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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Damien Hirst and Bir Bintang

What does a Damien Hirst piece of art… Damien Hirst …and a bottle of beer have in common? 

They both contain formaldehyde? 

Well, that’s true for many Asian beers says this blogger here. And he has a pretty strong argument I reckon. Cos Chinese brewers - unlike their Indonesian counterparts – even admit to it. 

But maybe Bintang ain’t so so bad. After all, it is brewed under the Heineken Group. And I’ve never had any really bad headaches after drinking the stuff. Although I can’t say the same for some of its competitors. 

 In fact, Bintang is, all in all, a great beer.

Bir Bintang And if anyone at Multibintang is reading this, don’t forget to thank me for the plug. A few cases of Bintang would go down just fine…

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