MELE VILLAGE 

Vanuatu

Vanuatu (which means ‘our land forever') is a string of eighty-three islands formally known as the New Hebrides and was an Anglo-French Condominium from 1906 until independence on the 30th of July 1980, when it became a self governing republic and a member of the Commonwealth.

Aerial view of Iririki Island, Vanuatu

In 1606, Pedro Fernandez de Queros, the Portuguese explorer, sighted numerous pacific islands including Australia and Vanuatu. The history books record his journal entry in respect to those Islands.    

‘I claim this land as far as the pole in the name of Jesus Christ which from now on shall be called the Great Southland of the Holy Spirit' .

Today the population of Vanuatu is just over 220,000, and the evidence of its rich Christian heritage is clearly seen throughout the islands.

Pentecost Island can only be identified with one event in history, that being the experience of the early Christian Church as recorded in the new testament book of Acts.1  Interestingly it is here that the original bungy jumping was first performed but with vines, not rubber!

On the Isle of Tanna circumcision is still practised. A Judeo-Christian tradition that has its roots in Hebrew culture.2

The Isle of Aneityum was home to the largest missionary church in the southern hemisphere at that time, and although it now lies in ruins, once seated a congregation of 500.

It's on the Isle of D'Epi that the locals set up markets to sell their fruit, vegetables, shells, flowers, coconut crabs, artefacts and souvenirs. These markets open every day except Sunday.  Sunday is their day of rest3.... another Christian religious observance.

On Espiritu Santo Island we find the Jordan River4, named after the middle eastern river dating back to Old Testament times.

Vanuatu Currency showing their moto 'Long God yumi stanap'

The secular demographics of the islands record that over 80% of the population are Christian. The unit of currency in Vanuatu is the Vatu.  Its paper notes and coins proudly sport the motto of the ni-Vanuatu people.... ‘Long God yumi stanap', which translated means ‘In God we Stand'.

European missionaries that came to the islands in the mid 19th century were followed in 1886 by cotton planters of both British and French origin. Today much of the British and French roots are still evident and both languages compliment the national language of Bislama.

Common Law in Vanuatu is the basis of the simple statutes that tend to be the protector of individual God given rights rather than the ‘controller' or rescinder of those rights.

Today numerous governments worldwide ("the state") have made the error of assuming ownership of many of the God given rights of men and women. ‘The state' then arbitrarily re-issue those rights back to the people as privileges, benefits or licences. This encumbrance to both ones lifestyle and the market economy, is rarely seen in the Republic of Vanuatu, and allows for an environment that is conducive to good economics, sound social intercourse, and the fostering of community morale.  It is therefor not suprising that in 2006 Vanuatu was voted the happiest place on the planet in a global survey conducted by the New Economics Foundation and Friends of the Earth.  By way of comparison, Britian failed to make a rating in the top 100 countries surveyed.  

The spirit that exists in Vanuatu through endorsing individual freedoms, has caused much criticism of this nation by numerous governments and international organisations who expect individuals to ‘worship at the altar of state monopolies', and ignore the need to protect individual freedoms and God given rights. Nations who offer such criticism often perceive freedom to be a threat to their own agendas and therefore resent the market competition and the personal liberties that the Republic of Vanuatu enjoy and offer to the world.  With due consideration to the history of Vanuatu, its legal system, and its Christian roots, the administration of the benevolent projects of Dan El sit well under this nations' governance.

Mele Village PROJECT

One such project can be found in the Pacific Island of Vanuatu, where the fundamentals of the market economy based on Biblical principles and law, are being applied to the community of the Mele Village. The project is the initiative of the local Christian Church, and is administered through their Pastors and Elders.

The overall aim is to improve the lifestyle of the participants, and therefore the community from one of subsistence and dependence, to one of enjoying independence and sustainable growth. Once comfortably operative, the community is then in a position to duplicate the process to other communities.

Outside courthouse before renovation	Outside courthouse after renovation

Inside courthouse before renovation	Inside courthouse after reonavtion

The immediate starting point was to meet with the Pastors of the Church and assist them to understand the five essentials for a market economy as found in the Scriptures.  Of paramount importance to the peaceful co-existence of any community is a just legal system5 which can be found in the fifth essential of a market economy being a "moral code."  In any community, the absence of a just process and a suitable venue to discuss and resolve grievances, will escalate the potential for unrest.  The Mele Village had in place an existing management and legal structure, with the central meeting point being the local “courthouse”. This building was in a poor state of repair.

Study session on the Market Economy from the Scriptures

One of the first projects undertaken therefore was to renovate the community courthouse.  The capital was raised through the local church, and the village community provided the labour to bring this project to fruition. This in itself created a sense of progress in the community, pride in their established legal system, and vision to the local church.

It must be remembered that at the end of the day, economic theory is only that… theory. If any community is to enjoy growth, economic philosophy must be "field tested" to show its worthiness for promotion beyond theory, to lifestyle. It was important to establish up front, the fact that a sustainable market economy is Gods invention, not mans, and that to understand how it can best function, one had to go to the operators manual on the subject.

To this end, time was shared with the Pastors and their wives studying the Scriptures to learn the basics of a sustainable market economy and how to apply it to this community. It was vital that any model applied had to be sustainable, it had to show growth,6 and there must be no mechanism that could incur debt.7

THE MODEL In summary...

- The LOCAL CHURCH teaches Biblical economics to the people.

- A COMMUNITY CAPITAL RESERVE (CCR) was established as the community “bank”.  This reserve is a debt free capital base that is perpetually “topped up” by gift from external source allowing others to be a part of this project, and by holding equity positions in the projects undertaken by the various enterprise owner(s).

- A COUNCIL was established to match enterprise projects to suitable personnel and to assist with expertise.

- The CCR underwrites the various enterprises and holds an equity position in each enterprise.

- The ENTERPRISE OWNER  earns his or her reward for their efforts, and are able to support their family. The pre-agreed portion of his reward is returned to the equity holder (CCR), ensuring a growth of capital reserve for other community projects.

- The ENTERPRISE OWNER, tithes to their local church.

- The ENTERPRISE OWNER is at liberty to buy out the equity position of CCR at market value.

The following flow chart explains how this market economy system operates.

The first ENTERPRISE...

The first eterprise to be undertaken was that of the "ragtrade".  A prototype of what could be achieved, which was new uniforms for their soccer team, was manufactured by Mary Groffen from Australia, who flew to the village to tutor the ladies in the making of uniforms.

Mele Village Soccer Team in their new uniform, which was their introduction to the "ragtrade" as a community enterprise

The time had now come for the application of the five essentials of a sustainable market economy to be put into practice by citizens of this village, as suitable enterprise owners were selected to take on the ragtrade as a vocation.  It wasn't long before they had developed their own label for their clothing range and were selling uniforms and sportswear throughout Port Villa.

In practical terms what had taken place was that which was taught from the Word of God being that the CREATED RESOURSES of fabric and threads were made available.  LABOUR both physical and intellectual were applied by the ladies who were selected as the Enterprise Owners, and an experienced dress maker was flown in to teach the ladies how to make sporting apparel and school uniforms.  The CAPITAL being sewing machines, dress making scissors etc were provided debt free to the enterprise owner via the CCR. At this point there was much excitement and INSPIRATION TO ACTION as the ladies were keen to get to work on this new venture, to see if they could make the uniforms as per the prototype provided by their dressmaker tutor, Mary Groffen.  Undergirding all this was the strong prescence of a sound MORAL CODE as the project was run under the guidance of the local church and based on the Word of God.

Mary Groffen tutoring dressmaking	Young ladies took the opportunity for lessons on the weekend

The men of the village are currently putting together a proposal for a small fishing enterprise that will suppply fish to the local market. Anyone wishing to contribute to the Community Capital Reserve (CCR) to assist in this project is invited to contact Graham Daniels at mail@danel.ch

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1. Acts 2:1

2. Genesis 17:11

3. Exodus 16:26

4. Genesis 13:10

5. Isaiah 1:26

6. Genesis 1:28

7. Romans 13:8, Proverbs 22:7