Bloomberg
Has Entourage
& Intern
at UN for
Maternal
Health, Only 2
Questions
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 2 --
When Mike
Bloomberg came
to the UN on
Tuesday it was
billed on a
press
conference,
albeit on the
topic of
maternal
health in
Tanzania.
Still, one
expected that
more than two
questions
about be
allowed in the
50 minutes,
and that each
opening speech
wouldn't be
met with
applause, as
happened.
Who
was it,
filling the
Dag
Hammarskjold
Auditorium?
Bloomberg's
entourage?
There
were jokes all
around.
Bloomberg said
he was making
UN Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon an
honorary New
Yorker; he
also said the
daughter of
the speaker
from the
H&B Agerup
Foundation was
in the
auditorium,
and he'd speak
to Ban to get
her an "in" at
the United
Nations.
Cursory
research
finds an
Agerup (and
Q-Med) scion
already
working as a
press intern
for the
Bloomberg
administration.
So a Swedish
medical patent
magnate has
his foundation
co-fund a
Bloomberg
Philanthropies
project; a
relative works
as a press
intern for
Bloomberg's
New York City
Department of
Health. This
is Bloomberg's
New York.
Since
maternal
health IS the
fifth UN
Millennium
Development
Goal, one
wanted to ask
what Bloomberg
thinks should
help with the
MDGs (or SDGs)
in 2015, when
he will no
longer be
mayor. But
only two
questions were
allowed, then
Bloomberg
followed Ban
Ki-moon in
leaving.
Footnote:
After
Bloomberg
left, his
Twitter
account if not
he himself
pitched the
program to
@NickKristof,
who wrote in
Sunday's New
York Times
about the
Bangladesh and
Sheikh Hasina
"Hurting
Women" --
gleaned at the
Clinton Global
Initiative --
without even
mentioning the
turning back
of the
Rohingyas from
Myanmar.
This too is
Bloomberg's,
and Kristof's,
New York. But
should it be
the UN's?
, 
