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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Crickey! Steve Irwin is a goner!

Indonesians love a fool, and so it didn’t take long for Steve Irwin to acquire cult-like status in Indonesia for his ridiculous antics involving dangerous animals like crocodiles and snakes. He really was a big name here, and did far more for Aussie-Indonesia relations than the miserable politicians could ever hope to achieve. 

He came here on many occasions, and nearly lost a hand feeding a chicken to a huge Komodo dragon in Eastern Indonesia. But I’ll always remember him for the time when he carried his one-month old son in one arm while he used his other arm to feed the crocs. And then he puts his kid down near a pond with a croc in it!! You can’t really blame him though. I mean it doesn’t get much more important than teaching crocodile awareness to newly born babies, does it?
  This was being shown in the fitness center, and the Indonesians couldn’t believe that anyone could be so stupid. Neither could I to be honest, but I assured them that he was a hard Aussie and that nothing could possibly go wrong. And it didn’t. But now he’s a goner, savaged by a Sting Ray. But there are worse ways to go of course. Like being eaten by a crocodile for example … Goodbye Steve. RIP.

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