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.”
It’s more like when you work for the government, you’re allowed to say what in a personal context. Once you start throwing around a title linked to the government, you’re no longer speaking as yourself, youre speaking as the government. The government can tell you what the government is allowed to say.
It’s the difference between an employee of the coast guard joining Greenpeace vs. That employee publicly saying the United States Coast Guard is joining Greenpeace. The coast guard can’t fire an employee for their own political beliefs, but they can totally fire a guy for saying shit the coast guard doesn’t want while representing the coast guard. Public speaking and seminars and shit like this have explicit rules about who can say what and when as a government employee in an official capacity.