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'Indictment of American society'   It has become a ritual that, each year, after the State Department publishes its report on human rights practices around the world, China responds by issuing a human rights report on the United States. This year was no different. The Chinese report is largely an indictment of American society, drawing attention to such things as the crime rate (highest in the world), the preval‎ence of guns (“rampant gun ownership”), the number of prison inmates (one in every 100 adults) and the high cost of campaign expenses (the midterm elections cost $3.98 billion, the highest ever). Most of these allegations would be readily acknowledged by the U.S. government and, in fact, China relies largely on American newspaper reports to substantiate its charges. However, Washington would not consider these to be human rights issues. By contrast, the American report zeroes in on core civil and political rights, beginning with freedom from arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life and “disappearances,” followed by arbitrary arrest or detention and denial of fair public trial. China is found wanting in all these areas, with the government involved in extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial detention and extralegal house arrest. By and large, the Chinese report ignores what the U.S. considers to be core human rights. One of the few areas dealt with by both the Chinese and American reports is privacy. The American report asserted that while the law requires warrants before law enforcement officials can search premises, “this provision frequently was ignored.” In fact, the U.S. report repeatedly cites guarantees that are provided in the Chinese constitution or in law and then points out that in practice the authorities did not respect such rights. On privacy, the Chinese report says “citizen’s privacy has been undermined.” Citing figures released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), it said that more than 6,600 travelers had been subjected to electronic device searches between Oct. 1, 2008 and June 2, 2010, “nearly half of them American citizens.” The Chinese report does not mention it, but these searches took place on the border and the information was obtained by the ACLU as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The U.S. deems the right of citizens to change their government a key political right. However, in China, the constitution stipulates that the country is led by the Communist Party. The formation of opposition political parties is illegal. The Chinese report castigates the U.S. for many social problems, including racial discrimination. It cites a New York Times report of Oct. 28 to the effect that more than six in 10 Latinos say discrimination is a “major problem” for them, and said this was a significant increase in the last three years. Where poverty is concerned, it says that the “proportion of American people living in poverty has risen to a record high,” quoting a Washington Post article of Sept. 19 that “Florida had a total of 27 million people living in poverty.” Interestingly, the Chinese report contains a section on America’s “violations of human rights against other nations.” There is no equivalent in the U.S. report on China or any other country. In this section, China asserted that the U.S. “has a notorious record of international human rights violations,” many of which stem from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have caused huge civilian casualties. Citing WikiLeaks, China alleged that American agents “were involved in an abduction of a German citizen mistakenly believed to be a terrorist.” Careful readers of the Chinese report would learn that in the U.S. the press is not controlled by the government and is free to report negative information that can be used against the government. In addition, they would know that U.S. citizens can obtain information from the government and that there are nongovernment organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union that are allowed to advocate individual rights through actions that challenge the government. This is not possible in China, where all NGOs have to be supervised by a government agency. Maybe, one day, there will be a free press in China and a Chinese Civil Liberties Union that can act independently and work to uphold the human rights of Chinese citizens. Possibly, by then, China may not feel a need to defend its human rights practices by attacking those in the United States. Q1) Q2) Q3) Near death experience   A woman fell in into a coma while delivering her second child as a result of a chronic disease she suffered from. She remained unconscious for three days. She did recover and recently told a group of church-goers including my wife about her experience in ‘the other world.’ After leaving her body, she said she was drawn to a plain replete with beautiful flowers and fragrant herbs. She felt extreme laxity in the consummation of happiness as if she were on cloud nine. She eventually met “Beings of Light” who told her in a gentle voice to go back to the world as she had more time to spend there. The concept of a near death experience (NDE) is hardly talked about here, compared with the United States and European nations where there are brisk debates and various kinds of books based on testimonies by the experiencers. By Wikipedia NDE refers to a “broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations including detachment from the body; feelings of levitation; extreme fear; total serenity, security, or warmth; the experience of absolute dissolution; and the presence of a light.” The term NDE was first created by U.S. psychiatrist Raymond Moody who wrote the book “Life After Life” in 1975. The book sold more than 3 million copies featuring statements of people who were revived after being pronounced clinically dead. A 1982 Gallop poll says nearly eight million Americans have experienced NDEs. A growing number of people are having NDEs these days thanks to the fast development of cardiac resuscitation techniques. Koreans tend to have strong attachments to the secular world probably because of the influence of Confucianism which has prevailed in people’s livelihoods and way of thinking since the Joseon Kingdom. In Confucianism, there is virtually no concept of life after death as it plays the role of rules and standards in daily life rather than being a religion. Confucius himself failed to answer the question on “what will happen after death.” He scolded the disciple who asked him, requesting him to study more diligently to live more correctly. Against this backdrop, Koreans also have a strong tendency of refusing to admit the death of a loved one. Letting out sorrow to its full extent is regarded as a virtue during funeral proceedings. Some in the past even lived by their parents’ tombs for years after their death in a show of filial piety. An old saying tells that it is better to live in “this world” than “other world” even if one rolls over in excrement. It has been a sort of taboo to talk about death. In NDEs the relevant people undergo almost the same process after leaving their bodies. They see saddened family members gather around them while unconscious. Then they go to a spacious bright plain with fantastic views. Then they either cross a river or pass through a tunnel before facing the presence of Beings of Light. The Beings seem more like the ultimate one than gods in many religions. Before facing the final judgment that will determine the final destination of the people, they are asked from the Beings only two questions. One is “how much did you love others?” The other question is “how much did you study to upgrade yourself.” To the disappointment of those who claim supremacy of their own religion the Beings do not mention religion. It is fortunate to see an increasing number people have begun to show interest in death in Korea riding on the well-dying trend that features writing wills, dividing properties for offspring as well as funeral methods. We frequently encounter in crowded places including Myeongdong in central Seoul people chanting that their religion will save people while describing other gods as mere idols. It is time for them to listen to the numerous testimonies from those who have experienced NDEs and were told to love others regardless of religious differences. Q1) Q2) Q3) Gas: the rising star of engery   As many countries become wary of nuclear power following Japan's atomic disaster, they are looking to natural gas as the best alternative for generating electricity. Gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel and Japan is already the world's largest importer of it in super-cooled form, as liquefied natural gas. LNG was chosen by Japan to provide gas for home use, industry and power years before last month's earthquake and tsunami turned the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant into a dangerous source of radioactivity and forced it close. However, since Japan took the decision to make LNG an important part of its energy policy, a revolution in gas production has rapidly gathered momentum. It has greatly increased global gas supplies and driven down the price, even as oil prices have soared. The revolution began in the United States in the 1990s after energy companies showed that gas trapped in shale rock deep underground could be profitably extracted for the first time. Until then, only conventional gas in large reservoirs of porous rock could be tapped. The new system devised by U.S. firms involved drilling vertically down into the shale, then extending the well horizontally and pumping in a mixture of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure. This technology, known as hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," cracks the shale. The fissures are held open by the sand particles, releasing gas to flow up the well. Today, fracking is used in nine out of 10 wells in the US, which in barely a decade has been transformed from a nation on the verge of becoming a major gas importer into a major gas producer. Gas is already heating half of America's households. It may soon start replacing coal as the main fuel for generating base-load electricity. By 2035, shale gas is projected to account for 46 percent of U.S. gas production, up from 23 percent in 2010. Shale gas also has promising prospects elsewhere in the world, although not in Japan. Earlier this month, the U.S. Energy Department released a study of 48 major shale basins in 32 countries. It concluded that technically recoverable gas in these basins and those in the U.S. amounted to 6,622 trillion cubic feet (TCF), raising global gas reserves by over 40 percent. The survey did not include offshore seabed reserves, or reserves in Russia and some Middle East countries. Nor did it cover another potentially huge source of unconventional gas, methane trapped in coal seams. Thanks to newly included reserves from shale and coal beds, the International Energy Agency reckons the world might have twice as much gas than previously thought - enough to last for 250 years at current usage rates. The U.S. Energy Department study found that countries with large shale resources included Argentina, Canada, Mexico, Australia, South Africa, Libya, Algeria, France, Poland, Brazil, Norway and Chile. But it concluded that the potential shale giant was China, with 1,275 TCF of recoverable gas, far larger than the estimated U.S. reserve of 826 TCF. Chinese state-owned energy giants are investing billions of dollars in shale gas joint ventures with Western firms in North America. They want to acquire the expertise to develop China's own reserves. With demand rising fast, China seems set to become heavily dependent on imported gas as well as foreign oil. However, if China could exploit its shale deposits, gas self-sufficiency could be assured and overall energy security improved. Yet "fracking" is controversial. This follows reports that some U.S. wells have polluted underground and surface water supplies, that some of the chemicals used are toxic, and that some residues forced to the surface are radioactive. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported in 2004 that "fracking" did not pose a threat to drinking water. But its study did not include shale drilling. Fracturing shale rock for up to 2 km underground requires about five times more chemical-laden fluids than vertical drilling. So the agency is in the midst of a new study. The relatively clean reputation of gas among fossil fuels is based on its lower carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) when burned. It emits approximately half the amount of CO2 as coal and about 30 percent that of oil. However, research published in the U.S. last week contends that so much methane escapes in the production lifetime of a well and pipeline extracting shale gas that it allows more greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere than coal. CO2 and methane, the main component of natural gas, are the two most potent global warming emissions from human activity. These pollution and global warming allegations are rejected by the gas industry. They are unlikely to deter China and other energy-hungry developing nations from exploiting their shale gas resources, especially where reserves are located in sparsely populated zones. But in North America, Europe and Australia the pace of development may slow if stronger evidence emerges that unconventional gas production threatens human health and the environment. Japan will almost certainly be able to import more LNG in future. But its best hope for gas self-sufficiency is in the big reserves of methane hydrates that lie offshore beneath the seabed in the exclusive economic zone claimed by the Japanese government. Q1) Q2) Q3)