The latest innovation in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate is the installation of “cold boxes” — insulated one-person coffin-like structures that allow homeless people to escape the worst of the bitter winter cold.

This is the accommodation provided for Germans “who have been here for a longer time” (Angela Merkel’s notorious description of the natives), while “refugees” are put up in luxury hotels in Berlin.

Many thanks to Hellequin GB for translating this article from Boris Reitschuster’s website. The translator’s comments are in square brackets:

“Cold boxes” for the homeless, luxury hotels for migrants

Are we doing enough for “those living here longer”?

“Refugee buzz in North Rhine-Westphalia: accommodation in a luxury hotel”, “Berlin Senate quartered Asylum seekers in luxury hotel”, “Red carpet for migrants: Former hotel used as refugee home”, a popular pensioner dance hall becomes asylum accommodation, MS Ocean Majesty is to become refugee accommodation. All of these are headings of posts on my site this year. And the list could be extended — for example, the time-honored “Atlas Posthotel”, a house in a prime location in Garmisch-Partenkirchen that has become a home for asylum seekers.

A loyal reader probably had all of these examples in mind when he sent me a message from Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. Cold boxes have now been set up in the Rhineland-Palatinate city. They are supposed to save homeless people from death by freezing. My first thought when I saw the picture my reader sent me: They look like coffins. And I don’t want to imagine lying in a cold box like that. The reader sent me the message with the following subject line: “‘Cold boxes’ for the homeless, luxury hotels for pseudo-refugees.”

One can now debate whether the majority of migrants who reach our country are real refugees or, as the reader writes, “pseudo-refugees”. Red-green-minded readers will now surely say that the reader’s headline is evil populism. [Really? Evil populism? What is the following from the UK, then? An innocent joke?]

I think it’s legitimate. And it is almost imperative to raise the question that arises from the reader’s explosive headline: Is it fair if new arrivals in a society are at least partially accommodated in luxury hotels, but those who have lived here for a long time and have big problems in their lives have to spend the night in cold boxes? What kind of feelings does this trigger among the people in the country? To what extent is this socially explosive?

So that we understand each other correctly: Thanks are due to the volunteers at the Lichtblick day meeting center in Neustadt, who take care of the homeless and set up the cold boxes. They save people from freezing to death. And God knows it’s not their fault that they only have funds for cold boxes and not for luxury hotels. “According to the manufacturer, the special cold boxes are waterproof and reach up to 20 degrees higher than the outside temperature — and that’s just through body heat,” writes the SWR. [Perfect: by -40°C these boxes will then be deep-freezers. Saves on storage at the local morgue, I guess, and they can be seconded as coffins after the thaw. And in the meantime, billions are blown on the invading forces of Islam and their auxiliaries. I wonder how many million euros they splash out for these “refugees/migrants” per DAY?]

The cold boxes are intended to protect those who cannot, do not want to or are not allowed to go to emergency accommodation, according to the broadcaster. He quotes the head of the day meeting center: “It’s about people who have been to emergency housing in the past, but had bad experiences there and no longer want to go there. Or homeless people with dogs. Because no emergency accommodation in Neustadt and the surrounding area is allowed to be occupied with an animal.”

According to SWR, two of the four cold boxes have been on private property since the beginning of the month. Currently they are used every night. Two more boxes have now been set up. “They are slightly shielded by construction fences, and they also receive a mobile toilet that should be cleaned regularly,” writes the public broadcaster. [And I guess those boxes also make it easier for the culture-enrichers to torch them along with the occupants — they do love torching the homeless, as we have seen in the past.]

As problematic as it is to directly compare these boxes for the homeless with the expensive accommodation for asylum seekers, there is still a lot to think about. And the fundamental question: especially given the billions we spend on immigrants, are we doing enough for people who have been here for a long time and, for whatever reason, have failed?

Afterword from the translator:

I guess I’ll have to use this quote from the Bible again, since it is so apt for this “society”:

“But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” — 1 Timothy 5:8

A “rich” society, whose political class cares more for millions of people that want to harm them, rather than for their own people have fallen on hard times, is a society that has failed utterly. Just look at South Africa, this so called “Rainbow Nation”, in which the vast majority of people live in townships and squatter camps without running water and electricity — not that we have it much better in that regard now, after years of mismanagement by utterly corrupt officials — while the political elite lives in such splendor, that they can even use “Johnny Walker Blue Label” to wash their hands. South Africa is on the brink of total collapse, while Germany and Europe are busy trying to outrun South Africa, and most likely will succeed, since Europeans are so much better and efficient in EVERYTHING they do. When will the people of Europe wake up to the facts?