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 orangutans want to stay in Bangkok

A short while back Jakartass wrote about the uncertain fate of a bunch of orangutans (54 in all) that had been forced to entertain tourists at a private zoo in Bangkok.

The latest news is that after two years of investigation and DNA testing, they’ll be returned to their homeland: the Indonesian rainforest (what’s left of it mind you after the Chinese do their best to get their hands on it!).

Schwann Tunhikorn, deputy director-general of the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP), said recent DNA tests by a Kasetsart University veterinarian confirmed that 54 of the 69 apes seized by Thai forestry police from Safari World in 2004 belonged to Indonesia.

Safari World Zoo's Managing Director Pin Kewkacha also admitted that the zoo illegally obtained the endangered apes from Borneo and Sumatra islands.

Unfortunately, though, the orangutans ain’t too pleased.


“The kickboxing we can do without,” said one. “But we’re really gonna miss the regular jaunts to those wonderfully wacky entertainment centers in Bangkok”.

“Some of those chicks there are real wild – they even get up to stuff that we wouldn’t dream of doing.”

You can say that again…

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