As Edward Snowden, the young American accused of blowing the whistle on NSA surveillance tactics, continues his search for a new home in a new country in order to avoid extradition and perhaps a lengthy prison term in a U.S. prison, he needs to ask himself a couple of things.
First, can he speak Spanish? According to the latest reports, the two countries most likely to grant him asylum (after the Russians more or less made it clear they didn't want him) are Venezuela and Bolivia, both of which speak Spanish. Granted, if Snowden has the faculty for picking up a foreign language, he'll eventually get the hang of it, but until he does, it's going to be real drag walking around sounding like--and being treated like--a Yankee tourist.
Also, he needs to bear in mind that, as an acknowledged fink (even one motivated by highly defensible moralistic reasons), he will never be trusted again, not by anyone. He needs to know that. He's a fink. He will never be entirely trusted by friends, by casual acquaintances, by future girlfriends, or by future employers. He also needs to know that the reason Venezuela or Bolivia granted him asylum wasn't because they coveted him. They did it to embarrass the U.S.
Which raises another question. What sort of job does Snowden expect to get, once he relocates? While it's very likely the country providing asylum will, for the time being at least, provide him with a monthly stipend on which to live, they will eventually expect him to get off his duff and find work.
What kind of job does he expect to get? There is no way in hell anyone's going to give him a job where he has access to computers or sensitive information. (Here, Ed, take this stack of documents and file them under "Confidential") Not only will he always be considered an "outsider," he has, unfortunately, established a track record as someone who's willing to take matters into his own hands if he feels there's a moral or legal justification for doing so. It's going to be a tough road for this guy.
It was different for actual "defectors," which Snowden clearly is not. Cold War defectors were a breed unto themselves. For men like the legendary British spy Kim Philby, who, after years of feeding classified information to the KGB, fled England to live in the USSR where he was treated as a national hero, his defection almost resembled a religious conversion. So enamored was Philby by Soviet-style socialism, he was willing to betray his own country in order to help the USSR prosper.
But that wasn't Snowden. He didn't blow the whistle on the Americans because he admired Venezuela's political ideology. He was just a young, impulsive guy who desperately wanted to do the "right thing." Alas, he's very likely going to be paying for that decision the rest of his life. Que lastima (as they say in Venezuela).
David Macaray, an LA playwright and author ("It's Never Been Easy: Essays on Modern Labor"), was a former union rep.