Yesterday, my friend, Dan Weber, and I were sitting at a meeting at our favorite coffee shop when who decides to show up but the former president of Zambia, Dr. Chiluba. We did not recognize him, but we realized that he was someone important because he had body guards and drove a Mercedes.
As Chiluba was leaving, a Zambian told us who he was. Immediately, Dan and I ran after him with our camera to get a picture. After we talked to his body guards, Chiluba got out of the car to take a picture with us (we presume it was because we are white.) Anyway, as you can see from the pictures, the man is short! I had to lean down to put my arm around his shoulder which makes the experience all the better.
For a little history lesson, Chiluba stole around $75 million dollars from Zambia but was acquitted of the charges last August before I arrived in Zambia. There was major disappointment regarding his acquittal because Chiluba's reign was notorious for corruption. His wife was convicted of stealing money from the Zambia government, and there still is a civil suit in England against him for stealing $57 million from a secret Zambian account. I say $75 million, but no one really knows how much was taken.
To say that he is hated/disliked by some Zambians would be an understatement (the Zambians we were with refused to get their picture taken with him.) But his party is still in power; therefore, they will probably try to shut down my blog in the next couple of days. I just wanted the picture because I thought it would be funny to stand next to him...
Holy crap, that's hilarious.
ReplyDeleteYou should've whispered in his ear to spot you a few thousand ... Although that would be pretty suspicious as you would've had to bend down to almost a 90° angle.
tee hee.
ReplyDelete