https://www.huffpost.com/entry/usaid-worker-cuts-job-lost_n_67e15ea4e4b0bd547770ef36

I. USAID HIRED ME FOR AN UNDEFINED ROLE OF BULLSHIT MAKEWORK

My role as the strategic communications adviser had been newly created, so there had been no blue print on how to do it. In those first 90 days of probation, there were more than a few times of curling over my desk with a burning stomach. The learning curve was steep — how USAID worked, navigating the politics between the State Department and USAID, getting past gatekeepers so I could do my job, learning the geopolitics of each of the 10 countries in my portfolio, and figuring out how to be additive to the partner governments without having a pool of resources from which to implement projects. I threw a lot of spaghetti against the wall...

II. IT OFFENDS ME THAT AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ARE ALLOWED TO VOTE THEIR OWN INTERESTS INSTEAD OF LETTING ME USE THEIR MONEY TO VIRTUE SIGNAL

By the blue light of my computer screen, I read about another executive order freezing foreign aid. A carousel of students’ faces from Iraq, the West Bank, and Ukraine spun in my mind. USAID directly or indirectly funded gender equality, religious tolerance, and English-language education projects in Iraq. When Israel allowed aid caravans into Gaza, USAID paid for food, medicine, water and hygiene products. It helped rebuild Ukraine’s power grid every time Russia’s drones bombed it. Millions of people were going to suffer a lot more than they already were because of an election they couldn’t vote in.

III. HOW I TRIED TO TRICK TRUMP INTO KEEPING MY FUNDING

On Tuesday, Jan. 21, I worked on a positioning paper justifying the necessity of the Democracy Delivers initiative so the new administration wouldn’t get rid of it. At that point, I didn’t realize the president was determined to gut the agency and kill almost all of its programming. I reframed Democracy Delivers as a tool to further “America First” rhetoric, rather than an approach to prioritize democratizing countries for development assistance.

IV. I TRIED TO TRICK TRUMP AGAIN BUT HE WAS ALREADY ON TO ME

Across the agency, other communications practitioners were doing the same for their projects. On Wednesday, an email urging me to report colleagues disguising diversity, equity and inclusion efforts or face disciplinary actions plopped in my inbox. I had been editing the Democracy Delivers webpages to remove words like “inclusive” and “sustainable” and replacing them with “market-led” and “self-reliant.”

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5699827&forum_id=2:#48782591)