A Nevispages weekly feature by Curtis Morton Sr
The way I see it, I would love to sit with a group of the world’s richest people and offer some advice, as to how they can spend a small portion of their money.
A substantial part of that advice would be dedicated to the care and welfare of the millions of people who are in need, all over this world.
Now, the big news this week, was that Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, went to space and back on Tuesday morning of this week, for an 11 minutes joy ride, aboard his rocket and capsule system, developed by his space company, BLUE ORIGIN.
Now Jeff Bezos also owns Amazon.com and the Washington Post and is worth something like 200 billion dollars!
Riding alongside the multibillionaire were Bezos’ brother, Mark Bezos; Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pilot and one of the “Mercury 13” women who trained to go to space in the 20th century but never got to fly and an 18-year old recent high school graduate named Oliver Daemen who was Blue Origin’s irst paying customer and whose father, an investor, purchased his ticket. Funk and Daemen became the oldest and youngest people, respectively, ever to travel to space. And this flight marked the first-ever crewed mission for Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital space tourism rocket, which the company plans to use to take wealthy thrill-seekers on high-flying joy rides in the months and years to come.”
Imagine, prior to that flight, reservations were on offer to participants in an auction, with the unnamed winner agreeing to pay $28 million US, for the ticket-and some of us making noise about paying $25 EC for a boat ride to St. Kitts.
Well I newa!
At the peak of the flight path, the passengers were weightless for about three minutes and were allowed to unstrap themselves from their seats to float around and soak in panoramic views of the Earth and the cosmos.
“It’s dark up here, oh my word!” Funk could be heard saying.
Bezos declared it “the best day ever” on his communications check upon landing.”
So, we have heard about all kinds of Tourism-environmental Tourism; historical tourism; cultural tourism; sports tourism……..Now we are getting into SPACE TOURISM!
You know how many things can be done with $28 million dollars—ah mean outside of an 11 minutes joy ride into space?
You know how many can be clothed, fed and properly housed, throughout the entire world of suffering people?
I remember going on a cruise some time ago. My wife and I gravitated to the company of another Nevisian couple and we spent a lovely time together. One day, an American couple (white) joined us at our luncheon table.
The man was verbose. He talked about the cruise and how he was thoroughly enjoying himself and so on. He initially gave the impression that he was wealthy. He sounded almost boastful. The other Nevisian gentleman listened intently for some time and then spoke up when the other guy quizzed us about how we got on the cruise.
‘Oh,’ said my esteemed friend: ‘I was just sitting in my office one day feeling bored and I called my wife here and asked her if she does not want to go on a cruise and she said yes.’ He then asked the man how he managed to book the cruise and the guy lowered his voce as he admitted that they had used virtually their life savings to cover the expenses.
My friend was relentless. He then asked him where he worked and the guy stated that he worked in a factory that made cars. “Oh, that’s where they make the rims for my car tyres,” my friend stated offhandedly.
Needless to say, the man was silent for the balance of the meal and never joined our table again for the remainder of the trip!
Okay, so some people HAVE IT and others of us DO NOT HAVE IT.
But I still maintain that those of you who have it, can pay a little more consideration to the people around you who are in need…..just saying…. Of course, you will tell me that it is their hard-earned money and they can do whatever they want with it.
Okay, I concur too.
What I know for a fact though, is that if I am faithful, one day I will get a space ride that will not cost me a red penny-but the blood of Jesus.
‘Like the dead in Christ shall rise first and those that remain shall be caught up to meet him in the air, for the ceaseless ages of eternity!
That’s the way I see it. How do you see it?