There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?
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
i've been planning to go there for some time, just not quite able to fit it in to my schedule yet. just 2 years ago, hardly anyone went there; now, every week there is a tour-group coming to the island. was it quite clean? because many people are going there, i heard there is a lot of litter now :(
ReplyDeleteWow,nice info.
ReplyDeleteFitri > yes, of course there is a lot of litter - this is Indonesia you know! But it's better on the smaller Tidung island which you can walk to in about 1 hour from the main island. Incidentally, before taking the photo above I had to pick up about 3 or 4 empty kratingdaeng bottles which had been thrown onto the beach so they weren't in the shot!
ReplyDeleteDo remind me to give you at least one "name".
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, in spite of his million dollar yacht and very pleasant company, he didn't allow beer!
Quite spoiled the weekend!
I have not been to Pulau Seribu! Your post made me want to visit! Thanks for the recommendation! The water looks amazing and I can't believe this is the place you can go so easily from Jakarta!! It would be a nice vacation and get away!
ReplyDeleteI have not been to Pulau Seribu and your post made me want to go visit! Thank you for the recommendations! I will definitely come back to your post if we ever have a chance to go visit. It will be such a nice and easy get away from Jakarta, I think!
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ReplyDeleteAlas, Tidung should now be renamed the rotting isle. Wow what a mess. And yet the authorities have somehow decided to spend lord knows how much on replacing the bridge with a new fancy design. This money should perhaps have been used to clean the island up and offer help to the locals who have had no income for the last two wasted years. At least then all the run down places could have been upkept. It looks like a dead island to me. The water is not fit to swim in.
ReplyDeletethat's sad to know - i haven't been back and probably won't now!
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