ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how contemporary money schemes, broadly understood, articulate various economic aspects of a Melanesian modern social imaginary that reflects an awareness of the relative position of Melanesians within the global economy. It considers several long-running ‘fast money schemes’ that mimic practices of investment, compensation and development assistance and so project imaginings of a prosperous society onto existing narratives of nationhood. The chapter describes multi-level marketing schemes, microfinance and other business-oriented programmes, focusing on their projects of entrepreneurial self-formation. Contemporary urban Melanesians have the challenge of stretching cash income across a range of urgent demands in a context of low wages and high costs of consumer goods, accommodation and basic services. U-Vistract prefers to describe itself as a ‘Christian Ministry’, presenting itself as a financial institution that is uniquely aligned with its investors’ Christian values, financial needs and developmental aspirations.
