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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Image of the day (7): Jakarta payphone

“Death is the most wonderful invention of life. It purges the system of these old models that are obsolete.”
~ Steve Jobs

 The VHS, travel agents, phone sex, maps, typewriters, encyclopedias, CDs, Yellow Pages, Kodak film, hand-written letters and floppy discs. All gone ~ more or less. But not the payphone. At least not yet, because, if you search hard there are actually still a few left in Jakarta – including this multicolored trio in a booth directly in front of Telkom’s main office in central Jakarta.

 Public telephones, Jakarta

 But they sit there unnoticed, silent and unattended as the crowds of people walk by, most with a cellular phone in their hand or pocket. If you have never used a payphone before, you may wish to soon. Because they certainly aren’t gonna be around much longer!

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