this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
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568
He Made a PowerPoint on Mothers Starving in Gaza. Then He Lost His Government Job. (theintercept.com)
submitted 5 months ago by IndustryStandard@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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Alexander Smith’s PowerPoint presentation doesn’t appear designed to court controversy. The slides, focused on declining maternal health in Gaza, cite public health data from the United Nations and World Health Organization. His employer, the U.S. Agency for International Development, had selected him to share it at the government agency’s Global Gender Equality Conference.

But just before the conference, an issue of contention emerged.

A single slide mentioned international humanitarian law in context of the health crisis in Gaza. USAID staff cited the slide and discussion of international law as potential fodder for leaks, documents and emails Smith shared with The Intercept show. Despite Smith’s willingness to make revisions, his presentation was eventually canceled. On the last day of the conference, he found himself out of a job.

“I thought it is really obscene that misinformation can go out freely out into the world [about Gaza], but I can’t talk about the reality of starving pregnant women,” said Smith, who worked as a contracted senior adviser at USAID on gender and material health. “We can’t even whisper about that in a conference on that topic.”

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[–] awesome_lowlander@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Late last week, Smith said he got a call from the company that contracted his position with USAID. He was told he could either resign or be terminated over “personality differences.”

Yeah, it was entirely his choice to resign voluntarily /s

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca -5 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Are you implying someone put a gun to his head? If not, what exactly are you implying?

Loads of conspiracy theories abound, I think it's important to be clear and not make nebulous implications.

[–] awesome_lowlander@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Gun to his head? Conspiracy theories? WTF?

How is 'resign or be fired' in any way a 'voluntary' resignation?

[–] SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca -5 points 5 months ago

They could've just fired him. He's a contractor, they just end the contract. That's what it means to be a contractor.

They gave him an option to resign, but they didn't have to give him that choice.

In hindsight they shouldn't have given him that option, the whole point of that is preserve everyone's reputation. Instead this guy publicized it so it would've been easier to just end the contract.

I mean the term firing isn't really accurate when it's a contractor. Anyway USAID contractors are the scum of the Earth, not having to pay him for bullshit powerpoint presentations that he just copy and pasted from un.org means more money could potentially be sent to developing countries.

Understand that USAID budgets a relatively meager $150 million for Palestinians and this guy's pay for this Powerpoint presentation would likely be coming out of that budget. A lot of foreign aid never leaves the country and actually just goes to these contractors. They're scum of the Earth grifters.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 months ago

There are degrees of coercion. No, there was no literal gun to his head, but the only choice is how he was walking out that door. Keeping his job was not an option.

They, and you, can use whatever weasel words you want, this guy didn't choose to leave his position.