Talk:Port Kaituma

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Is acquired the correct word for stealing stuff these days?

Presume you're referring to the mention that Kaituma residents "acquired" many items from Jonestown in the aftermath of the massacre/mass suicide. Stealing from dead people is still stealing of course, but likely whatever was left in Jonestown was regarded as abandoned property with nobody likely to claim legitimate ownership of it, so I suppose they felt they may as well "acquire" it rather than just let it rot in the jungle. I doubt any legitmate claimants, if there were any, would have cared to make any claims om it anyway. So to call it "stealing" would be pushing the POV that the acts, technically criminal as they may be, were regarded as crimes by anyone interesting in prosecuting anyone for them... both POV and not really supported. I am also not sure of what the laws in Guyana were in 1978... they may well consider it perfectly legal to acquire what is regarded as abandoned property. Anyway I don't think the word "stealing" is neutral or accurate in this case. 24.8.252.164 (talk) 05:19, 17 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]