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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NYP

UNITED NATIONS GATE, March 5 –How corrupt has Antonio Guterres made the UN?  He has corrupted even the UN International School, with his spokesman Stephane Dujarric and UAE envoy Maher Nasser, both of whom block Inner City Press which Guterres has already roughed up and banned as it asked about his failure to disclose his links to UN briber CEFC China Energy and failure on Cameroon. Now we have this on UNIS: "UNIS is in crisis right now.  The problem is this: sharply rising fees are forcing UN parents out of the school, and they are being replaced by the children of wealthy New Yorkers.  By way of background, fees at the school have risen by 92% in 12 years. The average rise has been 5.6% a year, compared to an average rise in UN salaries of around 1.5% a year. Fees have risen by so far that the cost of middle school and high school tuition now exceeds the cap of the education grant, leaving UN parents unable to afford the school. Many have left, many more are considering leaving.  A group of UN parents have formed a group to lobby for change, but the school has told them there is little they can do about the rising costs. In a recent presentation to parents, the head of the school essentially told parents that their only hope is to ask the UN for a increased education grant - which will never happen.  The school claims that half of its students are children of UN staff or related diplomatic staff (mainly children of staff at UN missions), but UN parents suspect the number is closer to 30%. And the number gets lower each year as more and more UN parents are forced to leave the school. The problem is especially acute for UN parents on lower grades. Because, although the education grant subsidises the cost, it still leaves parents with a crippling bill as they struggle to pay the 25+% required of them. Recent changes in the education grant are making that even more difficult, as it is now on a sliding scale - the higher the fees, the lower the percentage of subsidy. Unsuprisingly, this school is by far and away the most expensive in the UN system, which means these recent changes are penalising parents in HQ. For example, a parent with a child in high school at UNIS will pay up to $42,975 a year for tuition for the 2019/20 school year. The education grant now tops out at $40,600, so not all of that is now subsidised. The result is that the UN now only pays around 70% of that, where it used to pay 75%. That leaves these parents having to pay more than $1000 a month for the school, which is beyond the means of many. But in the meantime, the school remains very attractive to non-UN parents. It is around $10,000 cheaper than most NY private schools, so rich New York parents love the school. But UN parents are aware that the school is essentially held up by the subsidy provided to parents by the UN, so they feel that the UN is effectively subsidising the education of wealthy New Yorkers who have zero connection to the UN or to any kind of diplomatic corp and who have absolutely no need to send their children to an international school. In short, rich New Yorkers have spied a way to give their kids an expensive education on someone else's dime - the UN's.  Our understanding is that the SG's office feels the same, and is making plans to request the school remove the United Nations name should the number of UN children fall much further. This would end the now very tenuous connection between the school and the UN, a connection which has existed since 1947.  UN parents have suggested the school introduce a two-tier tuition scheme, charging non-UN parents the same as any other private NY school, and reducing the fees for UN parents. The school has flatly refused to consider this.  One solution gaining traction among parents is this: kicking out the children of non-UN and non-diplomatic staff. That would halve the size of the school (at least), so it would be a significant downsizing. But the cost of maintaining the school's current premises - a 40-something year old building sitting on reclaimed land on the East River - are ruinous, so parents see an opportunity for the school to move to smaller, more modern and less expensive premises elsewhere, with lower fees.     Whatever happens, the UN is now in the midst of a crisis that is threatening the mobility of UN staff, a mobility on which an international organisation like the UN relies." Inner City Press has previously asked UN rep Michael Adlerstein about the dubious role of UN blocker Maher Nasser; now Guterres and his spokesman answer no Inner City Press questions at all, while running UNIS into the ground to benefit, yes, rich New Yorkers. The UN is rotting. On March 4 when Guterres and his spokesman refused Press questions on Cameroon, Nigeria, Haiti, Sudan, Qatar, Zambia and his own censorship, Guterres spent public money to spin unnamed correspondents, one of whom later gushed: "I attended a fascinating off-the-record lunch today with UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterrez, along with a few other journalists." Photo here; Dutch Ambassador Karel von Oosterom, who has withheld every single document about Cameroon from Inner City Press under the WOB, retweeted it. Now the question is, who were these "other journalists" who ate Guterres' halibut apparently without asking about his failure on Cameroon, or UN corruption, or his censorship? Guterres' published schedule for March 4 had only two appoints, neither of which was this publicly funded spoon fed lunch. There was been no answer from the attendee "Stephen Schlesinger @cannon367 Fellow at the Century Foundation @tcfdotorg" - but who were they? Watch this site. We'll have more on this - and on Cameroon: after Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years on January 28 had his opponent Maurice Kamto arrested, Inner City Press again asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his spokesmen for their comment and action, if any. This came after Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up on 3 July 2018 after it interviewed Biya's Ambassador about the two men's Budget Committee deals and banned from the UN since - Guterres even tried to get Inner City Press banned from the Park East Synagogue, here, which was denied / dodged by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric. On March 1 after the Nigerian federal high court sitting in Abuja declared illegal and unconstitutional the deportation of Ayuk Tabe and 46 others from Nigeria to Cameroon in January 2018, Dujarric who refuses questions from Inner City Press he has banned took a fake question from one of his favorites, who said "Anglophones did some shooting" - and said NOTHING about the new ruling. The refoulement took place with Guterres' Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed there, and joining in censorship since. We'll have more on this, and on UNIS. More here.

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