Empty bottles stand in a row at Haji Salim's Padang foodstall. Coated in a blanket of dust, the used soft drink bottles are a sad, gloomy decoration at the cheap stall in the vicinity of PT Arun, a gas producing com- pany in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh. There is no refrigerator, no ice to cool the throat as the searing sun reaches its midday peak.

Haji Salim sees no point in fixing up his stall. As soon as ExxonMobi