DNA and Stuff

DNA determines almost everything about our physical selves. That is: both the good and the bad!

And now it is getting much less expensive to have it recorded - and interpreted. While there is still room for a lot more science quite a few things are already clear.

From my nuclear science background I know that human beings are occassionally effected - changed - at the pre-fertilisation phase - by the background radiation (mostly from the sun, particularly when the sun is flaring). So occassionally a child is born with eyes of different colours, cleft pallets, Downes syndrome - conditions we do not think can be inherited. Variations caused by solar activity are probably the main cause of genetic variation and hence of evolution.

Many of our not-so-good inherited charteristics are fairly benign. So I have a very small mouth (but I can type!) and so my children have inherited it along with the dental bills! Alcoholism (or a tendency towards it) may be a similar inherited condition.

My interest in this is because my grandfather had haemophillia - I have this vision of him sitting in his barbers chair after losing a tooth bleeding profusely into a blue enamel bowl. [Then drinking the blood to recover the iron!]

But recent research (in America) indicates that about 25% of us will die around the traditional 70 years of conditions our parents died of - but the remaining 75% will live into their nineties!

We now know that some diseases are more prevalent in persons with certain genetic conditions. About 1 in 8 women will experience breast cancer and about 1 in 3 breast cancers have a genetic association. If these women had a DNA analysis conducted early enough earlier intervention would result in earlier detection and hence more effective treatment. Can we withhold this information from them? Or not encourage them to take the analysis?

Shared Equity

I was pleased to see the Government annouce a Shared Equity policy to assist first home buyers.

As someone who has written software to manage mortgages - and in particular those at risk from marginal Servicability Ratio - I have strong views on this topic.

[SR: Ratio of amount to pay on the mortgage to amount of income (after tax)]

I belong to a generation where by capitalising Child Benefit I was able to pay the deposit on a house the day after I signed up on my first job at University. And the interest was 3%!

Then I helped my daughter by contributing equity to her first house which she duly paid back.

I think the critical component is to get the Loan to Value ratio down to 70% or less so that banks charge the lowest interest rate.

If it is Shared Equity then the issue is how the capital is handled on subsequent sale of the property. Any change of ownership should be treated as a sale and the Government should be able to extract its capital.

The Government can waive any interest on its investment but should capture its share of any capital growth.

Should the Government waive any interest?

Food Prices

There has been a lot of talkback about the prices of dairy foods. But it might get worse . . .

Imagine you are a chinese peasant earning $1 a day - and feeling hungry and worried about the kids.

Then life improves - you get $2 a day. What would you spend the extra $ on?

More food! Then better food!

So if there were one billion chinese peasants in this situation and they did get that extra $ a day and they did spend it on food - then their additional purchasing power would be $365 billion dollars pa.

Maybe our dairy farmers would get a reasonable slice of that. Great! But demand would would also drive the price up. Even better! And the lamb and beef farmers would get a slice too.

So maybe life would be better for the 1 billion chinese but also for New Zealand.

But the lower socio-economic people in NZ may feel the impact of the higher prices.

I guess that's life - life's not fair - get used to it! Or adjust the tax system! Again!

Sir Edmund Hillary

As someone who was privileged to have met Sir Ed and some of the more senior members of his family, I was deeply moved at his funeral.

Sir Ed got to the top! Let's not mess with words - it was the highest of the high.

But even more important he left an example. Not only do you need guts, courage, stickability and all those obvious things - you also need practice and meticulous planning.

But his style is a key to his success.

He would say to his kids "Let us have an adventure today" - and go and have an adventure.

It does not really matter what your adventure is today - so long as it is fun, is challenging and is shared.

Let us keep this wonderful image before all New Zealanders - adventure, fun, challenge and sharing.

Police Act

Police Act: Make their job easier

How can we make the Police more effective in carrying out the tasks we have placed on them?

One way is to remove the complexity of process when dealing with minor offences so that they may allocate more time to more serious issues.

One way is to recognise many minor offences as AntiSocial Acts. [This term has been strongly denigrated in the UK.] Persons committing minor acts including young offenders and all persons released after serving a gaol sentence even beyond a parole period might be designated as AntiSocial and have a series of conditions imposed on them.

If they break any of a number of conditions the police can immediately arrest them, hold them overnight and then release them with very minimal paperwork. The intent is that the Police can quickly deal with people at a crime scene and focus on identifying and investigating others. [Police should be able to identify by fingerprints and take DNA samples at crime scenes and areas of street disturbances and that these can be retained indefinitely.]

Some of their current legal rights may be withheld - such as being required to account for all their movements, all monetary transactions and to give evidence on any crime they have witnessed or have knowledge about.