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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The bizarre story of Basoeki Abdullah’s “A Nude”

Basoeki Abdullah A Nude Basoeki Abdullah is one of Indonesia’s greatest painters. Known for his realistic and natural style, Basoeki had a colourful personal life, marrying four times; his first wife being a Dutch lady. 

He died in November 1993 when he was murdered by thieves who broke into his house. 

His wonderful painting you can see here (A Nude) is subject to a bizarre mystery that only Indonesia could conjure up. 

Owned by the Government of Indonesia, the painting was originally kept in the National Museum in Jakarta. But it then went “missing” without anyone realizing it (don’t ask how). Somehow the thieves managed to get the painting to Singapore (again don’t ask how) and it was then put up for auction by Christie's Singapore along with another 160 South-east Asian works worth a total of about $3.4 million! 

But there was one thing that the thieves hadn’t counted on – and that was that the secretary of the late Basoeki discovered the theft of the painting after she coincidently saw it printed in Christie's catalogue for the Singapore sale from her home in Jakarta! 

The cops were duly called in and Christie's withdrew the painting from the auction. But as for where it is now, well, my lips are well and truly sealed…

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