Fw: [AfrICANN-discuss] Help with .africa history

Dr Yassin Mshana ymshana2003 at gmail.com
Wed Jul 25 23:47:02 SAST 2012


Dear Moderator,

It seems that there might be something to do with posts from Ms Bekele.....

Why was the email below not seen by others? I know that the issued of
Application for <.africa> had gone shamefully too far to keep quiet about -
that s why I kept posting 'warnings' about it.

Now, what does the communication below tell us? The email was not posted -
why? I wonder - is it because of Content or its Source? I received a
complaint as a fellow African and the best i could do is to post it -
immediately!

That is all for now on this

Kind regards

Yassin (Always for Africa!!)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sophia Bekele <sophiabekele at yahoo.com>
Date: 25 July 2012 20:39
Subject: Fw: [AfrICANN-discuss] Help with .africa history
To: "Dr. Yassin Mshana" <ymshana2003 at gmail.com>



 Dr. Yassin-

The other email also that was not posted is this one.
Thank you for your help.
****
With best wishes,
*Sophia *
Support our "YES" to .africa Campaign!
www.dotconnectafrica.org
Follow us on <http://twitter.com/#%21/dot_africa>twitter<http://twitter.com/#%21/dot_africa>and
facebook<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Africa-DotAfrica/251093366219?ref=ts>
Email us at: yes2dotafrica at dotconnectafrica.org


  ----- Forwarded Message -----
*From:* Sophia Bekele <sophiabekele at yahoo.com>
*To:* "africann at afrinic.net" <africann at afrinic.net>
*Sent:* Wednesday, July 4, 2012 4:24 PM
*Subject:* Re: [AfrICANN-discuss] Help with .africa history

*Well - you're welcome to believe a woman who arrived half way on the
scene, and implemented a business plan which I outlined to her in a lunch
meeting in São Paulo in 2006, and subsequently claimed the idea as her own.*


Did you really say the above Calvin or is this in my dreams? What is the
intended objective of your blatant lie? Could you please let everyone know
why you are engaging in this blatant misrepresentation and distortion of
facts?  Which business plan did you outline for me? Do you think that this
will gain you any credibility over the .AFRICA string? First, for engaging
in this deliberate distortion and changing the subject matter of the
discussion thread,  you should be ashamed of yourself . Also, I am very
much incensed by your sexist remarks. You simply have no respect for women,
and you should be taken to task for your 'sexist comment'. I hereby demand
a retraction and outright apology for your offensive statements. Moreover,
your facts are incorrect. I never discussed a business plan of  .africa
with you at Sao Paulo, so you are very much mistaken in your recollections.

Therefore, I believe that it is important to set the records straight
regarding the history of .Africa.

You had no clue what to do with .africa at the time or may I say even now,
even if one bangs your head on it.  I remember quite vividly that it was in
South Africa that we met on my way to Plettenburg Bay for vacation and we
discussed and exchanged views on the project. I recall meeting you over
lunch and I drafted for you the possible organizational model  that could
be adopted for the project and I simply shared what .asia had done that I
was privy to during my discussions at gNSO.  I came to know and consulted
with .asia and the .LAT  group because I worked with them on gTLD PDP
 while I was appointed by ICANN to the gNSO.  May I remind that I was the
only African on that council that had been very much involved in the gTLD
subject matters.  Obviously the whole idea came to me while I
was serving on the council with my counterparts of .asia and .LAT, and I
simply asked why is .africa not yet done?.  I am not sure why everyone
has tried to 'politicize' the entire project initiation.  I simply wanted
to contribute towards Africa's ICT development during my term at ICANN. I
knew of .africa in the course of my work at ICANN, and even though the idea
for the string had existed a few years before, it seemed to be an abandoned
or orphaned project which had to be resuscitated and given a new lease of
life. This is what I consider to be DCA's most important contribution to
.Africa and not your outrageous and unsubstantiated claims about a
non-existent business plan.

I also recall making complaints about the loose African grouping that was
in place, and that not much was being discussed about African issues and we
needed a formal grouping; I simply wanted to  learn what had happened in
the past before my involvement  as well as discuss pertinent issue s to
Africa. The intent was not to criticize anybody, however, I recall being
misunderstood all the same.  Is this not why we are brought in
from the outside?

It may be very unfortunate, but my knowledge sharing and ideas  for .africa
really came from my networking with the above two groups, namely  .asia and
.lat and serving on gNSO think tank.   It could not have come from any of
you as you have never even tackled the issues except that you talked about
it and when you saw I was interested in it.  Despite Pierre’s claim of me
copying his inept proposal, I was the one to present mine in Lisbon
AfriICANN meeting and I even shared with most of you who were there on the
corridors, as Pierre came and snooped thru and said ” ha I see the
governance model you have, that was the only thing missing from ours”.
Then he blocked my presentation in the meeting as he was chairing it,
saying time has run out and he proposed his own initiative that same
evening which included a governance chart and sent a copy to me as if it
were his own.  I immediately reported this incident to the African Board of
Directors at the time via email, and I recall even writing to
NiiQuaynor stating what happened but with no response.  I again mentioned
to Nii when I saw him in Kigali for some other meeting. This is the honest
truth and I have everyone’s email I sent at the time.  This was the
incident that caused the major rift between Pierre and DCA after
that. There were many deliberate attempts made either to obstruct our
efforts or stop us from getting involved in .Africa.

As for a lunch meeting with you Calvin,  I recall you strictly saying to me
you want to contribute, but had no clue how to go about the project, or
building a business, as you have been running an NGO operation for years,
including making a statement on how you wanted to use .africa  to
run away from your current NGO setup.  I then simply put a piece of napkin
on the table and explained to you how to set up the company and governance
model to adopt, which is not far from .asia.   Not much of a genius is
required to actualize it.  I provided you with a power point of the project
description and a proposal for marketing and asked if you have any input,
 I recall with a copy to Alan in Capetown, who also was willing to support
the project.  I do have all email communications from that period.  The
fact that I innocently discussed my ideas with you and others in good
faith, should not give you any wrong ideas over a business plan which you
did not have and so could not have outlined to me.

However, if there is any kind of Business model you came up with that you
shared with me, I challenge you to post it in this email transparently,
 and  I am willing to inform you exactly where the source is, particularly
if someone has shared what I have with you.   Sending it to Rebecca
directly is not helpful as I am aware she is on your registry team as a
media consultant which is how she sent her original brief which I believe
is a  totally one sided story (despite we still hope she will write
an unbiased history for the sake of the truth and our common posterity).
  Therefore, I recall that the mutual discussion we had -  you and me - was
on organizational models, since it was too early to come up with a business
model, that is, if you know the difference between the two.

It seems that your folks including your 'brother' Pierre Dandjinou continue
to be fixated on who copied what from whom?  May I say pride goes before a
fall here and you are trying to tell your community why you failed to do it
for many years, and allowed the project to lie fallow, until what you call
in your own words a "woman" or " a diaspora" or  "a new comer" came and
took over something that you did not do for over 10 years.  Perhaps, DCA's
involvement is the wake-up call that you guys needed. Why don't you tell
that to the new CEO of ICANN who is also a Diaspora and a newcomer, and see
if your claim can fly?  or maybe he is not a "woman" yeah?!!

I must stress that I was deeply offended by your statements Calvin, and I
urge you to be really careful. I also expect you to display more integrity
than you have shown on this matter. Deliberate distortion of facts is a
very dishonorable thing to do. On a project like .africa, there is no
reason to adopt or copy any one's model since our visions and strategy are
very different. The published parts of the competing applications already
submitted to ICANN are clear proofs, so this political chicanery that you
people are engaging in of trying to distort the true history of .Africa, or
attempting to misrepresent the contributions of DCA will never
succeed.  Again, for trying too impugn my professional integrity, I have
taken the matter as something rather personal.

>From what I see up to  now, your initiative seem to be a copy stolen from
mine including everything you say and do on the media and figuring out what
to do with it next,  while the whole world is watching you shamefully.
What everyone is afraid of let me tell you is that if DCA is not there to
show you the way, .africa might as well be considered dead as when I found
it, as you have no one to copy from.  Are you also to claim to even know to
bring the Pan African institutions to the table, which you have never heard
of till I met you and mentioned I will get their support?  To your surprise
I did? Or is there anyone else to say that on this list?  Because that is
the only thing so far not claimed aside from the governance or business
model?

As DCA will continue to show in the very near future, you have no model
that will stand to thorough public scrutiny. What everyone should know is
that you  and your team have signed a 'Devil's Agreement' with the AU which
is against ICANN's guidebook principles simply to be given the opportunity
and selected as the registry operator of .Africa. In trying to betray DCA's
chances, you have simply sold your 'professional souls' and thrown
every caution and decency to the wind.  But I did not expect anything
smarter from a farm boy like you, who had no clue about policy development
or a business plan, aside from registering domain names in a machine, which
has been your expertise the whole of your life!

Finally Calvin,  while you are in the process of twisting history to suit
yourself, may I also educate you like I did on .africa that the history
of .africa. has nothing to do with getting a registry
operator contract with ICANN?  Or maybe u are trying to influence the
process to be, if anyone cares to listen?.   What you have engaged in by
trying to distort and misrepresent facts is very shameful.   I will wait
for your retractions and apologies.

As for Rebecca, DCA will send its version of the events that took place to
enable a fair and balanced history of .Africa to be written.

****
With best wishes,
*Sophia *
Support our "YES" to .africa Campaign!
www.dotconnectafrica.org
Follow us on <http://twitter.com/#%21/dot_africa>twitter<http://twitter.com/#%21/dot_africa>and
facebook<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Africa-DotAfrica/251093366219?ref=ts>
Email us at: yes2dotafrica at dotconnectafrica.org
Visit our press room <http://pressroom.prlog.org/dotconnectafrica/>
* *
*Nobody believes the official spokesman... but everybody trusts an
unidentified source. -Ron Nesen*
*
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*
*Sophia Bekele (Ms), BS, MBA, C.I.S.A, C.C.S, CGEIT, CBS International, Inc
<http://cbsegroup.com/>,Ca, USA/Afica   <http://www.cbsegroup.com/>+1
925-935-1589:US Tel; +1 925-818-4322:US Cell;   +251-91-120 1449 :ET;  +254-703
250 969  Kenya ,  skype: sbekele, Google: "sophia bekele"*
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*From:* Calvin Browne <calvin at orange-tree.alt.za>
*To:* africann at afrinic.net
*Sent:* Monday, July 2, 2012 11:25 PM
*Subject:* Re: [AfrICANN-discuss] Help with .africa history

 On 02/07/2012 16:37, Dr Yassin Mshana wrote:

Hello Africans,

 I think we are getting somewhere now.

How comes no one knows anything about <.africa> issues in the past?


It's simple - they came after this happened, or their memories are fading.


 Can we accurate please? That will be the misleading information that I had
mentioned to Rebecca.


Agreed - which is why I'm providing references (which took some time to dig
up).


 I know and remember that the issue of <.africa> did not come up and should
not have been considered by ccTLD (ccNSO) constituent since there is and
was gTLD Constituent which was responsible for that issue.


Not entirely correct.
There was a DNSO (Domain Name Support Organisation) which had several
'constituencies'. Only later did the cc's organise into a separate
Supporting Organisation (I think it was first mooted in Stockholm). So,
basically, the cc's only had a 'separate' voice later. Until the ccNSO was
formed, everything they did was channelled through the DNSO, now the GNSO.
As I mainly hung out in the cc group, it was the logical place for me to
get some opposition to what was, in my eyes, a recolonisation attempt.
I was not alone in this effort - and lots of other people, Africans and
non-Africans were involved in this opposition.


 May I suggest that we provide accurate information please? If one does not
know - just say so please - the issues was beyond your mandate. Fellow
Africans, let us be professional by giving accurate information to the
journalist please! No room for anything else but a True Story...


Well - you're welcome to believe a woman who arrived half way on the scene,
and implemented a business plan which I outlined to her in a lunch meeting
in São Paulo in 2006, and subsequently claimed the idea as her own.

Or, you could go look at the records (which admittedly takes time).

It was only when I saw clear errors which were going to put forward that I
felt the need to spend the hour or two doing research to get substantiation.

And I did outline the stuff which I've substantiated above to 'Becky.
Although I got my initial dates wrong by a year.

regards

--Calvin


 May I request this to apply in everything we communicate?  It is
impossible one to know everything....or it is?

 That is all for now on this

 Yassin (Neutral and 24/7 for Africa!!)


On 2 July 2012 12:19, Calvin Browne <calvin at orange-tree.alt.za> wrote:

On 02/07/2012 13:10, Calvin Browne wrote:

On 28/06/2012 13:24, Dandjinou Pierre wrote:

Rebecca,

Good you are writing the history of .Africa

To my knowledge, there has not been any application for the .Africa
string, apart from those we now have with the new gTLD programme.


There was an actual application in one of the previous rounds. The
applicant even paid a fee, but never came to present.

I personally helped to pen the GAC' s opposition statement to this
application. This statement was, if memory serves me right, actually
adopted by the Country Code TLD Registry Constituency, as it was then
known, largely intact.

Herewith the application list concerned:

http://archive.icann.org/en/tlds/tld-applications-lodged-02oct00.htm

regards

--Calvin


 >From

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/la2000/archive/scribe-icann-111500.html-
the cc's report was summarised (Ben Edelmann had a habit of summing up
what was actually said) as "African ICANN participants: Urge vigilance when
delegating regional TLDs, especially regions without a developed Internet
community. "

Also:

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/la2000/archive/scribe-icann-111400.html

"
C. ccTLD Constituency: Past 2 days with over 40 ccTLDs present, got
substantial and sometimes unanimous consensus on 4 items. Materials at
http://www.wwtld.org .
1. Contract for services between ccTLDs and ICANN.
2. Discussed �best practice� document. Further discussion at 10:30.
3. Object to regional geographic names for new TLDs (�.africa�).
"

Seems even the ISP constituency got on board:

"
D. ISP Constituency: Tony Harris presenting.
<SNIP>
4. New gTLDs: Aware of concerns about .africa. Advise careful and
deliberate rollout of new TLDs to cope with land rush problems. Concerned
that review may have been biased. Expenses of process should be made public.
"

I can't find the GAC's letter - they had a habit of storing it on a
separate server.

regards

--Calvin


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Freetown,SIERRA LEONE
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