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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Vertu Ascent Ti in Jakarta

US$6,400 (60 million Rupiah) is a s*** load of money. Especially in Indonesia where more than 50 percent of the population survives on around 2 bucks a day.

But US$6,400 is also how much you will need to purchase the new Vertu Ascent Ti, which is now on sale at the new Vertu shop in Jakarta.


Vertu Store Jakarta


So what else can a Vertu handphone do that a Nokia can’t? Well not much really. Although it does have a concierge feature whereby you receive recommendations for the best local restaurants and, so I hear, massage palors and men's spas (well this is Jakarta isn’t it?!!!)

Vertu handphone Jakarta
What else US$6,400 will buy in Jakarta:

1. food for the average family for 5 years (assuming a monthly salary of Rp2 million, and that 50% of the income is spent on food),
2. 240 Bakrie Esia handphones,
3. 8,571 counterfeit DVDs purchased at Glodok (although the originals would set you back US$171,420)
4. 120 return tickets for a budget airline to Bali.

So watch out where you leave that handphone. Cos it won’t remain on that table for long!

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