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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Poverty in Jakarta

All Apologies 
What else should I be? All apologies What else should I say? Everyone is gay What else could I write? I don’t have the right What else should I be? All apologies 
 > Kurt Cobain 

Thanks to the Jakarta administration’s road narrowing policy I can’t drive a normal route to the office anymore. So I make use of the Jalan Tikus, or narrow side streets. And there are plenty of them too. because away from the main roads in Jakarta, a labyrinth of narrow twisting alleys seems to cover the entire city. 

I even got lost a few weeks ago when I took a short cut going through the Petamburan slums in Central Jakarta, and more than a little concerned when the alley narrowed to such an extent that I could hardly get the roaring beast through it. 

The locals found it highly amusing to see a bule in such a place of course, but I didn’t particularly want to hang around: this area is home territory to the radical knuckleheads and a lecture on why sex bombs are worse than Bali bombs was the last thing that I wanted. 

Anyway, coming to the office this morning, it’s very congested close to a traditional market and I notice a little outside stall is doing a roaring trade selling items of clothing. Two pieces for Rp15,000. Bloody hell. That’s like less than a quid. It’s almost inconceivable to me how these poor people keep going. Just to eat a daily struggle. Forget the Starbucks, holidays to Bali, IPODs, JW Black Label, Digital SLRs, etc. I’m not going to moralize here – not my style – but I wouldn’t say it was going too far to say that the poor aren't getting their fair share. 

Oh hum...

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