Cologne Police: Roving Packs Sexually Assaulted Dozens on New Year's Eve

[DFW]

49. Ah, there, as the Bard says, is the rub.

A great book I once read once began with an elderly Aztec being asked by the invading Spaniards to tell of his life in brief, in order to chronicle what Aztec life was like before the Spaniards came. He described their request as trying to shove an oak tree back into the acorn from which it had sprouted.

Merkel had all the good intentions in the world, and the first wave was welcomed with open arms. Of course, that was the first few thousand who came after a hostile reception in Eastern Europe, and Germany was eager to show how much more accommodating they were. It sure made for great pics on the evening news.

The trouble is as with any large bureaucracy. When the numbers swelled into the tens and then hundreds of thousands, the federal government told that states (there are 16 in Germany) "you will take in so many." The State governments, no more able to get their hands around the situation than the Bundesregierung (federal government), passed the nuts and bolts tasks on down where the towns and cities were faced with the real job of taking care of these people. One town with 100 inhabitants was told "you are getting 700 refugees tomorrow." They set about franctically building tents and temporary latrines, but they had no physical capacity to house seven times their population.

My own town, with maybe 50,000 people, has been forced to vacate the music school and several sports facilities. Several nearby community centers have been taken over to house the refugees. We have had to rewire and reconnect several condemned buildings to water and electricity. They are unsafe by German standards, but as they probably won't collapse tomorrow and these people need shelter today, the buildings are being used. There will be ugly riots if one of them collapses with people in it. We already have a local food bank for people who have none, and it is, obviously, way more crowded than it ever was. You wouldn't believe the diversity of responses. Some of the refugees are profoundly grateful for whatever they can get. Some complain and demand food that isn't available as if they were preferred patrons at an upscale restaurant. In other words, pretty much the whole human gamut. The townspeople have reacted, predictably enough, according to the degree in which they have been affected. Parents of kids taking music lessons and parents of athletes are resentful. Some of our friends who have retired are volunteering to help out at the refugee centers. They speak no Arabic, so communication is primitive. The government has provided ZERO translators. We have many Turks, but Turkish is not related to Arabic linguistically, so where they might provide food and mosques, they cannot help with communication.

To add to the problem, several passport printing centers in Syria were captured by ISIS, who has been selling blank, genuine Syrian passports on the black market all over the Middle East (going rate last I heard was $1000 US). Therefore, we have thousands of economic refugees from Afghanistan and even Bangadesh trying to come is as Syians. With no rudimentary linguistic skills and poor ethnic knowledge, overwhelmed border authorities have no way to know the difference. The social unrest was pre-programmed. The culture from which the overwhelming majority of these people come has a completely different idea of how women and girls are treated from the (relatively) enlightened German one. NO one ever told them what to expect, how to act, or what the penalties were for going against the rules. German law is notoriously lenient, but that has only given rise to ugly far right gangs who are far less lenient than the law.

So, a solution after the horse has left the barn? More damage control than a solution at this point. I saw that the Bavarians were trying to impose a limit of 200,000 refugees as opposed to Merkel's 1 million within a year. Good luck with that. Way more have probably already arrived. We must try to cope with who is already in Germany, prepare those on the way for the fact that their lives will not be pleasant for a long time after they arrive, no matter how good our intentions. But if someone thinks they will face certain violent death if they stay home, they WILL come. Europe will not be the same, our free and liberal social life will be compromised for decades, and we do ourselves no favors by sticking our heads in the sand hoping the storm will pass us by. It is here, and it won't.