“In summary, removal and destruction of USAID’s knowledge should be identified as epistemicide. It should be stopped. It violates the fundamental understanding that all knowledges and unheard voices must be included if we are to solve complex problems. Undermining this knowledge will lead to less effective development. It will bolster ignorance that will hurt many initiatives and approaches. We must examine these actions in the context of a wider epistemicide, including the purge of diversity and inclusion initiatives, ending access to critical health data, and the rewriting of science to exclude reference to gender.”
With the whirlwind of crises humanity is facing, only to be exacerbated immensely with accelerating climate change and habitat loss in the decades to come, self-organizing as a distributed global network of open, resilient knowledge communities will be of the essence. Hopefully, something positive will emerge from this act of wanton vandalism, in it sparking a sense of urgency and galvanizing collective efforts among knowledge professionals around the world to unite around their common cause and voice.
