The Pretender Reality of Berlin

I admit....I'm not a politician, nor a Journalist, nor a rocket scientist, nor an Indiana Jones-type guy, nor venture capitalist, nor cowboy actor, nor even a safari hunter.  I'm just one of those people who sits and looks at something odd, and makes an observation.

Two days ago in Germany.....some political folks in Berlin got together and had this idea.  They truly needed to experience the thrill or tingle of what it feels like to be a refugee on the high seas....in some 121-passenger raft.

So they all put on nice red flotation devices (it would have been catastrophic if the rubber boat had sunk in the Spree River and 121 fairly well known German political figures had drowned), and sailed out into the middle of the Spree.

Now, I've been to Berlin and can vouch that the Spree is not that much of a river.  I know.....Germans will weep all over themselves and challenge me to some kinda fight....but I've kinda traveled through most of Europe and America, and have seen some mighty wide and challenging rivers.  The Spree.....is a minor river.....maybe twenty-five car lengths across.

The reporters came out, and journalists spent a fair amount of time trying to grasp the situation and the adventure at hand.  Some words of enthusiasm were generated, and they tried hard to make the folks look impressive.

I looked at the pictures (I won't put any up because it just weakens the story if you ask me, and copyright situations).

If you suggested this type of gimmick in the US.....then tried to talk a hundred US senators into coming out in October to the Potomac River and doing some 30-minute ride around for photos.....they would have laughed and just said 'no'.  The truth is....in the US....something always goes wrong and you can just see the Coast Guard freaking out as a hundred Senators hit the water as the boat sinks.  Some ensign would have saved forty Senators by just suggesting they stand up in the water because it's only four-feet deep.

I'll go out on the limb and suggest this....if the rubber boat thing was a positive thing.....why not make 121 German politicians live in a fest-tent operation for the winter, with just a mattress and a cheap blanket?  Give them six Euro a day for beer money and see how they make time pass each day as they sit and lounge in fake refugee camp.  Topics and discussions?  For some reason, I think there won't be much positive said about politics, camp life, a cheap mattress, or productive lives.

The end result of all of this?  Maybe some new German reality show......Germans pretending to be refugees and let viewers vote members off the show each day.