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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Gereja Sion, now and tempo dulu

Gereja Sion, or better known as the Portuguese Church, is located on the corner of Jalan Pangeran Jayakarta and Mangga Dua Raya.

Admist the cacophony of modern day Jakarta, it is incredible to know that the building was completed back in 1695. The church was officially “blessed” on Sunday 23 October 1695 by Priest Theodorus Zas.

This church is the oldest building in Jakarta which is still used for the purpose it was originally built. Many of the religious items in the church are also very old.

In 1920, a fence was build around the church.

Today, thank God (!!!), the church is protected by government degree (SK Gubernur DKI Jakarta CB/11/1/12/1972) and so it should hopefully not be torn down to make way for another mall of which there are now around one for every 12 of the city's residents.

Gereja Sion tempo dulu:

Gereja Sion tempo dulu

Gereja Sion as it stands today (with added photoshop effects):Gereja Sion Jakarta

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