The Law

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Details: Written by: Richard_McKie; Parent Category: History; Category: Recollections; Published: 11 January 2011; Hits: 63176

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Page 11 of 12

History provided the basis for law making. Just as it is perfectly reasonable to establish laws and regulations to guard against bricks falling from high places into crowded streets or naked short-selling on the stock market, so all laws are cast in an historical context.

It is essential for the competence and proper functioning of society and of human relations in general, that laws and regulations are established. These are inevitably based on our perceptions of the past, 'History', and its relevance to a mutually desired future.

These laws need to provide that criminality or serious abuse against one's fellow citizens does not go unpunished; that people are free to seek their fortune within the law; and that people can attain high rank based on achievements and ability or popular acclaim. I believe that, in addition, everyone should have ready access to contemporary knowledge and ideas, limited only by their comprehension; and everyone should be able to live their lives, according to their own lights, with the maximum freedom, consistent with the freedom of others.

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Travel

Malaysia

In February 2011 we travelled to Malaysia. I was surprised to see modern housing estates in substantial numbers during our first cab ride from the Airport to Kuala Lumpur. It seemed more reminiscent of the United Arab Emirates than of the poorer Middle East or of other developing countries in SE Asia. Our hotel was similarly well appointed.

Fiction, Recollections & News

The McKie Family

Introduction

This is the story of the McKie family down a path through the gardens of the past that led to where I'm standing. Other paths converged and merged as the McKies met and wed and bred. Where possible I've glimpsed backwards up those paths as far as records would allow.

The setting is Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England and my path winds through a time when the gardens there flowered with exotic blooms and their seeds and nectar changed the entire world. This was the blossoming of the late industrial and early scientific revolution and it flowered most brilliantly in Newcastle.

I've been to trace a couple of lines of ancestry back six generations to around the turn of the 19th century. Six generations ago, around the turn of the century, lived sixty-four individuals who each contributed a little less 1.6% of their genome to me, half of them on my mother's side and half on my father's. Yet I can't name half a dozen of them. But I do know one was called McKie. So, this is about his descendants; and the path they took; and some things a few of them contributed to Newcastle's fortunes; and who they met on the way.

In six generations, unless there is duplication due to copulating cousins, we all have 126 ancestors. Over half of mine remain obscure to me but I know the majority had one thing in common, they lived in or around Newcastle upon Tyne. Thus, they contributed to the prosperity, fertility and skill of that blossoming town during the century and a half when the garden there was at its most fecund. So, it's also a tale of one city.

My mother's family is the subject of a separate article on this website.

Opinions and Philosophy

More nuclear medicine

As a follow-up to my radiation treatment for prostate cancer, that I reported here as: Medical fun and games, I recently underwent a PET scan, to check that all is well.

When I first heard of them I imagined that a PET scan was a more generic all-encompassing version of a CAT scan - perhaps one involving dogs and rabbits; or even goldfish?

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