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.

The Availability, Stability and Price of Internet is Shaping the Future of Roatan

The Bay Island’s internet dates back to the 1990s when Hondutel began providing its 256 bit dial up service. A few years later Trópico Telephone and Internet (TTI), a private company that began offering broadband, was forced out of business in 2008 by Honduran government cracking down on “illegal” ISP providers. Hondutel seized TTI’s property and ran the private, booming company out of business. The road to affordable internet in Honduras was certainly not easy.

Honduras gets its internet from two commercial fiber cables brining in internet from Florida to Omoa. One is Maya 1, owned by Telefónica, laid in 2000, and the other is Arcos, owned by Liberty Cable, laid in 2001. Both cables are coming to the end of their 25-year life cycle and there is another company eyeing the Honduran market. Before reaching Roatan, the cable runs on the ground for 180 kilometers to La Ceiba before it is connected to the cable for Roatan.

In August 2020 BITEL (Bay Islands Telecommunications) installed a 77 kilometer cable from La Ceiba to Roatan. An underwater fiber optic internet cable made operational in October 2020. BITEL is owned by six investors, two of them Roatanians: Kyle McNab and Ron McNab, current Mayor of Roatan Municipality.

Internet and especially fast internet on Roatan are still expensive for an average islander. “Even though you need 15 megabytes in your house you can only afford 5,” says Duane McNab, owner of MaxCom, Roatan’s biggest internet provider. Still, it is not easy to afford a service that cost $75 for 5g when an average salary in Honduras is just $423.

Max Communications went from a “Chiclet money business” for Duane McNab’s father in the off-fishing season to a communications company employing 75 people. The company traces its beginnings to the 1980s in Oak Ridge. “His main priority was to get live TV so he could watch Mike Tyson box,” Says Duane McNab remembering the early days. So, in the 1980s SatMc Cable Company was created. “I had a guy changing VHS content every day, so people had something to watch on TV,” said Duane McNab. Eventually a Galaxy 5 satellite was re-positioned to service Roatan and live transmission of 13 channels began in 1990.

In 2006 Duane McNab took over control of the company that his father launched. Since then, Max Cable has grown in leaps and bounds buying out smaller internet and cable providers that focused on smaller markets on the island: Island Cable, Global net’s Roatan operations and Televa Alma in 2011, and in 2012 Cable Color.

According to McNab, in 2013-14 The Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CONATEL), a Honduran government entity regulating communications, forced a decrease in internet prices on operators in the country. “It was so much per gigabyte, period,” said McNab. “With this set price we can budget. We know there is not going to be a change tomorrow or next month,” said McNab. “Even though we sell data to you at unlimited use, we pay per consumption.”

BITEL installed a 77 kilometer cable from La Ceiba to Roatan.

By 2012 Max Communications formed an alliance with Cable Color. “We purchased bandwidth together to have a discounted price,” says McNab. It purchased D&D Utila ISP company and in April 2020 they plan to lay down fiber in Utila.

Max Communications has been growing in leaps and bounds adding over 300 accounts in December 2019 and the first two months of 2020. “It’s a stable business, but not as lucrative business as many people would think,” says McNab. “You have to have a large amount of clients for it to be a lucrative business.”

MaxCom has been growing to become one of the biggest employers on the island, top ten. After Sun Corporation, Municipality, RECO and Galaxy. The company manages five offices, four towers and 10 repeaters. “I’m here every day at 7:30am,” says McNab. MaxCom has the biggest share of Roatan’s internet providers of the total 13,600 homes on Roatan. On Guanaja MaxCom partnered with Jackson’s cable a local company. There are 1,274 homes on Utila, 3,400 homes on Guanaja, and McNab has even investigated expanding its operations to the Cayman Islands.

But there are several companies staying in site of MaxCom. Especially competitive on the island market is Fibernet owned by the Dip family who also owns Sat Vision in La Ceiba. The other internet providers on Roatan are Claro, Tigo, Reytel, Netman and Mopleco Vision. The cost of entry to Roatan’s ISP’s market are quite small. “We have too many players,” said McNab. “We are the oldest and the only islander owned internet company on the island.”

Max Communications has been growing in leaps and bounds.

As availability of internet is spreading across Roatan, the speed of the connections are also increasing. “5G is about to hit the world market, it’s inevitable,” said McNab. “It’s going to use higher frequencies. We are not going to know how this affects the human body until the time passes,” said McNab.

5G is on the horizon on Roatan as well. “Obviously Tigo and Claro will bring it, it’s definitely coming, but it’s a very expensive technology so it will take a few years,” says Mitch Cummins who owns Paradise Computers. Paradise Computers, a technical services company, was first to bring high speed interned to the island in 2002. “The normal patterns is to be three to five years behind US,” says Cummins.

Cummins believes that the most exciting thing on the horizon is Elon Musk’s Star link, announced to be coming to Honduras in 2023. “That will be a game changer, especially in rural areas,” says Cummins.