Thinking Outside of the Circle

Germans, especially political figures here in Germany....often surprise me with their logic and thinking.

Today, in local regional news.....a political figure for Mainz (just across the river) got into a discussion over the refugee business and how the city might be able to accommodate these folks.  They had to handle roughly 500 incoming folks for 2014, and their best guess is that a minimum of that number will come in 2015.  The guy talking here.....a SPD member....Kurt Mercator....even hinted that it'll go to 800.

It's hard to figure where he gets his numbers or if it's just a radical number pulled out of his hat.

This all worries the political guys because the news media takes cameras into these open halls and old depot buildings, and makes the arrangements look pretty miserable.

So, Kurt said there's a new idea on the table....as reported by the Rhein Zeitung (our local Mainz newspaper).  Kurt wants to get a older model river cruise boat that has cabins.  Yep.....a cruse boat that they would park on the Rhine.

Most of these typical Rhine River cruise vessels....say of the 1980's versions around....probably have near seventy-to-eighty cabins on board.  There's a eating area, with each cabin having it's own toilet and some simple furniture.

The negatives over this idea.  I sat and pondered.  First, you have to park it on the Rhine  and within the city of Mainz.  Typically, there's only two areas that we'd discuss this matter on.....the present area where tourist ships stop....which I seriously doubt it'd be there.  Or maybe further west where the old freighter port was located.

These cruise ships rely heavily up on professional cleaners and housemaids to tidy them up and prevent disease episodes.  Would that occur in this case?

One might worry about corruption built into this deal and maybe some "friend" of the SPD simply has an thirty-year old cruise ship that he wants to dump on someone or rent out.

How run-down would the ship be after three or four years?  That might be a curious question to ask and the owner might hang the liability upon the city, and they simply have to pay off the guy.

Locals taking a dim view of a cruise ship being used?  That's another odd issue that Germans might get upset about.  It's an image problem, and they can't really hide the refugee use of the vessel.

Finally, you come to the issue of some refugee kids playing around on the deck and suddenly falling off....then drowning.  You can sit and imagine the knee-jerk reaction of the city council and how quick they'd react.

Maybe it'll occur, and maybe it'll be a success.  It'll drag out all these future scenarios then.....more cruise boats retired and used for refugee ships.  Who would have thought it'd be that simple.