ACTION ALERT: Sign a Petition Urging Trump’s Team to Cancel aTrip to ‘Davos for Dictators‘
(October 25, 2019) — I’m Carmella Saia, and I started a petition because Jared Kushner, Rick Perry, Steve Mnuchin, and many other Trump officials are joining corporate leaders at a dictator propaganda event which many human rights advocates refer to as “Davos for Dictators.”
This event is organized by Saudi Arabia which, among other crimes and abuses, murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi and has perpetrated the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, killing thousands. The event begins on October 29, so our immediate action is needed to pressure them to cancel.1
Last year, many business and political leaders skipped Saudi Arabia’s annual Future Investment Initiative conference after the Saudi dictatorship murdered dissident and journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
This year, many business and political leaders are returning to the Future Investment Initiative conference, a Saudi propaganda event.
Businesses attending include JP Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and others.2
These attendees are turning a blind-eye to Khashoggi’s murder. They are also ignoring Saudi Arabia’s bombing of civilians in Yemen and imprisonment of women’s rights activists and other government critics.
Scholar Luciano Zaccara has labeled the conference “a big public relations operation,” as Saudi Arabia’s dictator and crown prince tries to wash away his brutal human rights violations.3
The commitment to the conference and the monarchy itself by economic and political officials—especially by the Trump administration—displays the immoral lengths politicians and companies will go to for monetary gain and how accepting they are of the crown prince’s reprehensible actions.
ACTION: Sign Carmella’s petition to let conference attendees know that we do NOT stand with Saudi Arabia’s cruel dictatorship—and neither should they!
MESSAGE: Jared Kushner, Trump officials, and global CEOs must cancel their plans to attend this dictator propaganda event.
Sources:
1. “Media Companies Skip Saudi Arabia’s “Davos in the Desert” (Again),” The Hollywood Reporter, October 22, 2019
2. Ibid.
3. “‘Davos in the Desert’: Once a sign of Saudi Arabia’s clout, the spectacle now highlights its isolation,” The Washington Post, October 18 2019
Media Companies Skip Saudi Arabia’s “Davos in the Desert” (Again)
Jeremy Barr / Hollywood Reporter
(October 22, 2019) — Jared Kushner and Steven Mnuchin are attending, but major media firms are still a no-go at the Saudi conference following the murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi.
Last year, major American media companies dropped out of Saudi Arabia’s Future of Investment Initiative conference — dubbed “Davos in the Desert” — to protest the murder of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi.
White House senior advisor Jared Kushner and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are expected to attend this year’s conference, to be held Oct. 29-31 at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh. But once again, Fox Business Network, CNN, CNBC, Bloomberg Media, The New York Times and The Financial Timeshave all decided against serving as media partners for this year’s conference, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. (The companies all pulled sponsorships last year.)
“Fox Business Network is not attending/participating in FII this year,” a network spokesperson told THR.
“The Times will not sponsor the conference or send anyone as a speaker,” a spokesperson said. “No decisions have been made on how or if we will cover the event from a reporting standpoint, as we did last year.” (CNBC could also cover this year’s conference journalistically.) “We are not a sponsor, nor are we sending speakers,” a Financial Times spokesperson said.
Bloomberg Media will be reporting on the conference, according to a person close to the company.
Just a week away, the conference still has not yet announced this year’s “strategic partners” and “knowledge partners,” but a knowledgeable source said that media partnerships will be scarce. (An email sent to the conference’s press contact has not yet been returned.)
Citing an attendees list, The Washington Post on Sept. 30 reported that “senior executives from blue-chip firms including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and BlackRock will be returning to the kingdom for the conference” this year, “including more than 40 executives representing US companies.”
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
