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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Profitable Plots

Bloggers may be routinely castigated by some people but there is no doubt they are having a profound impact in many parts of the world.

Some autocratic governments are so fearful of the voice of the individual that they are taking legal action to silence the more outspoken of them.

But it is not only governments that worry about the truth coming out.

Because any organization or company that behaves immorally – and even criminally – can now be exposed over the web – more often than not by insiders who really know what is going on and are courageous enough to let others know too.

Unfortunately there are many such organizations it seems.

Like the one which last week placed ads in the Jakarta Post and Kompas newspapers - not cheap I can tell you – offering plots of land for sale in the United Kingdom.

Plots start at just £5,500.

And land prices are up 1707% in the last 23 years, they claim.

So is there a catch?

Oh yeah. You bet there is. Sure the plots of land may be cheap, but like anything cheap in this world, it is cheap for a reason.

And in this case, it’s for the very simple reason that the land does not have, or may not have, planning permission and almost certainly never will get planning permission. It would be a bit like buying a plot of land by the Monas monument in Jakarta and expecting to get planning permission to build your house there. No chance whatsoever. Look at this thread here.

You may argue that the people attracted to such offers are the ignorant, rich and stupid but that’s not necessarily the case. People deserve to be protected from such potential calamities. The lawyers call it misrepresentation; I beg to differ. So if anyone you know is planning to use the services of this company (Profitable Plots) please advise them to stay away. And why did the Jakarta Post accept the ad in the first place?

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