Introducing Kelcy Warren – The New Majority Shareholder of RECO!

By Bruce Starr

After several difficult months for both Kelcy Warren and the people dependant on electricity provided by RECO (Roatan Electric COmpany), the ENEE (Honduran National Electric Company) intervention was finally lifted and Kelcy Warren is now formally the undisputed major stockholder of RECO. He has a lot of responsibility ahead to do his best for tens of thousands of people who have had little dependable power in the last year. I believe he is the right man for the job. Having purchased an island just east of Roatan, he has made a major investment in the area. I look forward to seeing the progress in making RECO one of the finest electrical and power supply companies in the Caribbean.

Kelcy Warren came to the studio during his first trip to Roatan as the new owner.

Roatan Bruce:  I would like to officially welcome you, Kelcy Warren, the new majority stockholder of RECO! Tell us a little about you. I know my listeners would like to get to know you better.

Kelcy Warren: I grew up in Texas and got my college education in Texas. I have been in the energy business my entire career. I run a company called Energy Transfer Partners. It is a Fortune 200 company. It is one of the largest companies in America. We distribute natural gas and propane across the United States.  It’s been a very successful company.

I have a son. His name is Clyde. He is probably the thing I am most proud of in my life. He is only five years old. He loves it here. I fell in love with The Bay Islands awhile back and made an investment here. I tried to just blend into the scenery, but my nature did not allow me to do that for very long as is evidenced by my participation in RECO.

Roatan Bruce:  What are some of your plans to get RECO back in good working order, in the short run, mid term and long term?

Kelcy Warren: With Roatan growing at the rate it is growing, you can’t run this business correctly without access to capital. Without it, it will ultimately fail as it did. This is not a complicated solution. It is very straightforward. We generate power here, we distribute it and we sell it to consumers. Hopefully, the sales price exceeds the cost to do those things. If they don’t, you are running a failed business. I am going to do everything in my power to correct that.

So, what do we do? It starts with competent management. Matthew Harper is a friend of mine. (Matthew has accepted the roll of Interim manager of RECO for 90 days.) He has done work for me elsewhere. I have great confidence in him. I also have Italo Tugliani, my legal counsel and advisor. I have incredible confidence in him. He has been a great friend and advisor.  These gentlemen have helped steer me through the decisions I need to make. It is my job to fund those decisions that we make and fund them in a timely fashion and correctly.

We then start with an infusion of capital. There will be some quick fixes that aren’t the most cost efficient fixes. We are right now working on the generators. Even though I don’t officially own RECO yet, I have funded a great deal of the cash to support fuel purchases and equipment restoration. That is ongoing.

We have bought in rental units. I don’t like that. We don’t need to be renting units here at RECO, but right now, we don’t have a choice on the short term.

That will get us through the first three months. I want everyone to know that consumes power on Roatan that this thing is really broke. It is really messed up. Please don’t expect an over night turnaround. But I will tell you that I think you will not get a faster turnaround from anyone else. I have committed to spending the correct amount of dollars to fix this. I have committed to putting the correct kinds of people here to run it. These people care about Roatan. They care about the future. They care about the people.  We are going to provide power to Roatan!

Now, let’s talk about the future. This will be tens of millions of dollars later and unfortunately a few years down the road. We are going to have a power plant that will be capable of handling a huge amount of growth that I anticipate will be coming to Roatan. Roatan is going to be a massive tourist attraction for years to come, but only if it has the correct infrastructure to draw in that economy.

Roatan Bruce:  Can you give us an idea as to what preferences you see in alternative energies?

Kelcy Warren: We have to switch from diesel. Diesel is not the answer. There are cheaper hydrocarbons that we will be switching over to. There are heavier residual fuels and they can burn clean. Going into the future, renewable energies is something I really like. It is very costly. Wind power is very costly, but there is a good source of wind here on Roatan. I would love to see us exploit that. A more short term fix is to switch over to residual fuel oil and then switch over to a different type of fossil fuel such as possibly coal. Coal has a bad rap, but I assure you that coal is much less pollutive that what you are using now. Much less! You can put in clean burning plants.  

One thing the island needs to consider is, anyone who knows anything about the island knows that trash is eventually going to be a huge issue. Ultimately, that is going to be a huge problem. There are generators that can in fact burn trash and use the “BTU’s” generated from those combustible fuels to generate power. That will require cooperation from the government to do a type of sorting from the combustibles from the non-combustibles and delivering those to the power plant. I have a dream that that might be a possibility down the line. There are power plants that I can purchase that can burn those types of fuels.

Roatan Bruce:  Thank you for taking on this task.

Kelcy Warren: I want everyone to know that I do exist and that I am a normal person and I would to continue to enjoy my relationship with the people of The Bay Islands.

Bruce Starr is the host of The Roatan Bruce Show heard on 106.5 FM weekdays from 9 am to 1 pm.  Please visit his website at roatanbruce.com to hear this interview in full or all previous interviews. Contact him at roatanbruce@yahoo.com with your comments or suggestions or if you would like to learn when he starts  live-streaming his radio show to people around the world.

My first Super Bowl was, to say the least, an incredible experience. It brought back childhood memories when my dad took me to New York Giant football games at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. Back then, the teams were coached by guys like Allie Sherman. The quarterbacks names were Charley Connerly, Y.A Tittle and Fran Tarkenton. Players like Spider Lockhart, Dick Lynch, Homer Jones and Pete Gogolak were the heroes then. It also meant going for years without world championship, quality teams.

But just how did this Honduran radio host and writer for “Honduras This Week” end up in Phoenix attending the game? It all started when members of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (in Arizona, U.S.A.), one of the largest county sheriff offices in the U.S., came here to help improve and train police on both the mainland and on The Bay Islands. I invited them on my radio show twice to talk about all the good and selfless work they were doing to help the security and safety on our island as part of their international Partnership in Service and Justice Program.

After the shows, they reminded me that the Super Bowl was going to be in their county in 2008 and they were one of the key security organizations for the event. They invited me to visit them in Phoenix and said they would help me arrange press credentials to cover the game. That was less than a year ago. It never left my mind that I might be able to attend my first Super Bowl.

When they returned with a another team of police officers six months later, the second group also asked me if I wanted to go, and of course, I thought about going again. But as it got closer to Super Bowl time, it was looking less and less possible. At the time, I was just getting 106.5 FM on its feet after taking over as manager just weeks before – the timing was not right.

Giants VS Packers

That was about the time I watched the Giants play the Packers on that freezing cold day in Green Bay two weeks before the Super Bowl. I never expected the Giants to win, much less that the Giants would be traveling to Phoenix to play the big game. Even after I saw them win the NFC Championship, it still didn’t fully dawn on me that they were in the big game until minutes later when I heard the announcer say that the Giants were headed to the Super Bowl.

I quickly called my contact in Phoenix to see what had to be done to go. After several calls, I learned the next day that the NFL cleared my press credentials. I decided to take a big leap of faith, call the airlines and make my reservations. Two days earlier when I first called, the tickets were one price. That night, instead of being more expensive, they were $150 less. Almost a no-brainer: I purchased them.

Uh oh! 

Five days later and the night before I was to fly, I got a call telling me that although the NFL did clear my credentials, there was a problem getting all the necessary security clearances. Here I was, airline tickets in hand and uncertain whether I would actually get into the game. What should I do – take this chance to do something my dad never got to do in his lifetime, or stay home?

I went to sleep telling my wife I wasn’t going to go. I woke up from my sleep the next morning after dreaming what it would feel like not going to what it felt like if I took a leap of faith. Against all intellectual reasoning, the overwhelming feeling was to just go and give it a shot.

Going to Phoenix 

I arrived in Phoenix late Saturday night, mere hours before the Sunday night kick-off. The next day, a friend took me down to see another mutual friend and we were treated to a wonderful party with terrific food. He also whispered in my ear that he would come out at half time to give me his ticket so I could at least see half of the game.

What a relief – and what a guy! My dream came true. I was going to the Super Bowl. It didn’t matter that it was going to be the second half. I was going and couldn’t have been happier!

With our VIP pass, we were escorted through a private entrance to a great restaurant and ate, compliments of the house – some of the largest, best-tasting shrimp I ever had (must have come from Honduran waters) along with sliced tenderloin along and lots of other food I had not tasted in a long, long time.

In the middle of the meal, my friend received a phone call. He said, “Come on…let’s go!”

I looked up with a mouth full of tasty morsels managing to say, “And leave this great food?”

He said, “Yes, right now. We have to go!”

“Oh my God,” I thought to myself. I gobbled up as much as I could and we left. “Where are we going?” I asked.

Going? Going?…Yes, Going! 

He told me there was a chance there might be a donated ticket for me to attend the entire game. I tried not to get too excited, but it was difficult. When we arrived, a ticket was put in my hands. I could not believe my eyes. My intuition did not let me down. I was going to my first Super Bowl game!

After a vigorous pat-down, I walked past security guards. Upon entering the new University of Phoenix Stadium, I found my aisle, number 139. I looked down at the ticket for the first time. It said row 20. I looked down at the row I was standing at. It was row 59. I kept walking lower and lower, further and further down until I reached row 20. I looked down at the field and said to myself, the seat I just got five minutes before were for 20 rows from the field!

I found myself sitting in a VIP section behind the goalposts. A lady walked right over to me and slapped a red bracelet on my wrist just as I saw the kickoff. She told me I could drink and eat all I wanted. The restaurant food was just below the stairway. When I finally sat down, the long tables in front of each of the rows of seats in the area was loaded with fresh, buttered popcorn and barrels of candy including M&M’s, both plain and peanut, nuts, and just about any other snack one could ever want. I was feelin’ pretty good!

Experience of a Lifetime

In a section of mostly Giants fans, I was sitting on one of three Super Bowl cushions that eventually came home with me. I was truly in ‘heaven on earth’ and heard San Francisco Hall of fame quarterback Steve Young say the same thing several times over the huge sound system and scoreboard when he described his career during commercial time-outs.

The 7 -3 Patriots lead at halftime was the second lowest halftime score in Super Bowl history, mostly because of the excellent defense by both teams.

Halftime was another memorable experience, but not because of the halftime show. Before I left on the trip, I had sent some e-mails telling fellow football fans where I was headed. My oldest high school friend, Ken Hale, wrote back telling me he was going too, and would be in section 115. So at half time, I took a walk to look for him.

Finding my Long Time High School Friend 

When I finally found section 115 located clear across field, I tried to rush by the attendant to look for Kenny. It didn’t work. She stopped me and said I could not go down there without my ticket. I said ‘please?’ She said…’no!’ I told her my ticket cost more than the tickets in that section and said I was looking for an old high school friend who I hadn’t seen in years. I pleaded my case, “You can watch me go up and down the aisle. If I don’t see him, I will be right up.”

She looked at me for a few seconds and said, “Okay.”

I knew if Kenny was there I would find him, because he went prematurely grey at a fairly young age. So I looked for the guy with grey hair. On the way down, I didn’t see anyone that looked like him. Being a little disappointed, I started back up from field level until I saw someone who kind of looked like him. I hadn’t seen him in 15 years, so I was not sure. I yelled Kenny’s name across several people to see if it was him. That person who turned to look at me stared at me for a few seconds and then flashed big smile. I found my friend!

We had a great talk during the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers half time concert. With another near miracle under my belt, I walked back to my seat and watched the second half, wondering if the Giants were going to stay with those Patriots after they woke up and started playing. I was not confident.

Back to the Second Half 

The Giants continued to play incredible defense, as they had most of the season. They won the last 10 games in a row away from home without a loss. That was an all-time NFL record. Then, as the “wild card” team, they had to remain on the road for three final tough games against Tampa Bay, Dallas and Green Bay to get to the Super Bowl.

In the second half, the Giants scored first with a touchdown to make it 10-7. In the fourth quarter, the Patriots scored to make it 14-10 with just a little over two minutes to go. The Giants needed a miracle, a prayer and a touchdown or they would lose.

The next two football minutes were the most exciting I had ever witnessed. The Giants received the kick-off and seconds later, the receiver was tackled immediately behind the 20 yard line. Eli Manning, the youngest of the quarterback Manning’s, would had to pull every ounce of skill he had to pull this off. Big brother Payton won last year’s Super Bowl against the Chicago Bears. Who would believe that one year later, baby brother Eli had two minutes to match that incredible achievement with one of his own. The Giants would have to go over 80 yards to do it. The Giants’ prospects looked dim.

After an initial terrible desperation pass, the young, inexperienced Giant quarterback took a deep breath and started his attack down field. He threw pass after pass, first down after first down, one miraculous play after another.

A Play Never to be Forgotten in Super Bowl History 

The one unforgettable moment in this year’s Super Bowl? It was when Manning came away from a pack of marauding, hungry Patriot attackers, hands grabbing and pulling at his uniform, only to escape and complete an almost impossible pass downfield, the pass that led to an easy touchdown completion to put the Giants in the lead!

The stage was set for another New England Patriot exciting, last second win. They needed a field goal to tie, a touchdown to win. I had seen them do just that several times in the last year or so. I was just waiting for the onslaught to begin. It never happened.

Michael Strahan and gang sacked Brady. One pass after another failed to connect with receivers. Another Patriot miracle was not meant to be.

Giants Win!! 

Eli Manning won the game with pinpoint passes to receivers who caught them with fingertip precision. As the clock ticked down, the stadium, filled with well over 40,000 Giant fans, started its celebration. It was an overwhelming experience. Moments later, Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” brought down the house. Tears streaked down faces. Was it true? Yes it was….the New York Giants were the 2008 Super Bowl champs!

An Interview with President Ricardo Maduro

I am very happy to bring you this rare interview with the most recent President of Honduras, Ricardo Maduro. I found the President to be an insightful, intelligent and caring person. I am honored to introduce the former President of Honduras to the many English speaking people around the world.

 Roatan Bruce: Mr. President, thank you for spending this time with me and with the English speaking people on The Bay Islands, Honduras and around the world!

 President Maduro: I have not been prone to give interviews since I have finished my Presidency almost two years ago. I am happy to renew my visibility in the Bay Islands, a place I love and have loved for a very long time.

 Roatan Bruce: How did the idea of becoming President come about?

 President Maduro: I always had an inclination for service. I believe leadership is a category of service. I believe any kind of leadership that is not oriented or guided by the desire to serve is in fact illegitimate. If you go into leadership for other reasons such as notoriety, the use of power or the accumulation of wealth, I think you are not a legitimate leader.

 I like feeling like I can serve and help others organize themselves, pursue objectives and goals better. I ran the campaign for the president running in the national party in 1985 and 1989. We lost in 85, but won in 89. The President then appointed me the President of the Central Bank of Honduras. I stayed there for the four years.

 In 1997, my son was kidnapped. He as you did Bruce studied in Boston. He went to Babson College. He was twenty-five at the time and during the kidnapping, he was killed. At that time, I had to rethink my life. Many people insisted I think about running and my priority was of course security. I wasn’t inclined to it. I don’t like notoriety. I’ve lived with it and accepted it happily because it is part of being President.

 I don’t like the use of power per say, I mean just for powers sake. I consider it a necessary preoccupation of being able to exercise influence in the country. So I accepted the power that the Presidency has. I feel proud and honored to be President.

 The National Party has done a lot for Honduras and for The Bay Islands. I feel people in Roatan are starting to realize that they must take hold of and pro-actively take the future into their own hands. I feel that the best thing the federal government can do is support the Bay Islands and delegate, but delegate first. The first thing I asked when people of the Bay Islands came to me with their problems was, are you organized? Are you willing to take the reigns of your own future?    

 Now a days, the Bay Islands represents the largest face of Honduras to the rest of the world. You are representing the entire country. Not only must you administrate the natural beauty of the Bay Islands, but you have to do it in a way that is sustainable, environmentally and economically sustainable. It also has to be done in a way where people feel that they are welcome and treated fairly, justly and in a friendly way.

 Roatan Bruce: Could you walk me through your four years as President?

(The President laughed and said it would be hard to put four years as President into a 30 minute interview.)

 President Maduro: I feel one of the first thing a President has to do is comply with his mandate. Clearly my mandate was security and fighting crime. The will to support me and vote for me came from the conviction that I would fight crime. I lost my son to crime.

 I did so with a clearly defined strategy that contained two pillars. The first was the immediate control of crime. That is the short term aspect. The other is fighting crime in the long term which is social problem. Crime in this instance is motivated and caused in many instances by a lack of values, which comes from the home, the family and the education system. It comes from a lack of adequate jobs and job opportunities. It comes from a lack of health services, a proper education and adequate housing.  In other words, problems that go along with poverty, but not only material poverty, but also a poverty that I feel comes from not stressing our values and principals as much as we should. We are not teaching our children to have a strong sense of identity, self assuredness and self-worth where they love their own country and themselves.

 I fought for education. I wanted values and principals back in education. I wanted universal values and principals in fairness, solidarity, discipline and compliance. The kinds of values I feel we should always have in our education. Well educated Honduran’s does not happen in four years. It takes one generation, twenty years. Not only does the school system have to work well, but you have to have a home where parents are able to transmit the importance of education. The child can go to the best school in the world, but if he doesn’t have support in the home, half of the formula is missing. I started the fight for better education. We still have a long, long way to go.

 We emphasized and focused on tourism as a sustained source of growth for the future. At that time, it was a hope, a dream and promise. There is no doubt how important tourism is to us and I am proud that I played a part in that. 

 There was some good and some bad. I feel proud about doing some good things that were needed. I feel proud about helping islanders and tourism.

 Roatan Bruce: How did you decide what money went where with such a limited budget?

 President Maduro: One way to attend to the needy is to be able to prioritize expenses properly. You have to be able to recognize that if you give something to someone, you give up the right and opportunity to give it to someone else.  You must be very careful that you assign that money to the ones that need it the most.

 The second thing is, I believe the closer the money gets to the people that need it the most, the better it will be spent. What I mean by that is, I believe in delegation. When I got into the government, 1.5% of the public budget was distributed to the municipalities.  When I finished, it was 5%, but I feel that is too little.

 I believe the federal government is the least efficient of any group in terms of spending money. There is always a tendency for the technocrat, the technician in Tegucigalpa to think he knows better what the needs are for the people on Roatan than the people of Roatan. That is just not the case! If the people of Roatan spend the money, even if there is some corruption involved, everyone will know about it. The people of Roatan at the very least will say…I am not going to vote for that person again.

 Also, if the spending is done by the people of Roatan and they know they are doing it for their own children and family, they are more likely to do it in a more efficient way.

 Roatan Bruce: The education system that we are dealing with is a tough one to patch up.  What a lot of foreigners are doing is coming to terms that their kids will be needing either right now or very soon. We feel that we may have to take the education system into our own hands so our kids can have a chance of having a quality education.

 President Maduro: I go further than taking control of it because you don’t feel like it is going well.  Parents should take control of it anyway at all times. Meaning that they should have a very proactive roll along with the teachers. In the United States, The PTA is a very fundamental part of the administration of the school system. I think it should be here too.

 When you see a well run rural school in a poor neighborhood, you can be absolutely certain that the parents are helping the teachers to make things happen. Unfortunately, our Latin society and as is the case in many Latin societies, tends to delegate unconsciously the vast majority of the responsibility of the education of the kids on the mother.

 When you see the most successful societies in terms of promoting good education like Asia, you will see that both parents are present in meetings with parents and teachers. When I asked some Asian parents what they feel about their kid’s education, they said that is our biggest and best investment that we make! That is something that we have to change as Hondurans.

 I feel very, very strongly about the parents participating in their kid’s education. I think they should be present in the Parent and Teachers organizations. Parents should help the teachers to teach better. I think they need to know what to expect from the school. I think they need to support the teachers and the school to get them physically fixed. Parents should influence the curriculum content and they should insist on modifying it to take it into account the local needs.

 A student on Roatan should not receive the same curriculum as a child in Western Honduras. The child in the western part of the country has very different needs. That child should learn more about agriculture and raising crops. On Roatan, they need to learn about tourism. They both have to have their values. The cultural heritage in The Bay Islands is very different from Western Honduras.

 One of the enormous advantages that The Bay Islands has is that they are bi-lingual because they have the English heritage too. It is a huge advantage for tourism and for the well being of the residents of The Bay Islands in a globalized world where the English language is likely to be the most important language commercially and businesswise.

 Our law did not take into account bi-lingual education. Not only that, but teachers were named to places like the Bay Islands from the mainland where they knew nothing about the Roatan culture. We were able to change that with a treaty that we signed for the rights of minorities.

 In our legal system, first comes the constitution, second comes international treaties and third, our law. In other words, treaties are above the law. Based on the treaty that I signed for rights in minorities, I was able to name teachers for The Bay Islands from The Bay Islands. The Bay Islanders should insist that the curriculum content for The Bay Islanders reflects their needs and preserves their identity.

 I am spending a lot of time now working on the foundation that carries my son’s name. We have had strong success in opening kindergartens nationwide. Directly with the foundation and the government, we have opened over 4000 kindergartens which serves over 60,000 children.

 Roatan Bruce: Can you give me your view of the new “Free Trade Zone” that officially started on December 15^th, 2007.

 President Maduro: As President, I was not in favor of it. The Free Trade Zone will work and be benefit all of The Bay Islands only if it is only seen as a compliment and support tourism.  As soon as The Free Trade Zone is seen as something else, in other words, a way to get duty free things into Honduras, then it is going to be in serious trouble.

 I have no doubt that the future of the Bay Islands will be tourism. It is about doing a good job of sustainable tourism, and that means a lot of things. It means social organization, it means fairness, it means rules of law. It means being an open and welcoming place for foreigners. The minute it is seen as something else, whereby it will become a transit point for commerce or even contraband onto the mainland, then it will be in serious difficulties.

 I believe San Andreas, which is a Free Trade Zone area, has lost its tourist attraction because it has become a waypoint for commerce into Columbia. So I think you have to be very careful.

 I think the key to success with The Free Trade Zone will be that the commission that administrates this will do so with clear objectives and convictions that it is to be tool to supplement and strengthen tourism and nothing more than that. When you lose sight of that vision, there will be problems. If anything is done to damage the golden egg of the potential of tourism and the natural beauty of the islands, you may end up getting more money in the short term, but you are certainly going to be putting the long term future of the islands in danger.

 I would like to thank the former President Ricardo Maduro for allowing the English speaking people of The Bay Islands and the world to learn more about him and his wise perceptions about The Bay Islands and Honduras.

 Bruce Starr is the host of The Roatan Bruce Show heard on 106.5 FM weekdays from 9 am to 1 pm. 106.5 FM is now the Voice for English speaking people across the Bay Islands and Northern Honduras.  Please visit roatanbruce.com or contact me at roatanbruce@yahoo.com with your comments and suggestions.

After living here five years, some opinions about being on a tropical island in the far Western Caribbean have changed and some haven’t. When people ask how I find life living full time on Roatan island, I still find myself telling them that their happiness is as unlimited as their creativity.

When I first arrived, it soon became apparent to me that the area was in need of so much. An advantage people have from an industrialized region is that whatever products or services that may be missing on the islands has been in use in other parts of the world for ages. I saw that there was no need to re-create the wheel because the same wheel has already been in use for decades elsewhere.

One example of this is my own experience discovering the area. When my wife and I first came down to Roatan, there was no one speaking English on the radio. Thousands of people had English music to listen to, but there was no talk, information, community news or even weather reports. The different English speaking communities were not connected or associating with each other.

If a storm was coming, maybe the lobster and shrimp fishermen knew it and then their family and friends, but many times, that is where the information stopped. In most instances, no one knew if a storm or even a hurricane was on the way until the weather hit.

Another example of using my own experience was noticing that there was very little advertising to the abundant English speaking market. I saw that there was a need to connect businesses such as construction, building parts, shipping and much more with customers. At the time, there was no consistent way for businesses to inform the new visitors and residents what products or services they had to offer.

I not only saw a need for English speaking radio, but because there were so many foreigners coming to the island to build homes, develop condominium projects, purchase cars or eat in restaurants, this was clearly the perfect opportunity to use my twenty years of expertise in sales and marketing to fill two needs at once. One was to be a Roatan talk show host and another was to be able to sell advertising on the show to keep a show on the air.

The ways to create a wonderful life for yourself on The Bay Islands
are as unlimited as the imagination.

Even in real estate, the sky is the limit. If you are the kind of person that can see potential rather than follow in another creative persons footsteps, land that might otherwise stay unbuilt upon for years could instead be made into a resort, a condo complex with an unusual theme or niche market, or a marina.

For instance, there is a property out in the eastern part of the island that backs up into an incredible national reserve. One person might see it as isolated and unexciting while another could see the location as the ideal place on a white sandy beach to put an exotic, exclusive and secluded private resort complete with excellent diving, nature and wildlife for a Western Caribbean version of a “Club Med.”

Another example of being creative and thinking outside the typical real estate box is a property I have seen that is closer to the central part of the island. It is presently a hill with excellent views and flatland that is next to a deep water bite. Instead of building a few homes on a hill, it would be a perfect location for a south shore dive resort and marina.

There are so many more examples of how to live life large on a tropical island. All you need to do is be a bit adventuresome and inspired. If living in a place with crystal clear clean water on a reef system second to none in the entire world isn’t enough to make you think harder about what you have to offer, perhaps you could volunteer the rest of your days to helping others not so fortunate.

What is nearly impossible to directly help people elsewhere, is easy down here. The area is just now starting to begin the process of catching up to the rest of the world as far as health care and education is concerned. Are you health care savvy? You could help tens of thousands down here with your efforts, contacts and experience.

Are you looking for just the right place to share your education expertise and background? The Bay Islands and most of Honduras are in dire need of a revamped school system. The one in place now is barely serving 25% of the children’s needs. Are you a teacher looking for an incredible adventure rather than just spending the rest of your working days…working away? Are you retired and want to help people with your unlimited experience? Come on down and join others who are already working to improve education so that everyone will be able to enjoy island life equally for decades to come.

The Bay Islands has something for everyone. You can be as creative as you want to build the exact type of life you have always wanted. The one problem is, once you come down here, there will be no overbearing government, community or boss to complain about who has stopped you from achieving your goals. You are your boss! You are your creative resource! If you can relate to these words, come on down and create a life, not only for yourself, but for your neighbors and community.

Roatan Bruce Interviews

On November 15^th, 2007, President Mel Zelaya came to Roatan to join Congressman Jerry Hynds, Mayor Dale Jackson, Governor of the Bay Islands Arlie Thompson and Minister of Tourism Richardo Martinez for the ground breaking with Carnival Corporation representatives Graham Davis, the Director of Port Operations, Davis Candib, Armando Corpas, Director of Port Development and Jose DelGado, the Director of Accounting.

When Giora Israel, the Strategic Planning Vice President of Carnival Corporation and PLC, addressed the crowd of community and political leaders, he proudly stated that, “When Mahogany Bay, Honduras’ newest and largest $50 million dollar two cruise ship port facility opens on October 1^st, 2009, we will truly be partners with the people of Honduras.” He continued to say, “The Carnival agreement would benefit every islander. This will happen because Carnival Corporation had no plans to enter into the on-shore excursion, transportation or gift shop business.”

It appears that Carnival has seen mistakes other ports of call have notoriously experienced when large scale cruising takes over the economic community. Although the results in the past have brought greater income for most people, would the natives of cruise destinations trade that ability to have more disposable income for a peaceful, clean and safe environment to live in? Are the residents in and around those ports of call happy with how those areas have progressed with “greater income?”

Mr. Israel answered some of those concerns by saying, “Not only does Carnival want to become partners in business where everyone benefits, we want to become responsible long-term residents who will guarantee that no garbage from the 20 acre development will be thrown in our waters or on our land.” He also stated, “No reef will be damaged to create the new docks.”

Carnival showed their local support by donating ten thousand dollars to the Roatan Municipal when it expressed their concern about not having the funds to continue with their plan to have everyone from the Coxen Hole area be connected to the sewer system. Carnival contributed that amount as the start of their commitment to see Roatan become a place for everyone to flourish!

Other facts about the soon to be port? Within five years, Roatan is expected to host 225 cruise ship calls with 500,000 passengers annually from Carnival Corporation ships such as Holland America, Princess Cruises, Costa Cruises as well as Carnival Cruise Lines. Mahogany Bay will have a 35,000-square foot Welcome Center with retail shops, restaurants and bars. It will include a 60-foot-high lighthouse, a lagoon with cascading waterfalls and a nature trail.

Bruce Starr is the host of The Roatan Bruce Show is now heard on 106.5 FM weekdays at 9 am to 1 pm across the Bay Islands and Northern Honduras. Please visit his website at roatanbruce.com or contact him at roatanbruce@yahoo.com with your comments and suggestions. Please stay tuned for a major radio announcement!

Roatan, Bay Islands

October 6^th marks the fourth year The Roatan Bruce Show, the only English speaking ( non-religious) talk radio show on the Bay Islands has been relied upon as the place to get the latest and most up to date local news, community calendar, weather and interviews.

After a year of challenges since moving to 106.5 FM last August, the show now boasts a much stronger transmitter and can be heard anywhere on The Bay Islands and Northern Honduras. The show now has Internet in the studio making it much more interactive. Any listener of the show can now e-mail from home to roatanbruce@yahoo.com, instant message over Yahoo or Hotmail messenger to roatanbruce, or text message from their cell phone by dialing 9710 and in the message area writing “Roatan” and then the message.

Roatan Bruce has already interviewed over 250 of the leading political, business and community leaders. Two years ago, the best of the show interviews became published in a weekly column in Honduras This Week, Honduras‘ only weekly English speaking newspaper. The most important information spoken by the experts themselves on all the most interesting subjects are now writing and read across Honduras and around the world.

The show will soon be heard around the world “live streamed” and will soon have a fresh new webpage located at roatanbruce.com.

In addition to playing many of the most popular classic rock, upbeat Soul and R& B music from the 70’s and 80’s, The Roatan Bruce Show, heard Monday to Friday from 10 am to 1 pm, hosts top business, community, political and real estate leaders who share important information about the islands and greater Honduras.

“One of the most unique factors about the show is,” said Bruce Starr, “for the first time, businesses can now promote their products or services to the thousands of English speaking people and tourists on the Bay Islands and northern Honduras.”

There are several different ways to reach the growing Roatan Bruce radio listening audience. Heard across the Bay Islands and in Northern Honduras, perhaps the most unique way a message may be best heard is by becoming a guest on the Roatan Bruce Show. Five minute, ten, thirty to forty-five minute friendly mini-infomercial interviews are available to help businesses promote special events, products or grand openings. Roatan Bruce has already interviewed more than 250 people.

“Promotional interviews are a very effective way to reach the listening audience,” said Roatan Bruce. “Scheduled guests are promoted on preceding shows and on Roatanet.com, our highly popular newsgroup and message center website. People Interviewed will have a very substantial audience to hear their message.”

“But it doesn’t stop there,” said Bruce. “Once the interviewed is recorded, it is uploaded and added to the Roatanbruce.com website. People from all over the world will be able to hear the show at anytime over their computers. That is a powerful promotional tool.”

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