“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws,” wrote Plato, a Greek philosopher, 2,400 years ago. In 2025, Roatan municipality installed 400 CCTV cameras in an effort to identify the so-called “bad people.” These cameras are likely to become part of a much larger surveillance infrastructure. At the cost of losing personal privacy and spending millions of dollars in taxes, the island is on its way to building a 21st-century panopticon prison.

I guarantee there will be numerous unintended negative consequences of installing extensive CCTV cameras on the island. Here is a short list of possibilities: an increase in our taxes, a loss of our privacy, a shift from self-reliance to reliance on government assistance, the future selling of CCTV and other data to bad actors, the creation of a false sense of security, and the unleashing of a never-ending need for more surveillance.

Here is one more reason: Once a serious crime is committed by the Honduran national police —and sadly, that does happen— and it is recorded on a CCTV system, the municipality will be placed under pressure from the police and likely become a party to the cover-up.

The high-trust society that Roatan once was has gradually been replaced by technology and a false sense of trust in government institutions. Put simply, the island’s social capital is being replaced by technocracy. Once that capital is lost, it is extremely difficult to regain.

Security has two aspects: true security and the perception of security. While claiming to provide safety for citizens, security systems often serve to maintain state control and enforce conformity among the population. The carrot is not the goal, but an excuse to impose a surveillance system for the benefit of those in control. While we might argue about who those controllers are, we can all agree—the controllers are not us.

Systems often serve to maintain state control.

In other words Roatanians might be suffering from a case of collective illusion. They may be going along with the idea of creating a “smart city” that could erode the precious freedoms they may not realize can be taken away. The unfortunate truth is that by surrendering your privacy in hopes of gaining security, you could end up with neither freedom nor security. Freedom comes with risk. If you want 100% security, you would need to check yourself into a maximum-security prison with 24/7 camera surveillance—and you’d better hope your cellmate isn’t Jeffrey Epstein.

So let’s not make the mistake other already have. There are places all over the world that have already become surveillance zones ridden with nightmares. They are not in any way safer—in reality, they are unsafe for citizens. The state monitors those spaces and decides which actions it wants to prosecute. Not wearing masks in public, possibly praying near an abortion clinic, jaywalking —you name it— are all offenses that have recently been punished in Great Britain.

Great Britain has arrested tens-of-thousands of individuals for posting memes and criticizing government policies. Every day, around 30 people in Britain are arrested, tried and sent to jail for media posts deemed “offensive,” not even “hateful,” as well as for silent prayers near abortion clinics. The number of people arrested for simply making statements has grown to 12,000 a year.

This persecution of its own population is only possible thanks to media monitoring by thousands of state agencies and 6 million CCTV cameras—21 million surveillance cameras in total—monitoring 70 million British residents. Many of those cameras have one-way or two-way audio capability.

Freedom for individuals in China is even more restricted. China’s Skynet control system—a combination of the social credit system and a state-operated CCTV facial recognition network — has created an open-air prison. The 1.3 billion Chinese citizens and 70 million British citizens can no longer make that claim without the risk of being visited by police or having their lives affected. Let what took place in those so-called smart cities serve as a warning.

Roatan should be and can remain free from government aspirations to constantly surveil us and treat us as poetical criminals. The irony is that this island has a long history of people who chose to come here choosing freedom over security. Whether it was Roatan-based pirates or Puritan colony settlers, they came here in search of freedom, not security.

Also the Garifuna were brought here because they fought to keep their freedom in two Carib Wars they fought against the British on Saint Vincent. Settlers from the Cayman Islands who came here in the 1830s and 1840s were also seeking freedom and new opportunities. While security is a very important part of life on Roatan, freedom has always been more important.

Living next to the sea and living from its bounty, islanders have been accustomed to assume risk as a part of their lives. Many Roatanians died doing what they loved and supporting the families they loved. Living on a remote island in the path of hurricanes came with an understood risk — fishing on commercial boats, moving cargo, toiling in the bush.

Let’s not make the mistake others already have.

When I moved here in the early 2000s, the island was simple and still homogeneous. The vast majority of people were born on the island and knew one another, at least casually. The innocence that Roatan once had —maybe just 20 years ago— is gone.

Gone are the days when islanders were related by two degrees of separation: If you didn’t know someone, you knew someone who did. That connection brought a sense of security, trust and comfort. Today, the island is based on three degrees of separation and is a much less comforting place.

The island’s CCTV program is a large, complex and expensive and Roatan has an unfortunate history of poor government decisions. To mention just three of these white elephants: the abandoned Coxen Hole desalination plant; the José Santos Guardiola garbage dump, inaugurated by President Mel Zelaya in 2009 and still not operational; and the Roatan public hospital building, which was constructed for $3 million and will require $52 million to finish.

While those expensive failures don’t mean the municipality should stop trying, they should encourage skepticism toward new ideas. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” the saying goes.

There are alternatives to CCTV government run surveillance. There are already plenty of private security camera systems that are used efficiently when needed. The other sad truth is that our computers, smartphones, and even smart devices like internet-connected cameras, refrigerators, and smart electric meters are already tools of surveillance used against us. These are employed by security agencies in the US, Israel and other bad actors. Let’s not allow the government to take control of our lives more than it has already.

While millions of people, watched in horror a security camera video of Nery López,a drug trafficker,and a witness against Honduran president’s brother,being shot and stabbed to death by five assailants in a maximum-security Santa Barbara prison. In contrast to this I did not see a video from the cell of pedophile to the presidents and princes, Jeffrey Epstein, as he was suicided in his cell under a 24-hour suicide watch. Here in Honduras at least we saw the cruel reality that surrounds us.

“If you steal a chicken they’ll put in jail for life, but if you steal a million dollars, they’ll make you a president of Honduras,” told me a friend living on the island. While that might be true, at least in Honduras occasionally we make a chicken soup.

In 1827 a successful coup against president Dionisio de Herrera, Honduras’ first Chief of the State sent him to a prison in Guatemala for two years. He was freed two years later by a fellow Honduran freemason General Francisco Morazán.

Honduran presidents, typically, are sent to meet justice abroad, depriving the Honduran justice system of this privilege and burden.In 2009 President Mel Zelaya was not tied for breaking Honduran law, but placed on a plane and sent to Costa Rica.

The one way for a Honduran high official to end up in jail is by getting afoul of one of American agencies. In 2015 ex Honduran president Rafael Callejas was charged and eventually indicted by a US court on charges related to FIFA bribery scandal.Callejas is now in a US under house arrest and due to failing health could die in jail serving time.

While there is a general view that US legal system is far better than Honduran, there are several exceptions. One such exception is the impunity of murderous, treasonous actions of its top officials: Presidents, Vice presidents and speakers of the house.

American on the other hand live in a manipulated, artificial reality.

There were 45 US presidents and 48 vice presidents, and 116 speakers of the house and while we all know thatabundant power corrupts abundantly no sitting or ex US President have been indicted, let alone sat in jail. That is not because they didn’t commit crimes prior or during their presidencies, but it is because the system protects them. In fact, US have not been able to prosecute a single president or vice-president.

In 1807 Aaron Burr, a former US vice president to Thomas Jefferson, was arrested, tried and acquitted in Alabama charged with treason for conspiring to annex Spanish territory in Louisiana and Mexico into its own independent republic.

The only attempt that confirms the rule came in 1872 when President Ulysses S Grant was arrested for speeding. President Grant was a repeat offender and after he ignored warning repeatedly, he was finally placed in custody and his buggy was impounded. The police chief was unsure if they could charge a sitting President without impeachment, so Grant was released and after paying a fine walked to the White House.

Since then no President has even been arrested while in office. As one example President Richard Nixon, after a deep state instigated gingerly affair picked up by Washington Post, would likelihood end up in jail. This wasn’t necessary as his old vice-president turned President Gerald Ford granted him an unconditional pardon.

As a intersecting side note in 2017, Dennis Hastert, the longest ever serving Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives and serial child molester served 13 months in prison. Hastert was convicted of illegally structuring bank withdrawals to buy the silence of just one former student he sexually abused.

The US politicians are not groomed to their positions of influence because they avoided criminal behavior, but because they have. They are more useful and more predictable to handle with a dark past then if they were white as snow. In return for their faithfulness and silence, they are guaranteed protection.

We monetized our body fluids and our organs in the 1990s. Since then it seems that entire universe had been monetized: there are ads inside men’s urinals, on floors at supermarkets, in front of airplane seats. Uber has monetized our private vehicles and Air BnB monetized our homes. While an average Brazilian spends five hours looking at their smartphone screen, and average Chinese spends three hours. Our screens have been monetized as well google had monetized our searches, Facebook and twitter monetized our private time with ‘friends.’ The underemployed were monetized by Fiver and our cooking skills with EatWith.com

Lolita Express Lands

Financier Jeffrey Epstein who owns six homes, two private jets and a Caribbean island nicknamed “pedophile island” is also a sexual child predator. Bill Clinton and Donald Trump flew on Epstein’s private jet dubbed “Lolita Express.” President Donald Trump described Epstein as “Terrific guy.” Epstein run a sex slave operation for the cesspool of the rich and powerful that brought him millions and kept him out of trouble. The list includes US treasury secretary Larry Summers, Prince Andrew, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Media mogul Mort Zuckerman, CEO Leslie Wexner, etc. In 2008 Epstein’s connections allowed him to almost walk away from a sexual exploitation conviction of girls with 13 months he was inconvenienced by spending 12 hours a day, six days a week in a jail. The college dropout Epstein is a deep state insider and sat on the board such insider organizations as Rockefeller Foundation, was a member of the Trilateral Commission and Council on Foreign Relations.

Hover board Future

We monetized our body fluids, and our organs in the 1990s. And since then it seems that entire universe had been monetized: there are ads inside men’s urinals, on floors of supermarkets, in front of airplane seats. Uber has monetized our private vehicles, AirBnB monetized our homes. While an average Brazilian spends five hours looking at their smartphone screen, and average Chinese spends three hours. Our screens have been monetized as well: google monetized our searches, Facebook and twitter monetized our private time with ‘friends.’ The underemployed were monetized by Fiverr and our cooking skills me.

Nuclear Europe

Secret locations of US Nuclear arms were accidentally, or intentionally released to the public. The supposed gaffe is seen as to compromise NATO’s defense security. Penned by a Canadian senator document “A new era for nuclear deterrence? Modernization, arms control and allied nuclear forces,” leaked the locations of American nuclear weapons in Europe, an embarrassing gaffe has severely compromised NATO defense security and readiness. If the US didn’t plan to dis inform the public or send messages to some of its competitors, the information seems dumbfounding. Italy is estimated to have the largest number of US nuclear bombs: 60- 70, Turkey and Germany are reported to have large stockpiles as well.

Robots to the Cleaners

A new phase of automation has begun and cleaning robots have already displaced hundreds of thousands of people doing simple, repetitive work in developed countries. A second generation of these mechanical machines will displace millions. In Singapore Lions Bot company plans to rent out cleaning robots for $1,300 to $2,150 a month. Lions Bot robots can perform 13 different tasks: they can scrub, mop, vacuum, sweep different surfaces and move items of up to 1,000 pounds. Another Boston Dynamics warehouse robot is to replace tens of thousands of people moving boxes around.Robot vacuum cleaners make up over 23% of the worldwide vacuum cleaner market. These robots follow in the footsteps of 2001 Dyson robot vacuum DC06 and the 2002 iRobot vacuuming robot.

Hungarian Babies

The government of president Urban vilified by the controlled European media has introduced “family protection plan” and is offering $35,000 to Hungarian couples to get married and have at least three children. Couples living in villages and agreeing to have at least three children will receive a grant of $120,000. In order to receive the benefits, the women must remain employed and married. With low 3.4 unemployment and Hungary refusing to take in African and Asian migrants that is an important part of the deal. While during socialist government (2002-2010) marriages decreased by 23%. Now under pro national government of president Urban (2010-2019) marriages increased by 43%. The Hungarian government has agreed that life begins at conception so the women can claim the subsidies in the second trimester of pregnancy.