larceny

Some of these comments are just to hilarious...1.5m LOL!
But to be fair Chiluba did set us free and give Zambia an opportunity he set many wheels in motion, his theft not nearly as great as KK or any of his successors...open your eyes people, much worse corruption is happening now!

Honest wrote :
> we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.FTJ might have
> dipped his short fingers in state coffers but guys the man was a great
> leader,he ended one-party rule,liberalised the economy,empowered most pipo
> with home ownership,opened zedians eyes....guys lets learn to give credit
> were its due.
> MYSRIP bashikulu Katongo.


Hon,

your point is well taken. I personally know people who were big beneficiaries of the FTJ economic policies. And in other spheres. I don't know many Zambians who were alive at the time, who did not want to personally kick KK in his buttocks. So I see your point. yes FTJ got rid of KK and he ushered in a new lifestyle for many Zambians.

But we are talking theft here. That FTJ is a thief is not a lie. Hon, you may or may not know this, but when you steal, that record stands forever. No amount of good will negate the fact that you stole. If you want to argue whether or not FTJ deserves forgiveness, that's another issue. However, the man is a thief. Nothing can change that.

If you allow me, I will give you a brief history of another leader of a modern nation who did wonders to the lives of his fellow countrymen. But went down in history as a villain. Adolf Hitler. The Germans had been humiliated and broken after their defeat in World war I. Hitler changed all that. And that's why to this day you can see film footage of German with tears in the eyes when they listened to Hitler make his rumbling speeches. What he had done for the German people of his day has not been repeated by any German leader since. Hitler took Germany from europe's laughing stock to the mightiest economy on the continent. But today in Germany it is a crime to display the Swastika or any Nazi paraphernalia. Today's German government do not want to be associated with Hitler in any way shape or form.

Purpose of this history lesson is that one bad deed can negate all other good deeds. In the annals of history, at least.

Freaka,

Do you have any reliable info to suggest that there is even a remote chance FTJ returned the loot before he kicked the bucket?

In any case, there are some people who believe in a judgment Day. I mean literally. One stands before a judge or a god in the afterlife. Then he/she is made to account for every deed, good and bad. And at the end of it all, judgment is pronounced. For eternity. I don't know Freaka, maybe so. Some have pointed out to the thief who supposedly died next to Jesus on those pieces of wood. Apparently a career criminal who begged for forgiveness from God himself (Jesus) before he took his last breath. And forgiveness was granted. Meaning all his crimes were wiped away from the book of judgment. Who knows. So many bizarre tales.

But let's come back to reality. I think FTJ is what you might call a common thief. He stole and now he's dead. That pretty much sums it up. If he returned the stolen loot before he died, I will leave that up to others to make a judgment call.

Theft is theft whether its K1.00 or K100,000,000, when FTJ ended one party rule it came at a time when people had had enough. Kaundas Government was at the time like a marriage that was going through so many problems and FTJ was the knight in shining armour, however like most divorces after the end of the first marriage and you go into the next one you begin to realise the first one wasnt that bad and begin longing for your former husband. When you bump into your former husband at Manda Hill with three trolleys full and a new wife on his arm and you with your measly one ..you long for him.

Kaunda pitched up at PFs conference at Mulungushi rock, people were crying and rolling all over the floor, why??? They were longing for the husband they left, and who they realised wasnt as bad as they thought.

Honest,

He may have done all those things BUT he also stole from the people he was supposed to be looking after. That is the way life just is; you can go through your whole life doing good, but the day you do one bad deed you will be remembered for that bad deed. What makes matters worse in FTJ's case is that he did not just do one small bad deed, it was one huge bad deed that will go down in history. I know wrong doing is wrong doing, but there are degrees to it. If I stole K1.00 and you stole K100 billion do you think punishment will be the same? Of course not. The bigger the bad deed the tougher the sentence should be(or is).

we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.FTJ might have dipped his short fingers in state coffers but guys the man was a great leader,he ended one-party rule,liberalised the economy,empowered most pipo with home ownership,opened zedians eyes....guys lets learn to give credit were its due.
MYSRIP bashikulu Katongo.

GN i was only referring to your story because the gist of your story was that if you happen to find valuable stuff and return to the rightful owner good things are bound to come your way....so i made reference to FTJ finding all that loot in his account, he said he didnt do it, we all know he did, but if he returned it then what???

Freaka,

I concur with Guest and my darling Girl.

My own impression of FTJ is that by the time of his death, he was morally compromised to his core. He had started believing his own lies. He had reached the point of no return in a life of a crook. He had started having difficulty distinguishing right from wrong.

Guest,

Amen!

Freakazoid wrote :
> So GN are you saying that if FTJ returned the looted cash as he just
> happened to find it in his account, then.......

Freakazoid,

I'm pretty sure that if that money had been returned the Zambian people would have gone easier on FTJ, and who knows? Maybe the Big Guy upstairs would have been lenient as well... Would I be wrong in saying that most politicians do not have their citizens' best interest at heart but their own...? From where I stand, or should I say, in my very limited experience of life most (like 99.99999999%) politicians have some degree (again, like 99.999999999%) of kleptomania in them... Just putting it out there....

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Nothing

So GN are you saying that if FTJ returned the looted cash as he just happened to find it in his account, then.......

GN wrote :
> Guest wrote :
> > lesa-ni-ma-lyotola (in English, kleptomniac)... lol
>
> Can I take this translation to the bank or is this just a joke? i don't want to use
> it and then peoples laugh at me.

Kekekekekekeeee! Yaba! Bored on a Friday and having fun reading words on my treasured site, phew! The Office is next to dead, with most people out to the Trade Fair on Copper Belt so I am doing some KLEPTOMANIA since it also is defined as an 'irresistible impulse to steal'! LOL!

Oh bored bored BOOORED!!!

MM, where are you darling?

True that, Guest.

I recently got a dose of that medicine. I was on my bicycle climbing a hill next to an area where families like to have their picnics on the weekend. I don't like to get off my bike on that hill because it's not easy to get back on the bike because of the elevation. Anyway I spotted a wallet, got off the bike and got the wallet. It had quite a stash of cash inside and all the guy's IDs and credit cards. It had all his personal info except a phone number. I'm no angel to say that the thought of keeping the cash did not cross my mind. Oh yes it did. I even considered mailing everything else except the cash to the owner using the address on his driver's license.

In the end, the little conscience inside my head got the better of me and I mailed a note with my phone number. Two days later the dude called me. We rendezvoused and I gave him back his wallet. After he took a peek inside and saw all his cash was still there, he could hardly believe it. He offered me some reward money but I said no, it's cool. He ended up giving me a t-shirt with some stupid logo on it, from his company or something. I took it just to be polite.

Long story short, less than a month later I somehow dropped my brand new phone without knowing it. Some lady and her husband found it, tracked me down and gave it back to me. Just like you said, what goes around...

GN,
More like 'What goes around comes around', to be polite. It can be used in a context that is malicious, or not.

God is a vindicator. I suppose you can say that about God. I never thought of God that way. Thanks Guest, now I got the gist of it.

Although this is a tough one to use in polite company. Most people tend to get jump when you mention God.

GN

'Lesa ni malyotola' loosely translates into 'God is a vindicator'. The kleptomaniac translation was intended to be sarcasm. A thief, or kleptomaniac, in Bemba is 'Kabolala', or 'Kabwalala', not quiet sure.

GN wrote :
> Guest wrote :
> > lesa-ni-ma-lyotola (in English, kleptomniac)... lol
>
> Can I take this translation to the bank or is this just a joke? i don't want to use
> it and then peoples laugh at me.

GN
The correct spelling is kleptomaniac. Missed out the 'a'. You can take it to the bank now...