The oil industry hates scrutiny

Our first example comes from China:

An American geologist held and tortured by China's state security agents was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday for gathering data on the Chinese oil industry in a case that highlights the government's use of vague secrets laws to restrict business information.

In pronouncing Xue Feng guilty of spying and collecting state secrets, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court said his actions “endangered our country's national security.”

Its verdict said Mr. Xue received documents on geological conditions of onshore oil wells and a data base that gave the coordinates of more than 30,000 oil and gas wells belonging to China National Petroleum Corporation and listed subsidiary PetroChina Ltd. That information, it said, was sold to IHS Energy, the U.S. consultancy Mr. Xue worked for and now known as IHS Inc.

From the Globe and Mail. Not a huge surprise perhaps; China is not noted for its freedoms (except in comparison to the DPRK). But stuff like this would never happen in Western democracies, would it? Well, don't be so sure. Admittedly, not as draconian as China's law, but it raises more than a few red flags...

A sombre Independence Day

In honour of Independence Day, Canadian Silver Bug has posted a rather critical commentary on America:

I honestly ask myself what all the fuss and posturing about?

Well they threw off British rule; that’s pretty impressive.

They helped destroy the Kaiser and Hitler; that’s pretty impressive despite the fact they like to take all the credit and showed up to both wars several wars years late.

They created a constitution that put the protection of people’s rights to the forefront of government responsibilities; which by any account is an outstanding achievement.

America built the most powerful industrial machine the world had ever seen, they made it to the moon and advanced all manner of technical innovation big and small; once again all things worth celebrating.


We must remember however that these events are the high points of the American experience and quite probably hollow victories when compared to today’s reality. Such patriotic holidays as Independence Day are now tools of the establishment who know that people will get lost in pointless pride when frustration and anger are more appropriate for today's circumstances!

Strong words, to be sure, but I can't find fault with much of what he says here. But if there's a take-home message, it's this:

No one hates America for its freedom; IF they hate America it's because America rations freedom to those deemed worthy, which these days is not even its own population.

Truer words couldn't have been spoken. The sad thing is, at one time the US really did seem like a beacon of freedom and democracy. That isn't to say they didn't ration their freedom before (they kept slaves until 145 years ago, after all) but they introduced an ideal to the modern world that hasn't completely died out, and hopefully never will, despite the efforts of their current leaders.