Jackal expression:
“When Western states refused Snowden asylum they once again proved their double standards.”
Practice speed-ears to hear a giraffe request instead of a demand:
“Please be consistant in applying the same moral standard everywhere.”
(“And do this only if you do not feel forced to do so.”)
To go deeper ask yourself, what the beautiful need might be behind this request.
Is this about integrity and honesty, especially in challenging situations? – Challenging situations such as when a powerful country such as the USA excerts pressure on less powerful Western allies?
Context found: Quote from an article in German Journal SPIEGEL ONLINE
A few days ago, the Irish data protection regulator imposed a record fine of 1.2 billion euros on Meta, the company that owns Facebook. It is about the illegal transmission of data from European users to US authorities. This trial and the trials before the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on the same issue were made possible by Edward Snowden’s revelations in June 2013.
The same Snowden, who is still revered in the internet community, is stuck in Moscow, forgotten by a larger public – in an authoritarian, war-making state, its own and the future of the country and the entire region more uncertain than ever. Does the messenger of bad news have to pay once again, even if it was extremely useful in the end?
As a human rights activist, as his lawyer and now also as his friend, it makes me bitter that his situation in Russia is so messed up. And that despite or – what would be even more bitter – because he fights for more democratic and open societies and took an enormous personal risk to do so. In his case, the Western states that refused him asylum once again proved their double standards. And so Snowden is not only concerned with his personal destiny, but with all of us.