Add everyone in the UK to the DNA database?

Since I am hoping to be able to move overseas at some point in the future I try to keep current with what is going on abroad. On the BBC News page today I found a story about a judge that thinks that all citizens and visitors of the UK should be in the DNA database. Apparently the DNA database in the UK is already the largest one in the world because they keep DNA information for everyone that they get samples from. Once you are in the database there is no getting out.

The judge thinks everyone in the country and anyone that visits the country should have their DNA in the database because the database as it is now has a disproportionate number of ethnicities in it due to racial profiling. Here is the way it is broken down now:

• 5.2% of UK population
• Nearly 40% of black men
• 13% of Asian men
• 9% of white men

The judge thinks that by having everyone's DNA in the system that the database would be fairer to everyone.

I think this is not so great of an idea. Why should the government be able to have everyone's DNA on file? It seems like it would actually be less fair because innocent people would be forced to have to go through the process of giving DNA to get into the database. And wouldn't that clog the system?

Scotland seems to be more on the right track.

In Scotland, DNA samples taken when people are arrested must be destroyed if the individual is not charged or convicted.

My thoughts on this seem to fall in line with the final quote in the article:

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights organisation Liberty, said a database for every man, woman and child in the country was "a chilling proposal, ripe for indignity, error and abuse".

Amsterdam anyone?

In an effort to keep myself educated on immigration issues in Europe, I regularly read various sites to see what the latest info is on getting residency, citizenship, etc. overseas. In my reading this week I came across a surprising bit of info.

It seems that is it fairly simple to get a residence permit in the Netherlands. And once you have the residence permit, then you can apply for citizenship after 5 consecutive years of living there. The best part - they're in the European Union, so once you get that coveted citizenship, you can move freely about the EU - and that is what I really desire.

Up until this newly discovered information, I thought that Spain was the quickest way to EU citizenship, with an 8 year wait.

Of course, I don't really know much about the Netherlands. Amsterdam and Rotterdam both look nice and are close to Paris (around 4 - 5 hours) which is awesome. Now on the to-do list is to learn some Dutch and make a visit to Amsterdam sometime next year.

Forward my mail to Europe please

It's rather unfortunate that moving to Europe isn't as simple as moving across the U.S. I lived in several states on both coasts here in the U.S. I'd have no problem just selling everything and moving.

So, my options are:

• to marry someone from whatever country I want to move to (not gonna happen)
• take a skills test to go over as a skilled worker (i can get a crappy job here!)
• start a business in whatever country I want to move to, which of course means i have to have $$ to run the business and (in most countries) be able to hire at least 2 people that are citizens of that country to work at said business
• have enough money that it can, in essense, buy your citizenship. only 500,000 euros in Greece! that's only what, about $650,000 given the current atrocious exchange rate.

So, the plan is to get net worth of $500,000 so the move can happen sooner rather than later.