News

23367 readers

2631 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

569

He Made a PowerPoint on Mothers Starving in Gaza. Then He Lost His Government Job. (theintercept.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

62 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 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.”

Forcing someone to either resign or be fired is pretty much firing them.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It really isn't. He's a contractor it's part of the deal, you get paid more money, but contract can be ended at any time. They decided to end the contract and gave the option to resign.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

And that "contract ending" (firing) came about because of his views on Israel's Genocide. Him being a government contractor is besides the point since there was almost certainly governmental pressure to remove him. Whether it was hard or soft pressure.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You're making a lot of assumptions based solely on the word of a scumbag contractor that made a living siphoning off money that could go to impoverished countries by giving bullshit powerpoint presentations.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Well you're making a whole lot of assumptions yourself. And mine are based on Occams Razor and the US governments consistent actions to stifle free speech that is critical of Israel. The US government has a vested interest in stopping people from revealing the horrors of Israel's Genocide.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah... you don't understand Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation is they cut the guy loose because he's wasn't worth the money they were paying him.

Piling a conspiracy theory on top of that is actually the exact opposite of Occam's Razor.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

It's not Occams Razor to point out the US' complete bias towards Israel? It's not Occams Razor to assume employers consistently act in bad faith in the US? I believe him when he says he was forced out, it wasn't too long ago that a nurse was fired because she called out Palestinian genocide.You sound incredibly naive.

Did you also even read the article? There are literal emails referencing/heavily hinting at the removal of any reference to Palestinian mother's starving. Something he was willing to do, but ultimately his whole slideshow was canceled. And right before the end of the conference he was at: he forced to resign. Yet you'd say it's just a coincidence.