In the months since the millions of crystals had been scattered over the world, human society had changed in all sorts of ways. Different cultures adapted differently to the crystals--America wasn't the only place that hadn't quite figured out what to do with the Bonded!
By far the most controversial bonded ability was the ability to raise the dead. Countries with a strong religious presence--most of the Islamic world, Poland and Ireland, Israel--outlawed raising the dead fairly quickly, although Israel added an exemption for victims of terrorism. A few Islamic countries outlawed the use of crystals entirely, seeing them as blasphemous temptations of Satan, but most allowed limited medical use. Some Islamic countries, led by Iran, used transsexual changes as a "cure" for homosexuality.
Governments attempted to control the crystal's power. The Chinese government declared any Bonded person a government employee, and had so far managed to enlist most of the Chinese Bonded to use their powers at state behest. Those Bonded who were not registered state servants were outlawed. There were already rumors that the Party leadership planned on immortality. Kim Jong Il of North Korea had already regressed to his early twenties, and there were some very bad stories about the Bonded in North Korea.
In highly segmented societies like India's the efforts of the government to control the crystals proved mostly in vain. Indian Bonded used the crystals mostly within their own religious, ethnic and caste communities, although Indians did few resurrections, believing that resurrecting people in the same body only bound them tighter to the wheel of karma. The hijra community controlled several crystals, and in the time since the crystals arrived hundreds of hijras had become young biological females, although a few turned back.
Some of the saddest stories of bonding came from places in Africa controlled by warlords, who essentially enslaved the Bonded, making them servants and forcing them to age child soldiers and raise those killed in battle. In quieter areas, Bonded practiced as traditional healers, as indigenous African beliefs proved quite adaptable in the presence of crystals.
Europe tended to treat bonding as a private affair, although many of the Bonded devoted themselves to medicine. Most European countries were considering limitations on how many times a person could be resurrected or restored to youth, fearing cultural stagnation and a hardening of caste and racial divisions.
Many plastic surgeons, medical specialists, and transsexual surgeons found themselves out of work. A few age regressed so as to be able to learn new skills, while others hoped that someday the crystals would disappear as mysteriously as they had arrived.
Few anywhere believed that the aliens's hope that the crystals would lead to a better world would be fulfilled.