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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Inhutani I and garden furniture

Conservation of Indonesia’s priceless rainforests may be important but it doesn’t generate cash, so I wasn’t too surprised to see this banner advertising furniture at the Forestry Ministry:

Inhutani I and Indonesian garden furniture So that's where the forests end up! We can only hope, of course, that it’s all being done in a “sustainable” manner – whatever that means when it comes to hacking down rainforests which have been there for millennia. 

The state company advertising the furniture, PT Inhutani I, reportedly manages around 630,000 Ha of natural forest located in East Kalimantan and South Sulawesi. That’s enough forest for an awful lot of furniture – most of which is exported to Europe, Japan and the US.

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