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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Religious satire and Islam

Poor old Denmark.

Well known for its pacifism and incredibly good looking chicks, this small and peaceful European nation is now even more vilified than that most evil of nations, the Great Satan, the USA.

But I can’t help but wonder why the radicals reacted as they did.

After all, if they had just shut up, most people would never have been aware of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons in the first place.

But they couldn’t keep their mouths shut. And by generating a media frenzy over the whole thing, they only served to fan the flames of a well lit fire.

The fact that the self-censoring politically correct mainstream media bottled the issue – the CNN, BBC, and supposedly free British press all chose not to show the cartoons – didn’t matter a jot. Because bloggers of all political persuasions and from across the entire globe soon posted the cartoons on their blogs, or at least provided a link. The pictures also spread rapidly by email of course as people - including many Muslims - forwarded them onto their mates to see.

So what the heck was Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono doing on Saturday when he gave a speech attacking the cartoons? Wasn’t he merely encouraging curious Indonesians to seek out the pictures for themselves?

As for the Danish cartoonists, they must have mixed feelings at the moment I guess. On the one hand they stand to become incredibly rich having drawn some of the most criticized and talked about cartoons ever, but on the other hand, they must obviously fear for their lives.

Oh hum…

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