Each year on this date, authorities meet in the park and give speeches in Spanish lauding the initiative of General José Santos Guardiola, who in fact was just doing as the Americans had told him.

I was saddened to see that no speeches were made in English that alluded to the recognition of the early British settlers from Belize, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands. But this was no fault of the Central Government as much as it is the ever-increasing indifference of Bay Islanders to their own history, environment, and future. It’s an ominous sign of the almost complete Honduranization of the islands.

In 1989, I was accompanying British Historian and Professor Michael Duncan to St. Helene on a fact-finding mission while he was working on his paper for the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick. He was a fascinating man who passed away shortly after his paper The Gentle Art of Cutting the painter was published in 1990. In this paper, he shared some prophetic and frankly quite alarming thought:

In regards tourism, I was told privately by an Honduran official that they have now discovered the Bay Islands to be a goose that can lay golden eggs, but by the time they get visitors, they may have destroyed its customs and much of what made it special. There is also, at the same time, a persistent feeling in some Honduran circles that the Bay Islands should, at last, be assimilated linguistically, culturally and commercially (ie: Honduranized).

They have now discovered the Bay Islands to be a goose that can lay golden eggs.

If you take this in context, it was written before the main road was paved from Oak Ridge to French Harbour, before the international airport was built, before RECO, way before cruise ships, and before the development boom (which began around 1995). There were only a handful of Hotels welcoming international visitors in the Bay Islands: Bayman Bay in Guanaja, CoCo view, and Anthony’s Key, to name a few.

The population of the entire Bay Islands was 25,000, and the economy at this time was still based entirely on commercial fishing and Remittances from Islanders working as merchant seamen overseas. If someone was to suggest publicly at the time that Bay Islanders would have their culture slowly replaced after it dwindled away, and that favorite family recreational areas like the Pigeon Cays destroyed beyond repair, it would be considered dystopian. As a matter of fact, Michael Duncan’s words and the unnamed official’s prediction have eerily become our reality.

It is true we live in the most prosperous time in Bay Islands History, due to development and tourism, but we should ask ourselves if it is sustainable How long will it take before the hillsides, reefs, and water resources collapse, without adequate environmental oversight and impartial enforcement of the environmental laws? How long will it be before Anglo-Caribbean and Creole cultures drift into the past and are forgotten? Federal environmental laws are in place, however those hired to implement them are mainlanders with no vested interest in long-term environmental management and sustainability. The same applies with the police force who are all mainlanders and have no interest nor dedication to solving crimes or keeping the laws, because it is not their home and they are rotated out regularly.

While the Israeli operation in Gaza keeps bearing more ugly fruit, few have analyzed the role Israeli intelligence services played in the October 7 Hamas operation.
Israeli services had foreknowledge of the Hamas attack from multiple sources. NYT reported on Israeli military having detailed plans of the Hamas attack more than one year before October 7, coincidentally an exact 50 year anniversary of the Yom Kippur war, a date that should have anticipated violence. Also Egyptian military provided Israeli government with repeated warning about the attack days prior. Haaretz reported on Shin Bet and IDF discussing a threat to Nova music festival and hours before the attack. Yet the public was told that IDF was caught by complete surprise on the 50 year anniversary of its Yom Kippur War, a time where all units should be on high alert.
While Israel prides itself with having a vast network of spies, informants and fool proof electrical surveillance, yet somehow Shinbet, Mossad, IDF, Israeli Air Force and Navy allowed 3,000 Hamas fighters to breach a secure, electronically monitored fence in 12 places and reach Israeli settlements causing uninterrupted chaos for seven hours: between 6:30am and 1:30pm.
We also don’t know why Israeli citizens in communities adjacent to Gaza called out to Israeli forces and family for help, but no help came for seven hours. When it finally did, it resulted in friendly fire deaths. Out of the 1,140 Israelis killed, a sizable percentage have been killed by IDF implementing Hannibal procedure, a policy where Israelis should be sacrificed, killed even as not to allow them to be taken as hostages and taken to Gaza.
There is a long tradition of Zionist and later Israeli false flag operations: King David Hotel bombing (1946), The Lavon affair (1954), the USS Liberty attack (1967), Dancing Mossad Agents (2001) to name a few. Increasingly October 7 looks like another false flag operation allowing Israel to perform a land grab action like it did in Golan Heights and is doing in West Bank.
Hamas, alongside the ISIS and Al-Qaida is yet another useful golem is the quiver of Israeli intelligence services. A proper investigation of October 7 would lead to some uncomfortable answers and rolling heads in Israel and that current regime there cannot have.

Road Blocking

On February 8, a group of José Santos Guardiola residents took to the streets and at 6am blocked the main road connecting the two island municipalities. One of the protesters was holding a sign: “Free NASA driving courses in JSG.” Indeed the main road is ridden with so many potholes it is not only dangerous to drive on it is also reminiscent of a lunar landscape. They were demanding that central government rebuild the damaged road from Oak Ridge to JSG western border. No cars or motorcycles were allowed through the protesters. It seems that the government heard the protester. According to Wendy Carter, one of the protest’s organizers, three companies bid for the rebuilding of the damaged JSG road. “I’m hoping that by the beginning of April they will start the work on the main road,” said Carter.

Honduran President in Jail

On March 8, US federal court found the Honduran ex-president (2014-22) Juan Orlando Hernández guilty of a conspiracy of a several decade long smuggling of cocaine to the US.
While US presidents enjoy freedom from prosecution for wars started for false pretenses, importing cocaine to airports in Mena, AR, taking bribes from foreign companies and assassinations, things work differently in Honduras. Not that JOH has not been warned of dangers of his lifestyle by fate of his predecessors: CIA assassin and later president Saddam Hussein, CIA drug runner and spy president Manuel Noriega for example. CIA, the Praetorian guard for the deep state, creates these bad actors, supports them and sacrifices them once their usefulness has run its course.

For a long time now, Santos Guardiola has been the forgotten, ugly sister of Roatan. But lately, that forgotten sister has been getting an increasing number of suitors asking for a dance. Developers are buying up sizable pieces of land and dividing them into smaller lots, creating networks of interior roads with underground wires and services.
On the east side of Roatan, near Mount Picacho, the island’s tallest hill, the views are often stunning. The nature is still relatively unspoiled, and perhaps most important of all for developers, there is a 10.6 kilometer road that is being paved that will reach the very far end of the island.

Paya Magazine has surveyed 18 housing developments in JSG at different stages of completion. The developers here are an international mix. There are Czechs, Danes, Americans, Canadians, and Hondurans. They have backgrounds in construction, sales, furniture, and even veterinary science. Roatan is a cake that has been cut into 20 different pieces. “The advantage that José Santos Guardiola [JSG] has is that it is a cleaner canvas,” said Hugo Coello, a Roatan based architect with 20 years of design experience here. “This municipality has an opportunity to create a great place.” In José Santos Guardiola, one can still find large tracks of undeveloped land. There is plenty of room to grow and the population is relatively small.

Camp Bay Beach for the Famous?

Just like billionaire Kelcy Warren on JSG’s nearby Barbareta island, other rich and sometimes famous Americans have noticed the beaches’ beauty and potential. Actor Michael Douglas has been coming to Roatan for over a decade, and purchased 25 acres of land, with around 1,300 feet of water frontage. According to Erick Anderson, an American who has been living here since the 1960s and knows Douglas well, the actor is looking at a project to potentially incorporate organic gardens and solar power.

Anderson believes that good development is achieved by combining good master planning, good architecture, and good investors. If any one of these elements is missing, bad things begin to happen, especially in the challenging topography and sensitive environment of Roatan’s Far East.

According to Anderson, some developers see the limited in scope and quantity JSG municipal fines as a cost of doing business. “It is a moral failure on their [developer’s] part,” he said. “They need to understand they are destroying a resource that should belong to a community for a long term use.” Anderson says that it is bad for the neighborhood to have developments like that on Roatan. These types of developments discourage potential investors that are looking for pristine, beautiful environment to situate their development.

Diamond Rock Rocks

The Czech investment in land development on the island’s Far East dates back to the early 2000s. Businessman Iri Maska has built a brewery off the main road south of Punta Gorda, and since then has had many Czech investors come to the island.

The biggest of them all is developer Ivan Soška, who came to Roatan 14 years ago. In 2013, he purchased 13 acres with the idea to develop 53 homes in Diamond Rock. “I started to feel the nature here,” says Soška. “The municipal requires a 10 percent green area to be set aside. I set aside 65 percent. If I cut a tree, I plant 20 other.”

After selling out the lots to his fellow Czechs, Soška purchased another 27 acres up the hill from his development and named it Diamond Hill. In 2018, he added another 40 acres to his growing development right on the waterfront.

His sensible approach to developing land is paying off. Soška believes that the green, respectful-to-nature Diamond Hill development has attracted a more varied clientele for his house lots which now include Americans and Canadians. “They are using construction with step-down instead of just counter livered instead and of cutting the hill with big bulldozers,” said Anderson. “That would create erosion and upset the environment.”

The locals have taken notice and warmed up to the tall Czech developer and his three sons. “They are one of the better developments out there,” said Anderson. “They did a good job with landscaping and respect for the environment.”

Santos Guardiola has been the forgotten, ugly sister of Roatan.

Paya Bay for Boaters

Paya Bay has been a sleepy, overlooked, and spectacular beach just west of Camp Bay beach. Now, even sleepy Paya Bay is getting its share of development dollars. The gated, high end community will have access to Paya Bay Resort.

The project consists of two parts: a 180 room condo hotel on the beach and 18 canal front house lots.

Managing partner for the project is Henrik Jensen, a long time Danish Roatan businessman who has build both commercial and housing projects all over the island. The development is located on 19 acres and should be operational by 2027.

Golfing in Luna Azul

Bordering Media Luna to its West, Luna Azul is the largest development ever undertaken in José Santos Guardiola. The 110-acre development, with 380 lots, even surpasses the large 200-acre Parrot Tree development with the number of lots.

Adam Gram, a Danish developer who developed several projects on the western side of the island, is the developer of this now third golf course community project on Roatan. The development is planned in three phases and centers around a golf course, a beach club, a tennis court, and a private beach. As of March 2024, around 60 percent of the roads have been completed, and the golf course design is in progress.

No More Stilts

Scott Miller has stealthily become the man with the most land under development on the island. He is developing three projects in and around Camp Bay: Caribbean Bliss, Camp Bay Estates, and Sunset Vistas. Miller is also developing a project inside West End’s Luna Beach, as well as his biggest project called Sea Breeze just east of Luna Azul. While most of Roatan developers started locally, or came from abroad and focused solely on one development, Miller comes with plenty of experience, cash, and a soon-to-boom vision for Roatan.

Miller comes from a long line a bridge and dam builders in California and Arizona. He has also developed resorts and properties in Belize and Costa Rica. He has three development companies in the US: one in Arizona, one in California, and one in Washington State. He has also developed resorts and apartment complexes all over the Caribbean. “I depend on a really good team of professionals,” says Miller.

They need to understand they are destroying a resource.

In 2013, Miller came to Roatan scouting the island for Hilton Hotels to see if the island was ready for the chain. “I told them it wasn’t,” said Miller, who ended up building a house on the island the following year. “I love it here. People are not after your money like in Costa Rica or Belize,” says Miller. Now Miller believes Hilton and Marriot should be just about ready to invest here.

Back in the US, Miller is friends with quite a few professional athletes potentially interested in having second homes here. With new roads and new airlines eyeing Roatan, he believes the island is on a trajectory to attract a more affluent and demanding clientele made up of home owners from the US. “One thing they will not do is live in a house on stilts,” said Miller. That is the main reason his developments create slab-on-grade type of construction, which require aggressive soil displacement, something some of his neighbors are not always happy about.

Above Punta Blanca

Punta Blanca is Santos Guardiola’s north shore community and dates back to the 1990s. It is surrounded by rolling hills with plenty of development opportunities and fantastic views to the north, south, and east.

Fernando Santana found his 5.5 acre Aroha Estates Punta Blanca development site almost by chance. “As I was walking through the jungle, I found an old ‘for sale’ sign on the property,” said Santana, who was a furniture vendor several years before transitioning to being a home construction supervisor and developer.

The property was originally called Buena Vista, and featured sprawling views in all directions. “I called the person and purchased it even before seeing what I was purchasing. It was a leap of faith,” said Santana, who also helps a local architect with design ideas.

Las Vistas in Camp Bay

Las Vistas is located right across from the entrance to Camp Bay’s public beach. Las Vistas was originally five acres of development by American developer Blaine Bell, who later purchased another six acres adjacent to the property, and the Port Royal National Park. There is an added ecological responsibility to building next to a [Port Royal] National Park. “The idea is to build something in an eco sensitive feel,” said Hugo Coello, a principal at Hugo Coello Architects and also a builder for Las Vistas.

Las Vistas development is planned to accommodate 40 home sites. Underground utilities have been laid in place for the first 25 lots and an impressive entry gate is almost finished. Coello is working with Bell, who has been on the island for ten years and decided to become a developer.

Coello believes the roads should follow as much as possible the contour lines of the topography of the often steep landscape on the island. The idea is to disrupt the soil as little as possible and maintain the location of the site. Acting a bit like a “horse whisperer,” Coello depends and listens to his surroundings to tell him what is appropriate and what is not. “I wait for the land to suggest what is needed,” said Coello.

Coello is known for making master plans, and he created the master plan for Las Vistas and Luna Azul. “Clients hire me because they want something nice, in budget, and something that is respectful of the ecosystem,” said Coello. He makes an effort to give a distinctive identity to each of his projects with materials, colors, and details. Coello has been designing homes on Roatan for 20 years. “We pick the type of home, the type of material that fits,” he said. “I like glass walls, to take advantage as much as possible of the views.”

The Concerns

There are quite a few people concerned with how quickly the land is being developed, and with how it is being done without much regard for the fragile environment of the island. One of these voices is Erick Anderson, an expat who has lived on Roatan since the 1960s. He founded Bay Islands Conservation Association [BICA] from his home in Port Royal.

Anderson says he supports projects that are respectful of the environment, architecturally attractive, and provide a sustainable and long-term benefit to the community. Local jobs are important, but preservation of the soil and vegetation and protecting animals is as well. That, according to Anderson, does not always happen. “I used to push, push for developments and roads and infrastructure,” said Anderson. “What I am worried about is too much development too fast, and that it would spiral out of control.”

East of Roatan has a different climate than the west of the island: different vegetation, different soil. Building here is a bit trickier than on the west side. “They are destroying the exact thing that makes it attractive and beautiful,” said Anderson. “We [BICA] have been petitioning through for SERNA to come and look at these developments so they can understand what is going on.”

The idea is to disrupt the soil as little as possible.

There are new developers, good developers, and sometime not so good developers. Some developers get in trouble on the financing front, others get in trouble working on steep sites that are all over Roatan. “They don’t have a right to destroy this if you have a good master plan,” said Anderson. “They [some developers] are cutting all the trees on site, and cutting them down with bulldozers.”

Anderson believes the JSG development projects should be done with proper master planning, in a way that is sustainable for the future of the community. “Someone who is doing a master plan has to be someone who has a huge experience in what they are doing,” said Coello. “The most important is the approach of the design,” said Coello. “There are several examples [of development] that are just terrible.”

Environmental licenses are given out by SERNA, and typically are not easy to get. “For my lotification [at Camp Bay beach], it took me two years and $20,000 for my development to get all the permits,” said Anderson. “The idea is to protect the reef, mangroves, and all the assets that we have.”

Unfortunately, as copies of SERNA or Municipal permits are not displayed on construction sites, it is difficult for the public to understand what is planned. When work takes place, it is all yesterday’s news. There is no manner to move back hills, uncut roads, replant 100-year-old trees.

The projects that have caused environmental damage are usually an example of the failure of four entities: the failure of supervision on the national Honduran level by SERNA- the Honduran Ministry of Environment, the JSG Municipality’s environmental department, the developers themselves, and the local communities themselves, represented by patronatos.

Unspoiled land in José Santos Guardiola is like Bitcoin.

The Future

What could lie ahead for the island are zoning laws like in the nearby La Ceiba. According to Coello, some more populous municipalities in Honduras developed zoning restrictions and enforcement as they grew in size. Those are principally cities of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, and La Ceiba. Coello believes building restrictions on Roatan should be done not on a zoning level, but on the consciousness level of the stakeholders involved in developing land across Roatan. The architect believes that more education of people doing master planning and construction should be done.

Much of the land on Roatan’s Far East side remains unspoiled, filled with rolling hills of old growth forests and teaming with wildlife. That is what past generations of islanders have bestowed to the Roatanians in the 21st century. That innumerable resource is not always appreciated.

The Roatan land has served as shelter, food and building resources for islanders for 227 years now. Today, that resource is at risk. If it is destroyed, there will be practically no way of getting it back. The haphazard development of West Bay hopefully will serve as an example of what to do, and what not to do.

For now, the unspoiled land in José Santos Guardiola is like Bitcoin, the longer you keep it as it is, the higher value it will achieve – barring any unpredictable world crisis and catastrophic weather events, of course.

New Municipal Buildings Open All Over the Bay Islands

With local economies booming the Bay Islands Municipalities have been upgrading their infrastructure, especially their municipal buildings. With increased revenues in local and land taxes, business and building permits, the Municipal governments have money to spend. The 2019-2022 was a period of fixing up the municipal buildings and constructing new ones in the three western municipalities of the Bay Islands.

ROATAN MUNICIPAL PALACE

The ground breaking on the Municipal building took place in December 2019; the construction began in February 2020 and was concluded in October 2020. Basically, the Roatan Municipality was built during the central government imposed COVID lockdown of the island in 2020.

When private businesses were told to lock down because of “safety” measures against COVID the Municipality construction project was providing valuable income to island families struggling to survive economically. According to Ing. Castillo the 50 to 100 municipal construction workers working on the site supported 400 families. “We used our own people for construction and only subcontracted a few times,” says Ing. Castillo.

The new Municipal building is more than 10 times larger than the 5,200 Sf old one in Coxen Hole. The new building is two stories tall and has 75,000 sf. The structure has 25 offices, a space for a bank and a large meeting room.

The symmetrical building named “the Municipal Palace” is visible from the main road across a huge, 74 car parking lot. While the Muni building was badly needed and is built solid, its simplistic esthetic has brought some criticism. With an immense parking lot and three columns on its portico the municipal headquarters is perhaps more reminiscent of a Walmart than a municipal headquarters.

The municipal’s construction was supervised by CINSA, a Tegucigalpa based quality control company. The building was budgeted at Lps. 48 million or $2 million, but cost Lps. 67 million or $2.7 million in the end.

As the new Roatan Municipal building has opened for business, the old Municipal Building in Coxen Hole is being retrofitted to accommodate INFOP – National Institute of Professional Education [Instituto Nacional de Formación Profesional], a government educational school. “The Mayor’s [Jerry Hynds] idea was to move all the services from Coxen Hole and make it [the town] a tourist site,” said Ing. Castillo.

There is still more construction on the Municipal site in Dixon Cove. In June 2022 ground was broken on a 3,500 Sf annex building and additional parking area just south of the municipal building. The building will house offices that are still in downtown Coxen Hole – Municipal Police, Justice office. According to Ing. Castillo the idea is for the Municipal Offices to completely vacate Coxen Hole.

New Municipal building is more than 10 times larger than the 5,200 Sf old one.

The municipal building is part of the bigger upgrade of Roatan municipal infrastructure. The 10.4 kilometer main national road construction form First Bight to Coxen Hole was done also exclusively with local taxes. Only 500 meters was paved with funds of the Central Government. A situation where a national road is constructed, or constructed with Municipal funds is unprecedented in Honduras.

The new concrete Roatan road is expected to last for the next 25-30 years. Ing. Castillo feels that Honduran Central government hires companies that are not based in the Bay Islands and don’t care about the quality of work they leave behind. “This is why we tend to do the work ourselves,” said Ing. Castillo.

Another construction is about to begin on the two-acre Municipal Equipment warehouse and operations and maintenance center in Dixon Cove near the new Public Hospital site.

UTILA MUNICIPAL

On the west of the Bay Islands department 8,000 Utila residents received a 9,000 sf municipal building. The construction on the project began in 2019 under Mayor Troy Bodden. The Utila Municipal building is now a three story tall solid, concrete structure. The entire project cost the Utila taxpayers $450,000 (11 million Lps.) or $45 per Utilian.

The Municipal employees moved to this new location from a two story wooden building built in 1990s when Fulton Jackson was Utila’s Mayor. The old 1,600 sf building was located right next to the municipal dock and was too small to accommodate the growing Municipal staff. The old building will now accommodate offices of the judge, registry office and immigration.

On its front elevation the new municipal building has an array of solar panels. According to Ing. Kerry Samson, chief of the Utila Municipality’s infrastructure department, the solar panels have reduced its energy consumption costs by almost 80%. A significant reduction from Lps. 40,000- 50,000 a month to Lps. 10,000. “The municipal operates in the daytime, so we don’t need a battery bank,” said Ing. Samson, who has been working in his position for six years, first under National Party Mayor Troy Bodden and since January 2022, under Liberal Mayor Alexander Ebanks.

A central staircase of the building leads to the second story offices and third story space that can be used for exhibitions. The handsome white building was designed by Ing. Vicente Maradiaga.

The Utila Municipal Hall was built to withstand earthquakes and the building has a 12,000-gallon cistern. The building’s roof catches rainwater and when it’s cistern is full it supplies the Municipal water system consisting of four municipal wells and two wells leased by the municipality. The municipal pumps run 24 hours a day pumping 40 gallons a minute. The daily output of 230,000 gallons or 29 gallons per Utilian.

There are several other needed infrastructure projects that are taking place on Utila. The municipal garbage dump is an infrastructure project of concern. The municipal has plans to relocate the garbage dump to a site on Jericho hill in 2023. “When our dump is on fire it affects everyone,” said Ing. Samson. In 2022 Utila Municipality has begun undertaking a repaving of 507 meters of Mamey Road with hydraulic concrete.

90 Days into LOKIN-20 the Island faces first 50 Cases of COVID-19

By June 16 President Juan Orlando Hernández has joined the ranks of politicians like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and is now officially infected with COVID-19. Fortunately, the 50-year old Honduran president has a great chance at recovery. The little publicized fact is that the with COVID-19 deaths happen mostly to the elderly and those with compromised immune system. In Canada 81% of all with COVID deaths happened to old-people care facilities. In France 89% with COVID-19 deaths were amongst people 64 and older.

Still neither Honduras nor Roatan has done nothing to protect the most vulnerable to the virus: the elderly and the poor. For 90 days now SINAGER has forced vast majority Bay Islanders to stop working, stay home and wash their hands every chance they get. On June 4, wanting to look like they are doing something, the local Municipal governments went further and installed “disinfection tunnels” around the island.

 “Stuck at the border. They won’t let me into Roatan without going through the tunnel,” wrote about Roatan Municipal Police Mitch Cummins, a Roatan based American resident attempting to return from Jose Santos Guardiola on June 4.

Roatan Municipality has announced that the tunnel’s liquid is made up of mixture of water with Peroxol and that “until now there are now reports that its use has caused damage to the skin or health to the persons.” While most native Roatanians have submitted to the useless and dangerous procedure, at least one Roatan resident has had enough and pushed back.

“I am asking to have the issue of these ineffective and dangerous spray tunnels put on the agenda at the next meeting of the Roatan Corporation,” wrote Amy Eader Beasley, a US resident living on Roatan. “Contact your embassy if you are not a Honduran citizen.” Her letter with hundreds of signatures including medical staff was presented to the Roatan Municipality that then made the tunnels “optional.”

A month after the first case of COVID-19 was detected on Roatan on May 16 there are now 50 cases of COVID-19, and because of the five-day-delay in shipping and analyzing the test samples, likely that number is much higher.

Meantime the costs of Roatan’s LOKIN-20 are mounting: thousands postponing preventive medical care, crime skyrocketing, depression, impoverishment and to come bankruptcies. Other than the now daily armed robberies, June 17 brought two brutal homicides to Roatan.

The manufactured collapse of American society and destruction of small business economy has entered phase two, Honduras is at least two weeks behind. The coordinated anarchist protests sparked by a Minnesota police killing of an African American criminal suspect on May 25 have erupted within days in places as disconnected with Minnesota as Colombo -Sri Lanka, Accra-Ghana and Osaka -Japan. The controlled media’s COVID-19 fear mongering has given way to coverage of violent protest, looting, and destruction of public statues.

At least artificiality of the LOKIN-20 operation and its deep state actors are being exposed by some brave vocal voices of authority. “The riots in these days were provoked by those who, seeing that the virus is inevitably fading and that the social alarm of the pandemic is waning, necessarily have had to provoke civil disturbances, because they would be followed by repression,” wrote Catholic Archbishop Viganò in a letter to in a letter to president Trump. Trump tweeted: “So honored by Archbishop Viganò’s incredible letter to me. I hope everyone, religious or not, read it!” As crime in US and on the island steadily rises the exhausted, confused public is faced with giving in to any solution the government will offer.

After declaring the perpetual war on drugs in 1982, the unwinnable war on Terror in 2001, in 2020 we entered the never-ending war on viruses. With roadblocks, paid snitches, controlled news, online censorship, spray tunnels, the never-ending war on virus the shadow of oppressive albeit inefficient police state has unofficially arrived.

More info about Archbishop Viganò’s powerful letter:

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/archbishop-viganos-powerful-letter-to-president-trump-eternal-struggle-between-good-and-evil-playing-out-right-now

The roads in the Roatan Municipality have more potholes than asphalt. Traffic is getting worse and I’ve even seen drivers attempt to navigate around giant in a failed effort not to leave their bumpers behind. It is embarrassing to drive around with visiting friends while explaining to them why, with so many quality attractions for the tourist they have to break their back getting to them.

I say we are at total collapse of infrastructure. Roatan, the biggest tourist attraction in Honduras, has the second worse roads in the entire country. The dubious first place title goes to Copan, the country’s second largest tourist attraction. Ironically, the rarely visited department of Lempira, birthplace of our commander-in-chief has a brand spanking new highway that no one is transiting and an airport where no planes are landing. That doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.

To top it off, we also have a small-understaffed hospital that is over 20 years old and no serious plan to deal with the trash situation on a long-term basis. But I digress. Opposition Alliance (Alianza de Oposición) have been calling for peaceful marches or protests on Roatan. But what would they be protesting?

Should we be protesting elections fraud, the roads, the garbage situation, corruption or should we be doing more than just that?

But, why haven’t “they” fixed the roads? Last year prior to elections (AKA political promises) I was present at a meeting with the President of our country Mr. Juan Orlando himself, where he announced the creation of a trust fund to finance the new Roatan road. Not repairing one mind you, but a brand new road from West Bay all the way to Diamond Rock and Camp Bay.

They want the golden egg and goose soup

Now we have 30 million Lempiras arriving on Roatan from central government via INSEP with additional funding coming from tourism budget and local funds from ZOLITUR. Another 20 million Lempiras was added to this fund from the INSEP to address the lack of infrastructure on Roatan’s sister island of Guanaja. There I suggested we follow a plan I first read about years ago in an editorial on the pages of Bay Islands Voice where a railway and train system was suggested for public transport. Haha.

Here we are in 2018 with the same re-elected president and still no roads. How much patience should we the people have? How long before the cruise ship industry pulls out? And just for myself: how much longer can the suspension system on my car hold out?

I am tired of reading the online reviews about the poor conditions of the road. I made a comment to a friend recently; we cannot continue to be the goose laying the golden egg for Honduras if they are going to starve the goose. His response was classic: “They want the golden egg and goose soup.”

I don’t have all the answers to these questions, but surely we should ask more of our authorities, and I don’t mean a hand out or some political favors. I am optimistic for the Municipality of Roatan as, at last, we are getting a change in the local government and I, for one, am happy for that change.

A young reader at Sand Castle Library that was once a resort dining are run by the O’Briens.

An Island NGO is Shaping How and How Much Roatan’s Children Read

The O’Briens came to Roatan in the mid 1990s to build a Sandy Bay resort: Bay Islands Beach Resort. Then, in 2009 they decided to retire and focus on something they felt passionate about. They told all their friends: “We’re done with the resort, it’s time for education,” said Cam.

They focused on showing Roatan’s children how to see life and build a vision of who they could become. PIER began doing this one book at a time.

PIER is tight organization. Camilla is the coordinator for programs, Ted does the accounting. There are two people in charge of bookmobiles, two education specialists and one librarian. While PIER staff is small, it is young and passionate. “Our goal is to expand kids’ brains via reading. To have them focus on pages instead of screens,” says Lindberg Valladares, the education specialist.

The PIER staff focuses on getting the kids reading. One of their strategies is reading stories to children out loud and showing them hands on science experiments. “Our dream is to create a technology, science, art and math center here,” says Cam. In fact PIER has been adjusting their goals and community involvement since it began operations in 2010.

We’re done with the resort, it’s time for education

Originally the organization focused on building a learning center and a library, foreseen as a vocational school, then it focused on getting the children “hooked on reading.” Now they focus on giving the children hands on experience with science.

Many children in Roatan are missing out at a chance at developing reading skills early and at education in general. Cam says that only 25% of school-aged Roatan children are enrolled in school, only 50% of children finish sixth grade and even fewer, only 10%, graduate from high school. “Our goal is to give teachers new ways of teaching,” says Cam.

Camilla O’Brien at her original Sandy Bay bookmobile.

The bookmobile project began in 2014 and now almost all public schools on Roatan get a regular visit from a mobile library, often the first and only interactions they have with books other than textbooks. Thirteen schools in Santos Guardiola have a regular visit from the book bus, and in Roatan Municipality 15 public schools and Solid Rock private school take part. Cam says that now 85% of all Roatan schoolchildren are Spanish speakers. “The biggest challenge is getting them books in Spanish,” says Cam.

With donations PIER’s annual budget went from $8,000 a year in 2011 to $55,000 in 2017, but getting continued support has been a struggle. The two mobile library buses used by PIER as libraries were originally used to transport schoolchildren in the US, and then they were used for transport on mainland Honduras. Finally, thanks to donations of expats Roy Schneider and Patricia Commel they were purchased for PIER at $12,000 per bus.

The O’Briens still leave their entire social security checks to fund their educational projects and they are living a dream that many retired baby boomers only wish for – a life of purpose.