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

About Me

I come from good old England but have spent most of my adult life abroad in countries as culturally diverse as Italy, Scotland and now Indonesia.

While you could call me an expat, there is - alas - no dilapidated farmhouse to restore or beachside bar to manage.

I have, however, had a chat with an East Timor king, driven a shiny red Ferrari 309 in Ancona (if only for half an hour) and drunk the blood of a freshly skinned cobra in the North Sumatran city of Medan. What more from life could you want than that? Well…

Distance between London, England, United Kingdom and Jakarta, Indonesia: 7,278 miles (11,713 km). Back in Magellan's day, a one year+ treacherous journey by boat; now only 16 hours by jet plane.

Comments

  1. It's good to know a real wanderer is coming to (my) town :D

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  2. It sounds like you've had a very adventurous life full of travels. That kind of life sounds very appealing to me. I love traveling.

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  3. very interesting contents do you have here. Nice to see. thanks for sharing these contents

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  4. do you mind posting your biography and pic?
    you seem to know a lot more about indo than me... great job, loving this site. Keep it up!

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  5. have you ever visited any place in papua?
    raja ampat is great to visit :)

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  6. what an adventurous experience u had around indonesia...nice article on 40 things to do before u die

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  7. great blog, I like your writing style.

    http://liam-in-asia.blogspot.com/

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  8. Thanks for the heaps on bars in Indonesia, pretty helpful for me to plan my visit the country next year. ;)

    Cheers

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  9. Thanks for the comments - hope the info is useful!

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  10. Wow.. Good Blog.. useful info.. i like it..

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