and control structure combined with international capital will likely cause further disruption

Things have gradually become less personal here, more like in the US or the Honduran mainland. Roatan is gradually entering the de facto glorification of usury disguised as interest-rate loan contracts. There are several thousand corporations incorporated on Roatan. Most of them are land holding entities created so foreigners could hold a land in Honduras.

Many stores on Roatan have become in fact usurious loan institution offering quick access of products such as motorcycles, furniture, appliances or construction in exchange for years of high interest debt guaranteed by personal assets. Electra, MotoMundo and Banco Atlántida for example have been making quick loans that have pushed many into losing their property and land.

Thus, the island’s biggest landholder is not an individual or an island family like it has been since 1850s. The biggest land holder on Roatan is another corporation with unclear owners – Banco Atlántida. Honduras’ oldest bank has managed to acquire land holdings through predatory lending for developers and individual homeowners. Sometime around 2010 Roatan’s biggest landowner became a corporation whom we do not know who controls it and who owns it.

There are alternatives to usurious encroachment of international “banksters” to the island. Some island run family businesses offer low interest loans for employees so they could purchase their land and build their home in an affordable fashion. The exceptions are the banking coops like Cooperativa Isleña, Cooperativa Santos Guardiola and Cooperativa Ceibeña.

Roatan remains a thriving garden attracting people from around the world.

The breaking down of distributism system that has existed on Roatan for 200 years is not pleasant to see. One of the results of spreading of the Socialist or Capitalist systems is the breakdown of social contract. The workers don’t really care about the welfare of the business they work for, and the employers see their employees as a source that can be exploited and replaced when needed.

To give communism an acknowledgment, there are and have been for centuries enclaves of communism on Roatan. These “communist” enclaves here were and still are called families and family business. In fact, “communism” has been functioning on family scale on the island well before Carl Marx wrote down his famous 1875 slogan: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” had been already practiced on Roatan. There are family members working harder and sacrificing for family members that cannot pull their own load for one reason or another.

For now, at least Roatan remains a thriving garden attracting people from around the world and from all over Honduras. They sometime come here sometimes without full understanding why they like it so much. They know however what they left behind in US and Canada, failing social systems, overpowering government and neighborhoods dominated by impersonal and ever expanding corporations. For them Roatan offers a glimpse of hope.

A Perspective at Many Centuries of the Changing Roatan Inhabitant

The last 500 years on Roatan have been especially interesting as far as movement of populations. It has been a roller coaster of different people coming and going from Roatan. There were expulsions, migrations and conflicts. There were dreams, plans and schemes. There were booms and busts.

In the XVI century Roatan evolved from being a self-sufficient island, to a place supporting pirates and vagabonds. It was a base for pirates in religious wars that tore Europe apart for over 200 years.

Strategically located, just off the Spanish mainland and wedged in the gulf of Honduras, Roatan has been a pawn in a geopolitical game for centuries. Spain used it as a place to get slaves for its mining operations in Cuba. Pirates acting in the interest of Protestant Europe religious wars used Roatan and its Paya inhabitants to careen and service its boats before raiding the Spanish armada.

The island changed hands several times between the Spanish and English.

The island changed hands several time between the Spanish and English. Neither power having enough interest, motivation, or resources to build up the Bay Islands archipelago into a viable, lasting out post for their culture, military and economy.

For the past 200 years Roatan was a place where families and individuals escaped oppression and fear. They launched themselves with vigor to begin new enterprises, new ventures and new life. They often replicated and tweaked businesses that were already running elsewhere. Roatanians were skillful ship builders, resourceful coconut farmers and intrepid shrimpers.

‘Homo Roataniens’ keep evolving. They are always looking out for what is the new trend and how to survive in the sea of change and interest. They launched businesses that required much red tape and sometime weren’t feasible elsewhere.

While the Bay Islands has seen influxes of populations in its history it has also seen massive expulsions. There were two expulsions of Paya Indians by the Spanish. The first one in 1642 and the final one in 1650. The expulsion of Spanish military by the British in 1779. Finally, the dumping of the rebellious and inconvenient Garifuna by the British in 1797.

The history of the island is filled with government schemes, religious colonization, wars, raids and flights to safety. Some people have come to the island with great plans and disappeared with little trace. Others came without many ambitions and left a path that has paved a way for others. This is the Roatan history for the uninitiated in a nutshell.

PAYA INDIANS
AD 600 – 1650

According to Spanish records the original Paya called Roatan island Manaua. While there has been certainly accounts of Payas interacting and fighting with Lenca and Maya, that history is unwritten and forgotten. We can only guess, deduct and assume that these events took place glancing at the scattered relics left behind by the Paya through the Bay Islands, and there are quite a few.

According to José Carlos Cardona, a Honduran historian, the Bay Islands became populated by Paya Indians around 600 AD. Around 50 archeological sites have been located in the Bay Islands. What remains of the Paya today are just buried objects of daily life.

There are refuse heaps full of broken pottery shards, yaba-ding-dings, fish bones and stone tools. There are also less common Paya sites – offertories located on hilltops, and a burial site overlooking French Harbour. There is a major Paya residential site on Pulpit Rock on the east side of the Roatan.
The Bay Islands Paya traded with the Mayas who paddled to the islands in large canoes from what now is Belize. Europeans had the first interaction with a New World civilization, that of Mayas, just off the coast of Guanaja in 1504.

Very robust people who adore idols and live mostly from a certain white grain.

The description of the original Bay Islanders came very early in the history of European discovery of the Americas. “Very robust people who adore idols and live mostly from a certain white grain from which they make fine bread and the most perfect beer,” wrote Bartholomew Columbus, about the Paya. Thus he described inhabitants on “Pine Island” or Guanaja island, were not much different than Roatan inhabitants, in 1504.

FRENCH, ENGLISH AND DUTCH PIRATES
1536 – 1741

From 1536 on wards the Protestant French pirates were already raiding Spanish settlements and ships in Western Caribbean. The Bay Islands were located near the sailing route of the Spanish Caribbean fleet carrying valuable goods from Panama and from Santo Domingo. As an additional benefit both Roatan’s Port Royal Bay and Fort Cay offered a good place to careen the pirate boats and restack them with water and provisions.

Roatan offered both shelter and provisions to the pirates and by 1642, the inconvenience to the Spanish became unbearable. The Spanish had to deal with such notorious pirates as Van Horn, Morgan and Tutila.

While the Pirate settlements on Roatan’s Port Royal were ephemeral and non-lasting, they left a legacy of their presence that lingers on today.

One pirate adventure that became a book was written by Philip Ashton. He was a Massachusetts fisherman, Ashton escaped from capture by the pirate Edward Low when he went looking for water in Port Royal. After spending 16 months on then deserted Roatan in 1723 he was rescued and ended up publishing a book about his island adventures.

PROVIDENCE PURITAN SETTLERS
1638 – 1642

After centuries of pillaging and atrocious pirates Roatan had its encounter with a stricter group of people – the Puritanical colonists. In Old Port Royal a settlement of Puritans from Providence Company broke ground in 1638.

Entrepreneur William Claiborne brought Scottish and English settlers form Maryland and Virginia to Roatan and renamed its Rich Island in a marketing effort. The goal of the settlers was “to subvert Spanish tyranny and plant the Gospel” and the settlers planted vegetables and traded with Paya Indians nearby.

The settler relationship with Paya didn’t go off with a good start. In 1639 the Dutch pirates burned the four Paya island towns on the Bay Islands, churches first. The Puritan settlement lasted four years and the settlers were pushed out by the Spanish.

The Paya however were caught between a rock and a hard place. They had to relate to the Spanish who had few resources to defend the islands or develop its economy. On top of that the Paya had to deal with Dutch, French and English pirates who exploited them during their careening sojourns. By 1650 all the Bay Islands Paya were shipped out by the Spanish to Río Dulce in Guatemala rendering the islands desolate.

To subvert Spanish tyranny and plant the Gospel.

BRITISH MILITARY SETTLEMENT
1742 – 1749

In early 1700s, the British authorities in the Caribbean identified Roatan to have the best harbor in the Bay of Honduras and good potential for agriculture. The geopolitical interest of the British crown in the islands was the extension of the war of Jenkins’ Ear. Their presence in the Bay Islands checked the expansion of Spanish logging undertakings in the Miskito coast.

The British sent a mixture of British military, loggers, slaves and Miskito settlers to form a settlement on Roatan. Their settlement at New Port Royal was named Augusta and eventually consisted of around 30 buildings spread across 30 acres. The population of the settlement reached as many as 800 to 1,000 people.

More towns were planned in the Bay Islands and even in the Hog Islands. The seven-year adventure ended with a political check mate when the Britain and Spain signed an agreement that also included relinquishing of Roatan. Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle of 1748 forced the Brits to abandon Roatan. Only stone foundations of the buildings and wine bottle glass can be found today as testimony to this enterprise.

THE ABANDONED ISLAND
1650 – 1742
1749 – 1797

While the British left, the Spanish failed to move in or even resettle the Bay Islands. Thus the saga of governments treating Roatan with carelessness and semi competence added another chapter.

Englishman Thomas Jeffrerys (1762) described the Spanish inability to settle or develop the islands in a following fashion: “the Spaniards issued several placards, inviting people to come and settle on the island, yet it is uninhabited; and the reason given by the Spaniard of great sense and very large property on the continent… (…) That they would never expect any assistance or protection from the unwieldy government.”

While the British left, the Spanish failed to move in or even resettle the Bay Islands.

UNWANTED GARIFUNA – THE BLACK CARIBS
1797 – Present

The odyssey of Garifuna begun in Saint Vincent where a slave ship from We st Africa run onto a reef and the crew released the slaves who swam to shore and freedom. The Africans received help and soon made alliance with Carib Indians living on Saint Vincent and married their women.

In 1797, British decided to dispose of the Garifuna that were considered troublemakers and on top of that were baptized Catholic by French priests active on the island. Garifuna were not a slave material for the British who waged two wars against them on the island of Saint Vincent.

Eventually a peace treaty was signed between the British and the Black Caribs. More than 5,000 Garifuna were deported from Saint Vincent, but only 2,500 survived the crossing to Roatan.

The island wasn’t considered big enough or fertile enough to support such a large population so most of the Garifuna asked the Spanish to be transferred to the mainland. The commonality between the Garifuna and Spanish wasn’t common race, or language, but the fact that the two were Catholic and their enemy were the British. While most of the Garifuna were given passage to Trujillo a few stayed behind and established a community of Punta Gorda.

INFLUX OF CAYMAN ISLANDERS SETTLERS
1830 – 1859

When the British Government ended slavery in Cayman Islands on August 1, 1834 the White employers could hold their ex-slaves in a four year apprentice ship preventing them from leaving the islands.

Bay Islands and especially Roatan became an option to start anew in a post slavery economy for both White and later Black Cayman Islanders. The Cooper family was the first one to settle in Bay Islands and they chose Suc-suc cay off Utila. Later Coxen Hole attracted many of the families. The first twenty-four White Cayman Island families came to Bay Islands and had the pick at the best land.

The White Caymanians not only came to Bay Islands seeking new opportunities, but also fled the potential upheaval after the abolition of slavery and potential revenge of their ex slaves. They had fresh on their minds the 1804 complete and systematic genocide of White French colonists in Haiti after France emancipated their slaves in 1794.

Just a couple years later the Black Caymanians followed their former masters to the Bay Islands. They usually settled in less desirable, less accessible areas like Flowers Bay, Sandy Bay and the Roatan’s north shore.

Roatan island was divided on racial lines and on religious lines. The White arrived first and claimed the better, more accessible land. Their ex-slaves that fallowed were able to get second best land. The Garifuna who were Catholic preceded the Protestant arrival were pretty much ignored by the British Crown on the east side of Roatan.

Land disputes began to take place and in 1844 and a general meeting took place to resolve those disagreements. The emigration culminated in creation of the Bay Islands colony that lasted for seven years: from 1852 to 1859.

ENTREPRENEURS AND ECCENTRICS
1960 – 2010

As Roatan became a Department in Honduras the Bay Islands attracted an intermittent trickle of eccentrics, vagabonds and entrepreneurs off all sorts. As fishing, seafood packing and eventually tourist industries grew on Roatan in the 1960s, a steady flow of foreigners found their way to the island. Some bought land, others started dive shops, or built their retirement homes.

By the early XXI century the island became an amalgam of eclectic, cosmopolitan mix of Honduran, American, Canadian, British, German and Czech business owners. There were Americans with money, the awkward but hardworking Germans and the melancholic Brits. There were both men and women looking for adventure, second chances and recovering from addictions and starting anew.

In early 1990s several US and Canadian developers came to Roatan via Ambergris Cay in Belize. While they were no longer welcome in Belize they saw opportunities on Roatan. The island still had cheap land, a beautiful reef and an international airport. They created the first gated communities on the island: Parrot Tree Plantation and Lawson Rock. Others bought tracks of land that were still affordable and resold it. The number of Real Estate companies in 2003 went from three to 13 in 10 years.

While they were no longer welcome in Belize they saw opportunities on Roatan.

MAINLAND MIGRANTS
1980 – present

With tourism, seafood packing and construction industries needing skilled and unskilled cheap labor many mainland Hondurans made their way to Roatan. Land remained scarce and several land invasions like Los Fuertes in 1980s and Las Colonias in Sandy Bay in 1990s became their home. The shortage of affordable land or inexpensive housing is still producing new land invasion in Colonia Aldin, Spanish Town and Oak Ridge.

While Roatan has attracted Hondurans from all over the country they also attracted numerous arrivals from the Miskitos from Gracias a Dios department. Also numerous were migrants from Olanchito, Yoro. There were there are many from Balfate and professionals from Tegucigalpa, and San Pedro Sula.

The mainland migrants provide skills, cheap labor and vitality the island needs. The mainland migration was so great that by around 2010 there were more mainland born island residents than native born islanders. The mainland culture overwhelmed the traditional island culture. Baseball gave way to soccer, maypole dancing gave way to Spanish folkloric dances. The Methodist and Baptist Church buildings became outnumbered by Evangelical and Catholic prayer halls and churches.

Mainland migrants provide skills, cheap labor and vitality the island needs.

BABY BOOMER AMERICANS
2010 – present

The baby boomer retirees from US and Canada have been building their dream homes on Roatan in large numbers since the mid-2010s. Oftentimes they worked their entire life to afford to finally retire so he could build a dream house on Roatan.

They move considerable resources here and build houses an average Honduran, or islander could never afford. Their physical and economic impact on the island is considerable. They also bring skills and sometime a will to contribute some of their know how, or ideals to the island.

Since 2018 the infrastructure of Roatan has improved tremendously making the option of living on the island more appealing to much larger portion of retired Americans not willing to give up their creature comforts. The roads, healthcare, power grid and the internet reliability improved dramatically. The private security companies also multiplied in number.

While Honduran have been immigrating to US by the hundreds of thousands, there is a reverse trend as well and Roatan has become an example of just that. American digital nomads are increasingly embracing Roatan as a place to work remotely. They are employed by US businesses while doing their work remotely from Honduras. Some even work remotely without telling their US companies that they are now living in another country.

Despite Efforts of Animal Rescue Organization and Volunteers Fifteen Horses Died as Consequence of Fraud, Government Incompetence and Uncaring

When COVID-19 forced lock-down began on Roatan in March 2020, the horses at Beach Club Roatan turned from being a source of revenue to being a drain on resources. Government’s policies of forcing people to stay home affected the animals. 
Fifteen of the Fifty-five horses near Milton Bight almost starved to death as 

tourism industry collapsed and their owners left. 
Almost two years later, there are forty horses that are alive and slowly recovering. 
Yet their future is by no means certain. Their lives are held by a government institution with nameless officials and careless overseers. 

The venture began with an idea, selling horse ride tours to the cruise shippers. Back in 2018 the pair purchased horses, about 40 horses on the Honduran mainland and from horse owners around the island. Hefty American tourists paid $60 to ride a mix breed pack horse on a Roatan beach, into the water and around a man made cay.

The heard multiplied and maxed out at 55 animals. The cruise ship tourists seemed content and wrote rave reviews on trip advisor. Then things started to fall apart.

Bruce Beckner was taken into custody at the San Pedro Sula airport in March 2019. It was discovered that he was wanted on a warrant by the Federal Court in New Mexico and was arrested by the Honduran authorities. Beckner, who sometimes used an alias “Bill Evans” had been living on Roatan since 2012 and had a Belizean passport. He was charged with bank fraud in the US and extradited to Albuquerque, New Mexico in April. Bruce Beckner was to face bank fraud charges, wire fraud charges and conspiracy charges. Beckner entered a not guilty plea.

Meantime drama on Roatan was taking its own course. Mitchell suffered a head trauma from a robbery in April 2019. Jack Mitchell passed away after his health deteriorated in December 2019. “Jack’s death was the beginning of the decline,” says Sherri Visker, who runs Roatan Operation Animal Rescue [ROAR], anon profit organization on the east side of Roatan.

Bruce Beckner’s son Cory Beckner took over managing of the operation after his father was deported. Cory Beckner did not answer Paya Magazine’s questions for this article.

2020 was a tough year for the Beach Club Roatan horses. By mid March there were zero tourists coming to Roatan and the horses turned from being economically sustainable to being a liability. A several thousand dollars a month liability.

In February 2021 Honduran authorities took possession of the Beckner property and animals. Beach Club Roatan had not only horses, but ducks, guinea hens and sheep.

Prosecutor against Organized Crime (Fescco) took over the Roatan Beach Club. Another Honduran government entity OABI took over the management of the property and leased it to a person from the mainland, Fernando Barahona. Barahona did not answer Paya Magazine’s request for information for the article.

With the passage of time the conditions of the animals, especially horses degraded.

The teeth marks are visible on the rounded marks of the thick pine boards.

At end of May 2021 a neighbor alerted Sherri Visker that they saw a dead horse at the Havana Beach property. In fact the horse was still alive, but barely.

It was late at night when Visker came to try to rescue the dying horse. “We tried to get boards under him to get him up,” remembers Visker. “But he just died that night.” In fact two horses from the original heard of 55 had died. The remaining were just skin and bones.

Visker reached out to her contacts in US and Canada and managed to raise $14,000 to get the horses feed and medical attention. ROAR had two paid workers that take care of the horses. After the horses were in better shape, ROAR stepped away.

Things should have gotten better for the horses, but they didn’t. Fernando B, the caretaker designated by OABI decided to use the horses as tourists attractions once again. The caretaker did not answer Paya Magazines request for an interview.

Over the summer of 2021 tourists were being given rides on the horses, but their condition was again deteriorating. “The horses are basically starving,” a tourist “Maxine B” wrote in July on tripadvisor about her experience. “I can’t imagine that this would be legal in any first world country.”

Indeed the horses were again becoming desperate for food, any food in fact. The situation from a few months back was repeating itself. The horses were so hungry that they ate the wooden boards of their feeding pens. The teeth marks are visible on the rounded marks of the thick pine boards.

“This formerly majestic place with a beautiful beach and beautiful horses to ride is no longer that. The beach is still beautiful, but the horses have had a prolonged period with no food and are severely malnourished,” wrote Amy B from Wilmington Delaware, in July 2021. “These horses need to heal and recover, not to give rides to tourists. Hopefully they will be back to their healthy, beautiful selves very soon.”

In December 2021 ROAR volunteers stepped in again to help the starving.

OABI nor their designated caretaker seemed not interested in the welfare of the horses. “They were just skin and bones,” says Sherri Visker. In December 2021 ROAR volunteers stepped in again to help the starving animals. This time their situation was much more serious. “The thing about horses is that it easy to let them get in trouble, but it takes a long time for them to recover,” said Juan Aguilar who has been working with the Havana Beach horses for four years. When he started the horses were well fed and working with tourists.

A dozen horses died over the next couple of weeks. “The up and down of weight weakened them. They are not meant to lose weight like that,” said Visker. Eleven more horses died. “Their systems can’t handle such up and down with weight,” says Visker holding up the tears. “We even lost two horses in a day.”

While horses fought for their lives government officials at OABI were ready to auction them off to the higher bidder. In fact, on January 14, 2022, OABI tried to auction all the animals together in one lot: horses, sheep, guinea hens and a duck.

It tried selling “50 horses, 40 chickens, 4 guinea hens, 12 roosters and one duck for Lps. 290,650. The photos of the horses presented to promote the auction showed well fed horses from before the hunger crisis. And when the auction was taking place seven of the 50 horses had died of hunger. OABI was not interested in such details.

“OABI, they are shameless. They have not paid a cent towards supporting the horses.”

Seven of the 50 horses mentioned by OABI were dead and the photos presented by OABI showed healthy horses, while the surviving were just skin and bones.

“OABI, they are shameless. They have not paid a cent towards supporting the horses,” describes the faceless government entity Aguilar. “There were people coming over and offering to buy four-five horses at a time, but OABI wants’ to sell all of them all at the same time,” said Aguilar.

Eventually the heard stabilized and in March there were 40 horses on the property. ROAR has made the horse feeding program available to volunteers. One of them in Marnie Pate, from Port Aransas, Texas who has been coming to help with the horses every time she visits Roatan. It is her fourth visit since May 2021 and Pate has even decided to sponsor one of the horses. For $120 a month she now sponsors one of the horses.

It takes two bales of hay to feed the remaining 40 horses. Each bale costs $40 dollars, but its shipping from San Pedro Sula and transport increased the price to almost $100 per bale. The horses also need bags of grain and vitamins and supplements to keep them healthy. Visker says that $2,500 a month is needed just to feed the horses.

Jimmy Cooper is another paid volunteer who comes to cut grass and take care of the horses five-six times-a-week. Cooper brings the horses hay, and some vitamins and grains. “The grass has more nutritional value as it is cut fresh,” says Karen Collins, a US expat volunteer who comes to Johnson Bight several time a week to feed the horses.

$2,500 a month is needed just to feed the horses.

At the end of March 2022 two of the horses that were in the worse shape are fed outside the pens so they can feed around the clock. There are also four horses that escaped the pens, and fended for themselves. These horses were in much better shape than their penned equestrians.

There are also four Spanish horses on the property. A stud, two mares and a colt. They are the only ones of the horses that were not castrated. They are bigger, and penned in a separate enclosure.

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The restrictions and attack on civil liberties and “silent wars” will create massive movements of populations. Some of the “refugees” from these situations will seek sanctuary of normality and relative freedoms that Roatan will offer. Some of them will live on Roatan while working remotely in their countries of origin.

US healthcare and elderly care will reach crisis proportions in USA and Europe. Here again there are opportunities for Roatan. Schooling on the island will also be revolutionized with not only new Universities, but with home schooling groups.

Ease of access to Roatan will increase and some businesses will take advantage of that by establishing inter island travel and communications infrastructure. As energy prices will continue to climb around the world, Roatan’s energy cost will no longer feel so out-of-scale.

As population will grow by 5-6% yearly, and so will opportunities for entrepreneurs. Roatan today is still be small enough to elude most global corporation’s ambitions and hopefully will remain so in 2030. Here is a sketch of what I think the island will be like in eight transformative years. It will be a bumpy ride so hold on tight.