[AfrICANN-discuss] About the change of AfriNIC-9 venue!

[alain aina]

Thanks for sharing  this with us.

People should understand that if  we don't have  good networks in  
AFRICA, it won't help naming space including  dotafrica.


--alain




On Oct 23, 2008, at 7:28 PM, Anne-Rachel Inné wrote:

> Dear Colleagues,
>
> As you know, the AfriNIC-9 will now be held in Mauritius instead of  
> Addis
> Ababa (Ethiopia) as originally planned. This is a unique situation  
> which
> has affected us all. Many of you have written to us to inquire about  
> what
> happened and to propose your help. Thanks to you all and your  
> continued
> support to what we are trying to do at AfriNIC for our Region.
>
> We sincerely apologize for the short notice in change of venue. The  
> previous
> host, ETC (Ethiopia Telecommunication Corporation) notified us that  
> "for some
> serious reason that needs time to clear and settle", they have been  
> obliged
> to pend and postpone hosting the AfriNIC-9 meeting. After some
> investigations to
> try to understand what is happening, it comes to our attention that
> the decision
> comes from the Government who has requested them to suspend the  
> hosting of
> AfriNIC-9 meeting because they are suspecting AfriNIC to have some
> hidden agenda
> with the meeting in Addis Ababa and which has to do with
> "dotAfrica".  According
> to the article reproduced bellow, the bid for dotAfrica presented by  
> a Company
> (leaded by and Ethiopian) has been sabotaged by AfriNIC which  
> prevent her to
> settle the Headquarters in Ethiopia. According to information we  
> have been
> able to collect, she claimed that AfriNIC want to host "dotAfrica"  
> in South
> Africa or Mauritius so is against Ethiopia interests by doing so.
>
> Let's me precise here that dotAfrica and domain names businesses are  
> not part
> of AfriNIC's activities. This serious misunderstanding of what  
> AfriNIC is
> exactly and its role in the community injected by a person claiming  
> to be the
> defender of Africa, has unfortunately denied Ethiopia a chance to  
> host this
> important African technical community meeting. Indeed, AfriNIC which  
> mission
> is, amongst other to "to support Internet technology usage and  
> development,
> and promoting Internet governance" in Africa welcomes the  
> opportunity to have
> a domain (dotAfrica) that will identify the African landscape on the  
> Internet.
> AfriNIC will probably support any Open, transparent and bottom up  
> initiative
> to have a dotAfrica domain for the region but will never run or  
> participate
> in doing any business related to that domain names or any other.
>
> AfriNIC remains a service to the community and strongly disagree  
> with personal
> interests and political pressures on its bottom up processes.  
> AfriNIC developed
> its legitimacy from the community and will remain a community driven
> organisation
> as are the four other Regional Numbers Registries. We have already  
> run our
> Public Policy meeting in eight  other countries without any issues.  
> Our main
> objective has always been to raise awareness among the local  
> community of  the
> country we are visiting and involve them more into the process.
>
> AfriNIC remains open to all of us.
>
> Let's keep focused on our numerous objectives and challenges in an  
> open
> transparent with a systematic multi-stakeholder approach.
>
> The whole story is now released by the local press and available at:
> http://www.ethiopianreporter.com/content/view/3048/54/. A very quick  
> English
> translation is also attached.
>
> Kind Regards.
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Adiel A. Akplogan                            Tel. +230 466 66 16
> Chief Executive Officer, AfriNIC            Fax: +230 466 67 58
> adiel at afrinic.net - www.afrinic.net          sip: adiel at voip.afrinic.net
> -------
> Register to attend AfriNIC-9 Meeting in Mauritius: 22-28 November 2008
> http://meeting.afrinic.net/afrinic9/index.htm
>
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