The Maholian Way - Part One: Introduction

I first became interested in Maholia when I read an article about worms. To be precise, it was about how Maholians in one economically depressed town have set up a small cooperative to breed and sell garden worms. The article mentioned in passing that Maholia is approaching zero unemployment. Shortly after that I read how successful their health system is at stopping people from getting sick. And then a friend told me about Maholia’s popular ‘Charter’ shops that only sell things that meet strict social and environmental standards.

My curiosity was aroused, so I fossicked around on the internet to see what else I could find. I discovered account after account of successful initiatives in every sphere of life, but I also found that there’s a theoretical basis to it all. They call it relationalism. Now I’m as suspicious of jargon and ideology as the next person, but the more I read about relationalism the more sense it seemed to make.

I also discovered that few people know what the Maholians are up to. I suppose that’s not so surprising – a nation of nine and a half million people in the South Pacific is hardly at the centre of things. But it seemed a great shame that their achievements weren’t better known to outsiders, because both developed and developing nations could learn a great deal from them. I found that there were quite a number of books and articles about Maholia for the academic and the specialist, but there didn’t appear to be a good, general guide to what they call the Maholian Way for the intelligent non-Maholian. So I decided to write one. As a Melbourne writer with experience in community work and academic teaching, I felt I had the background for this.

I made three trips to Maholia, and travelled to many parts of the place: to cities and suburbs and towns; to offices, factories, workshops, farms, shopping centres, schools, hospitals, neighbourhood centres and private homes; consulting a range of experts, reading widely, and talking with everyone from government ministers and bureaucrats to folk who until recently were only just surviving on society’s margins.

This account of the Maholian Way is the result. While it’s mainly intended for the general reader, I hope academics and specialists find it useful too. It’s written in plain English, with as little theory and specialist language as possible, but where I’ve had to introduce these I’ve explained them. There are also stories of real people and real communities that illustrate what’s happening in the place.

Maholia is a country that works. In general its people are very happy, healthy and fulfilled. There’s a high degree of equality and social harmony, and it’s well on the way to becoming environmentally sustainable. What’s more, it has almost eliminated the sorts of problems that afflict other societies: poverty and homelessness, unemployment and isolation, violence and drug abuse and crime. It’s also a vibrant, creative place, with great variety as you move from community to community.

Interestingly, most of Maholia’s innovations have come from elsewhere in the world (and I have noted their origins in references). A big difference, however, is that in Maholia these innovations have usually been taken up broadly across the society, whereas in their places of origin they’re frequently still exceptions to the rule.

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