Roy's story

In 1986 I tried almost single handedly to save the Caribbean island of St. Lucia from the Tvind Empire. I felt I was qualified to evaluate the pros and cons surrounding Tvind due to my knowledge of the Danish language ( I am from a Danish West Indian family with strong roots in Denmark) and the substantial negative information about the organization that already existed ---even at that time, 15 years ago! But the then Prime Minister John Compton of St. Lucia felt otherwise. The politician went on record as proclaiming Tvind would be beneficial for the island and in time to come Tvind would do that island proud. I tried my best to warn St. Lucians. Because I felt these islanders were being given something they knew nothing about without proper counsel that they might someday regret. The Prime Minister, however, took retaliatory steps in the matter in spite of strong protests amongst his own island inhabitants.

Sell to the Danes or we will move against your property within a week is what he told my then 75 year old father.

As a result, my father Erik Lawaetz, was pressured by the TVIND EMPIRE and the St. Lucian Government of John Compton to sell 1,137 Acres of agricultural lands for Tvinds St.Lucia agricultural project. Failure to do so implied expropriation of his property by the St. Lucian Government as stated by the Prime Minister. In a forced land sale my family lost all of that 1,137 acre property to Tvind. Obviously pressure tactics like this was too much for my 75 year old father to handle on his own."

John Compton insisted Tvind pay for the 1,137 acre property however. We will use your(Tvind) money he stated on television in N.Y.C before a group of St. Lucians  to justify his decision. To acquire the property. But you must pay the man. And the property will remain in hands of the government of St. Lucia. We will take your money to pay for the property and then lease the property back to you. But the land will belong to St. Lucia"

But just across the water, the neighboring   Caribbean island of St. Vincent s Prime Minister James Mitchell had already expelled the Tvind  Empire accusing them of being subversives. I met with Mitchell on one occasion. He told me he had spoke to John Compton about the Danes (Tvind) and  told  him they were no good but that he (Compton)  wanted them into St. Lucia anyway."

It was hard to believe this was all happening. One Prime Minister disagreeing with one another. The one kicking them out on St. Vincent and the other one forcing us for our large property on St. Lucia just so Tvind could be there. Tvind had now appeared in its negotiable role to St. Lucia as it has done  in so many other places around the globe. But the same situation exists in Denmark where one town will keep them and another town will say  "keep out". Tvind has learned to live with this and thrives well on opposition and adversity. In such situations Tvind is like a tree being pruned whereby its branches are reduced in size. Growth always manages to regenerate somehow on the global landscape.

The Tvind experience was a nightmare for my family and it was quite natural that I should try and resist the forced sale. Who wouldnt have in my position? I had to speak out no matter what the consequences. In life we are all faced with challenges. This was one of them for me

Today, a part of Tvind's enormous wealth in the Caribbean was acquired in the way that I have just described to this TvindAlert website. In St. Vincent, James  Mitchell always has claimed they circumvented the law there in order to acquire the Orange Hill property, an even larger property than that once owned by my father in St. Lucia. I see they are back too in St. Vincent too, even after he (Mitchell)kicked them out. See? The tree has regenerated there too. How this can happen might seem  puzzling at first. But if you take the time out to learn about Tvind you will find it's all in the global strategy. It should also give you an idea of this group's diehard determination to change the world. Is there anybody else out there working as hard?

Prime Minister John Comptons  controversial decision back in 1986 involving the unprecedented property transaction that happened on St. Lucia  was covered by the International press at the time back in 1986,  including Jyllands Posten and Politikken of Denmark. CANA news and Radio Antilles, the Star newspaper and Crusader newspapers and HTS Television of St.Lucia also covered the incident.

My family did not have the financial resources to challenge  the alliance of the Tvind Empire and the then Prime Minister of St. Lucia in a prolonged legal battle. The task was insurmountable which they obviously knew. Besides my family received no assistance or support from the State of Denmark or from the U.S. Government for that matter in its plight. Everyone just appeared indifferent, including some hometown politicians close to the Republican Party at the time. It was only journalists who understood. They knew about Tvind.                                          

Being an ex-military journalist myself in the U.S. Navy I put my old training to good use.

 I soon produced my own documentary film entitled The Captive Investor. which documented on record at least for future generations how  my 75  year old father as a defenseless investor had to go up against the Tvind Empire and their ally the Prime Minister. The documentary also covers how my father, Erik Lawaetz, in his prime  had already been honored by the Dutch/French St Maarten/St Martin island as The Father of Tourism for his "Island Gem" development on that  island by the official governments and was a noted Caribbean developer, featured in U.S.magazines like Look in the mid-fifties for his visionary ideas on Caribbean tourism. His credentials as an achiever were well in place and I felt he was entitled to better treatment not only by the St. Lucian government but also the U.S. Government which specified that U.S. citizens in countries receiving Caribbean  Basin Benefits were entitled to fair investor treatment. What was happening in this scenario paled against any such standards the U.S. government had claimed CBI Beneficiary countries had to adher to. This was not just a forced sale. It was more than that. It was a forced sale to an organization that had its own political ideology as its agenda.

As a U.S. citizen, I formally appealed to the U.S. State Dept. officials   in Washington because St. Lucia was a CBI Beneficiary but still I  received zero help. In New York City I contacted  CBSs 60 Minutes but they were not interested in covering such a story believing Tvind was just a Danish school organization with the worlds largest windmill.

I can certainly relate to other people whom I have read about who have not been taken seriously when they tell about their own negative Tvind experiences. I have read in a recent story by Rebecca Wakefield of the Miami New Times that land was taken away from certain Zambians by the government in Zambia to give to Tvind. This comes close to my own story, at least on the surface, although I know no details. There may be other "land stories" like this too. In spite of what happened to me and my family with their property I think the worst aspect of the Tvind discussion is the unfortunate parents who have lost their children to the cult. For me this is the real heart wrenching  issue beyond anything else negative one might want to document about Tvind, including the current extradition case against their cult leader Amdi Pedersen who is now in jail in Los Angeles. Amdi Pedersen been in hiding for 22 years but now he ends up close to Hollywood ---Amdi like star material 

He's important enough and is highly rated by some as an ideological visionary like a Mao or Fidel Castro. In any quiet revolution the ends usually justify the means so I guess they (Tvind) had no qualms about our property being taken over for their ideological program.

Today, 15 years later, it is monumental dj vu for me to see the  TVIND organization  being widely documented   by the BBC and countless other credible  media organizations and websites around the world. I guess the world in an even greater context is finally learning more about the  Tvind enigma. But by now Tvind is an unstoppable fast-paced global movement with its ideology firmly rooted across continents including St. Lucia and the U.S. It is amazing for me to see how they have grown since 1986. And their companies operate under various names not always easy to determine. I dont know if anything can be done except that people tell their own experiences and be vocal and I hope the State of Denmark will wake up and be firm and do what it should have done years ago. Address the problem it has at home. It is a real problem because there are people across the globe that believes in them as I have described in my own story. These people are very vulnerable especially in undeveloped countries. They (TVIND) are extremely clever and they have a deep sense of Organizational purpose and yes. destiny. And with the money they have received from the Danish State it is easy to convince non-suspecting parties in foreign Governments abroad that they are all about humanitarian causes. They are that too, of course, but I had to look at the whole picture for myself. My personal experience shows they will use ruthless and unorthodox means to acquire someone's property if they really feel they must have it to experiment with their ideology and money-making ventures. This alone is not humanitarian. Is it? Let anyone from the Tvind Organization deny it happened in St. Lucia. It's all on record. As they say:  You can fool some of the people all of the time but not all of the people all of the time.

About Roy Lawaetz

Roy Lawaetz is a decorated   United States Veteran who in 1968 served aboard the USS Enterprise in the Ton kin Gulf during the Vietnam War as a Military Journalist and he was graduated at The Defense Information School (DINFOS). In 1969 he shared The Chief Of Naval Operations Award (CHINFO) for Journalistic Excellence together with two other military editors. His final year in the military he spent at the Keflavik NATO Base,

In Iceland where he worked as a broadcast journalist.  He received an Honorable Discharge from the U.S. Navy in 1970.

Today Roy Lawaetz is an abstract artist, the inventor/theorist, of a new art theory, The Modular Triangular System. You can reach him at his website:http://www.roylawaetz.com and like many thousands of other people, ex-students, ex-teachers, volunteers, parents, ex-believers of Tvind he wishes he had never met Tvind along  their  Road to Victory as they implement their zealous ideology to change our world across continents."