UNITED
NATIONS, May
14 -- The sale
at auction of
a six-week
internship in
the UN has
been
completed; the
bidding just
closed. The
winner,
identified as
"m.alam," bid
$26,000 on May
3.
Inner
City Press, before
that, first
exposed the
sale of the
internship in
the UN,
and asked the
UN about it.
At first the
UN said that
since it
was IN but not
FOR the UN, it
was not a
problem.
Then
the UN said
that its
Office of
Legal Affairs
was seeking
out the
Non-Governmental
Organization
at issue, then
that the
advertisement
had been
amended.
But
it still showed
the UN
Headquarters
and said that
the winner
would
learn how the
UN really
works --
indeed -- and
make
invaluable
connections.
Inner
City Press
asked the
spokesperson
for RFK
Center, whose
RFK Young
Leaders is the
beneficiary,
with whom such
connections
were being
sold --
without
answer.
But
Inner City
Press'
coverage was
picked up and
credited in Talk
Radio
News Service
and on AlJazeera.com,
among other
places.
The
auction web
site
CharityBuzz
listed the
value of the
internship at
$10,000. How?
Not only
unpaid - an
internship a
person, or
their
parents, pays
for.
Inner
City Press'
research finds
that "m.alam"
had bid on
other
internships,
for example
with Rolling
Stone
magazine.
Where would
the
"connections"
be better?
It
has been
implied to
Inner City
Press that the
UN
might ban the
buyer
(here,
"m.alam") from
entering the
UN. We'll see.
Watch this
site.
, 
