For some reason I seemed to have rubbed a few people up the wrong way, and I’m not sure why.
For most of my life I’ve considered myself to be, for the most part, misjudged and misunderstood. I do seem to have that effect on people. It’s a case of; you either love Emmett or hate him.
Whether I’m pulling in the biggest catch after a day out at sea and my buddies are all envious, or I’m at the track and my guy’s ahead as the cars come around that last corner and into the home straight, it’s always the same deal with people – Emmet’s rollin’, they’re hatin’.
Is it my fault that fortune and favor have smiled upon me for most of my life? Sure, I’m not rich by any means, but true wealth isn’t all about money, right? I’m richer for other reasons and I live a rich and full life, most of the time.
I call it as I see it, and making plain-sighted observations is NOT me pointing fingers and dissing your country. Far from it. I actually respect most of the people here for having achieved what you all have in such a short space of time.
The infrastructure here is not half bad, the freeways are almost adequate (although most of the roads through the suburbs need some maintenance), the housing and building designs might not be first-world but they’re quaint and provide decent shelter for residents.
Technology sees you guys playing catch-up but no one expects Africa to be leading that charge anyway so you don’t need to feel any shame about that.
Politically, yes, I do see a heap of challenges but I don’t think it’s something you cannot overcome if you put your heads together (just don’t forget to be open to international ideas).
So no, I don’t think South Africa is like way down there on the global progress scale, and if I came across like that or if someone perceived that that’s was what I was saying, then I apologize for that.
I don’t however, believe that I ever made any pass at the author of the weekend’s article because if I had, the last word she’d probably use to describe my advances would be, ‘creepy’. I didn’t read the Emmett-dissing ‘article’ as anything more than an attempt to draw personal attention to oneself. For me, it said a lot more about the ‘author’ than it did about South Africa, American, or the ‘player’ that is, E.W.G.
I’m right, aren’t I, Needy?
In the future, I will make every effort to ‘tone down’ my thought-provoking articles and comments and will try to keep pace with the lowest common denominator so that my new ‘fan-base’ in Africa can keep up.
Singing off, over but not out, Adios Amigos – Emmett Wesley Garrett
(If my next submissions are met with equal contempt, then I might be tempted to take my opinions elsewhere...)
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