The UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, Philip Alston, is hiring interns for the summer to work with him in New York. The role includes “legal research, writing, and advocacy support.” Buried in the job details, there is just one sentence pertaining to funding – “Candidates are strongly encouraged to seek other funding sources.”  Alston’s Twitter header reads “poverty is a political choice”…

Alston was responsible for a risible report which redefined poverty as anyone living below 60% of median household income in society. This is a measure of inequality, not poverty. His methodology led him to praise Mauritania (where 42% of the population live in absolute poverty) and condemn Britain. In reality, contrary to Alston’s bizarre methodology, absolute poverty has halved in the UK over the last two decades…

Now Alston is advertising for a summer-long unpaid internship in one of the world’s most expensive cities to work on his poverty commission. You couldn’t make it up…