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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At a Post office in Jakarta

I got the familiar “he’s a crazy foreigner” look at the post office today. And for what? Licking a postage stamp!

Something I’ve always done in England, but which you won’t see in Indonesia. Instead, a small container with a little wetted sponge is placed on the counter for you. Fair enough I guess. I mean you don’t know what the bored post office worker has been doing with the book of stamps do you?

But there is worse stuff than postage stamps that you can put in your mouth. Like skewers for example. They do this in Thailand to celebrate “abstinence from meat and various stimulants”. And why not indeed? Nothing quite like putting holes in your mouth to dampen the appetite is there? See the pics here (warning: graphic content!)

And in Japan some dude has been done for stealing women’s shoes.

"I was enjoying their smell," Masashi Kamata, 28, a resident of Moriyama-ku, Nagoya, was quoted as telling investigators. "Indoor shoes for school stimulate me. I couldn't throw away the shoes I obtained."

What a crazy psycho. Just what is wrong with people nowadays?

Soon they’ll be inventing vibr's with built-in MP3 players. Actually they already have. So typical of the Chinese to come up with yet another handy “two in one” electronic gadget.

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