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 Armani Exchange A|X Studded Eagle T-Shirt gets banned in Indonesia!

The Armani Exchange AX Studded Eagle T-Shirt Just another overpriced T shirt from Armani? Or an item of subversive clothing that threatens the very fabric (sorry!) of Indonesian society? 

Well both actually. The first point of contention is its astronomical US$42 retail price. Utterly mad. 

By way of comparison, I usually get my T shirts from Blok M for between US$3-10 depending on the quality. 

And as they manage to survive the brutal scrubbing of my thick-armed maid, they can’t be half-bad. 

 As for the Armani T shirt being subversive? 

Well, this is what Eva Kusuma Sundari, a member of the nationalistic Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), had to say: 

"It's such an insult for us… The Garuda is very sacred to us as a nation.” 

But threats from some members of the House of Representatives to sue Armani Exchange for willfully desecrating the Garuda Pancasila - which carries a prison term of one year or a Rp 100 million fine - seem to have worked. 

Armani have removed the product from their Indonesian website. So if you want one you’ll have to buy from an overseas seller. 

Like Amazon!

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