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PÄYÄ February and March 2020 Vol. 3 No. 1 $ 4.00 Roatan’s Place in Giant Turtle Takes Utila’s Mrs. Annie Caron Pinnace and Pirate History Flight Reminisces Her Distinctive Voice 0.0007 24 PÄYÄ Roatan’s Beauty, Truth & Wisdom February & March 2020 4 • Table of content & Masthead Thirteenth Issue PERSPECTIVE 6 • Paya-in-Chief Unintended Consequences of Collective Punishment 19 • Jon’s World Honduras In World War I 23 • Straight Talk Cayman Islands Marketing Machine IN DEPTH 8 • Feature - History Terror of the Caribbean 8 26 • Culture “La Morenita” Visits Roatan PROFILES 18 18 • Island Artists The Soulful Sound of Caron Pinnace 16 • Island Senior A Soft Spoken Utilian 20 • Lyfestyle Socials 24 • Island Happenings A Giant Leap for Turtle WANDERINGS 28 • Off Island News Off Island Perspective 30 • Calendar Yearly & Weekly Events 26 COVER PHOTO: The Catholic faithful of Roatan escort the most revered statue in Honduras, Virgin Suyapa, from Juan Manuel Galvez Airport to the Immaculate Heart of Mary church in Coxen Hole. (Photo by Thomas Tomczyk) STAFF Editorial Staff Paya Magazine is published Copyright notice: Managing Editor Thomas Tomczyk bi-monthly by Paya Mag S. A. All text, graphics and photographs are Writer / reporter Opening Roatan, Honduras copyright of Paya Magazine. All rights History writer Jon Tompson reserved. No part of Paya Magazine can be PayaMag.com reproduced in any form without written Island perspective writer Keena Haylock [email protected] permission of the publisher. Proofreader Kim Serrao (504) 9764-5968 Editor’s note: Support Staff The editorial content of Paya Magazine is Office manager Opening independent from paid-for advertising. We Graphic designer Gabriela Galeas made every effort to ensure the accuracy of Printer Lithopress Industrial the information at the time of going to press, but assume no responsibility for errors or changes. Thanks to the many people that made the thirteenth edition of Paya Magazine possible: Ana Svoboda, Eva Milakowski, Julian Milakowski, Ing. David Dominguez and Edith Diaz. 4 PÄYÄ February and March 2020 PERSPECTIVE | Paya-in-Chief THOMAS TOMCZYK UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT little noticed law has been making a difference in the Aires and Bogota; These cities have seen the criminals switching op- Roatan Municipality. It is now not allowed by two erations to solo motorcycling and driving in tinted windowed cars. “men” to ride on a motorcycle in Roatan. Women – The law will encourage crime amongst women who will be A yes. While the law is supposedly limiting assaults by drafted to drive the getaway motorcycles of criminals. Maybe the men committing robberies on a motorcycle, I found the effect of deprived of motorcycles drivers, will lose a job and will take up the this punishing law on my own. life of crime to maintain themselves and their families? When driv- My hardworking gardener was driving his 14-year old cousin ers caught driving two-men-up inevitably try to bribe their way out on the back of his beat-up, 13-year-old motorcycle. The motor- of a situation and the unjust law corrupts the law-abiding drivers, cycle was stopped by police looking to “enforce” the no-two-men will the policemen realize they are enforcing a senseless law? Motor- law. The young passenger could pass for 12-year-old, and as a minor cycles are an affordable means of transport, of the working class of doesn’t have an ID, but my gardener was too honest for his own the island. They reduce traffic, and if the ride sharing men are now good and admitted the boy was 14. The police confiscated the mo- forced to spend hours on busses and in taxi this will also increase the torcycle, and then informed him he could traffic jams on the island. buy it back, along with his license in 45 days The fact is that the collective punishment for 12,000Lps. Motorcycle drivers effort just doesn’t work. A law abiding, strug- This was quite an ordeal for this hon- gling majority that doesn’t want to migrate to est, hardworking man. My gardener doesn’t must endure the the US shouldn’t be punished for the crimes make much money and works two jobs that of a tiny group and failures of the system. The are inaccessible by public transport on other consequences of the fear, anxiety and expense that this “security” parts of the island. As the price of the fine procedure has caused, outweighs any possible surpassed the value of his beat-up motorcy- collective failure of benefits from preventing crime. cle, he decided to abandon his commuter in But, if you need to have “some new” the police yard. He also had to work an extra the Honduras’ legal motorcycle laws that would make life bet- week to pay off the ransom for his seized li- ter, I have plenty of suggestions. What about cense. system stopping motorcycles that don’t have working The fact is my gardener is far from lights? What about requiring a yearly vehicle alone. There are now around 200-300 confiscated motorcycles in inspection that would be tested at certified? What about checking the parking lot of Roatan police headquarters. These are not stolen the tread of motorcycle tires assuring they are safe to drive? by thieves, they are taken away legally. Just because something is le- There is another post scriptum to the story of my gardener. gal, doesn’t mean it is morally correct. Almost all of the people who Since his motorcycle confiscation he has found a very competent had their motorcycles confiscated come from low-income, hard friend to help him with gardening work. The only thing is he’s a working Roatan families. Yet they fell afoul of the law. 60-years-old man. The fact is not a lot of 12-year-olds are doing hold The motorcycle drivers must endure the consequences of the ups in Honduras and ever fewer 60-year-olds. Yet the Honduran law collective failure of the Honduras’ legal system: its police, its pros- passed didn’t account for the elderly motorcycle passengers. ecutors, its courts and its prisons. “When liberty leads to the loss of After three days, the 60-year-old gentleman had to quit be- order, then the demand for order will lead to a loss of liberty,” said cause he couldn’t afford the time or expense of getting to work on Dr. Stan Monteith. public transport and walking. The devil usually hides in the details. Then there are the laws of unintended consequences. Honduras Sadly, the politicians who pass these laws that create this oppressive is not the first country to face assassins and robbers who use motor- situation only care about the sound bites and don’t really care about cycles and two-man teams. London, Athens, Mexico City, Buenos the misery they create. 6 PÄYÄ February and March 2020 IN DEPTH | Feature - History Pirates meet on Roatan’s French Harbour in 1683 to discuss their rides on Spanish territories. Terror of The Caribbean (Illustration by Gabriela Galeas) Roatan was the Favorite Base for the Brethren of the Coast In 1683 Roatan hosted the largest meeting of pirates in history; they planned a series of at- By Jon Tompson tacks on Spanish towns and shipping routes. These pirates known as ‘Brethren of the Coast” raided Spanish cities and burned towns, cap- tured and sold slaves and executed hostages, sewing terror from Florida to South America. These buccaneers defied laws and civility, no one was safe from their greed and cruelty. While many people glorify them, today that loose coalition of pirates and privateers would be called terrorists with behavior surpassing that of the Islamic State. Some of these buc- caneers carried ‘Letters of marque and repri- sal’ that regulate their relationships with their European benefactors and themselves. The Brethren were almost always English Prot- estants, Dutch Lutherans and French Huguenots that saw their Catho- lic, Spanish and French counter- parts as legitimate targets of ruthless treatment. Their actions were the exten- sion of ruthless Euro- pean religious wars in the New World. A dark and swarthy band of pirates ready to charge if their demands are not met. 8 PÄYÄ February and March 2020 February and March 2020 PÄYÄ 9 Armed with this valuable permit to at- gathering at French Harbour for the raid and with another 200 men marched over- tack the Spanish, Van Hoorn met up with were almost exclusively Dutch and French, land into the rear of the town and took Grammont at their base in Pétit-Goâve and with only two English captains, George over a hundred horses from the garrison’s sailed in his own triple-decker warship, the Spurre and Jacob Hall in attendance. The stables. They attacked the fort at dawn. “St. Nicholas Day,” along with 300 men, rest of the pirate captains were Michiel The Spanish were so surprised by to rendezvous with De Graaf on Roatan. Andrieszoon, Jan “Yankey” Willens, Jacob the Dutch cavalry charge on their own Van Hoorn’s ship, the largest op- Evertson, Francois Le Sage, Pierre De horses that they quickly surrendered erating in the Caribbean, had been paid L’Orange, Nicolas Bregeult, Nicolas Bot, without a fight. The sea rovers quickly for with part of a bullion shipment of and Antoine Bernard. They spent over a spread out through the town, herding two million gold livres which the Span- month on the island, careening boats and most of the population into the large ish had paid Van Hoorn to protect on its hunting and fishing, their enforced stay church, to be bartered for ransom.