There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

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It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in
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Reenactment of crimes in Bali

Every country has its own idiosyncrasies; little quirks that are accepted as the norm by the locals but which at the same time only serve to baffle foreigners. And Indonesia is no exception in this regard as nine Australian members of a heroin smuggling racket are finding out: 

Police are planning to hold a series of reconstructions of the day the nine were arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai International airport and at a Kuta hotel. 

Reconstructions -- with accused playing themselves while wearing cardboard name tags around their necks -- are common in Indonesian criminal investigations. 

 Lt-Col Sugiarto said the re-enactments would be at the airport and at all the hotels used by the Bali Nine in the lead-up to being arrested on April 17. He said police needed to ensure hotel rooms required were empty but the re-enactment is expected within a week. Some of the nine, including those arrested without heroin, are refusing to participate. Their places would be filled by police officers, although, the courts do not look kindly on such refusal. 

Now I can understand the police wanting to reconstruct a crime scene if the criminals are still at large, but if they are already in custody then what’s the point? Perhaps it’s just a way for the police to boost their own egos and demonstrate to the general public what a great job they are doing. 

But whatever the reason it’s just as well the US doesn’t adopt similar procedures. Can you imagine what Michael Jackson might be asked to do?

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