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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Kasepekang

Yes, they do send people to Coventry in Indonesia! And in the most unlikely of places: Bali!!!! 

No it doesn’t sound too bad I know, but being sent to Coventry in Bali is actually a far worse proposition than being sent to Coventry in England. 

But ostracism anywhere is of course no fun at all and according to psychologists is actually a form of mental abuse (you’ll be well aware of this if you’ve ever been caught by the wife or girlfriend looking at some things on the internet you shouldn’t have, and then she decides to give you the hump for the next few days). 

 But in Bali things are taken to a whole new level: 

If he (Made Rai) leaves his family compound, his neighbors look away and refuse to speak to him. He is banned from the village temples, normally central to Hindu spiritual life in Bali, and when he dies, his body will be rejected from the village cemetery. 

Mr. Rai’s grandchildren, who play at his feet, rarely venture from the family compound and are “psychologically affected” by the situation, he said. 

Unborn when the dispute started, the children are barred from the village school and, under the same village rules, are forbidden to exchange a word with the other children who play in the streets outside. 

To find out why read the complete article in the NY Times.

In a trance 
Being ostracized will drive you mad!

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