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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A tall Jesus (statue) in Manado

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country. But head north to far-flung Manado, and you will find what is now said to be Asia’s tallest statue of Jesus Christ.

A tall Jesus (statue) in Manado
And standing nearly 100 feet tall it’s certainly a whopper - although still someway shorter than the Jesus you can find in Rio de Janeiro. And who built it? One of Indonesia’s wealthiest businessmen, a property mogul called Ciputra. But although rich, Ciputra ain’t that rich. And he’s certainly someway behind Indonesia’s richest tycoon, the effervescent Minister for the *Proletariat’s* Wallfair, Mr Weasel Wakrie, who has, according to some estimates, over 5,400 million dollars to his name. 

Anyway, let’s just hope that the jut-jawed minister - who is a Muslim – doesn’t want to upstage Ciputra. Cos then we really would be in trouble!

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