[Community-Discuss] [members-discuss] AFRINIC Board Statement, 5th June 2016

Thu Jun 9 07:15:48 UTC 2016

Adiel,

I live in South Africa, where were are well aware of racism and racist 
issues. Sadly, there have been a few instances such as your email lately 
which have resulted the offenders being fired from their jobs (even when 
comments were in their personal capacity) and just generally hauled over the 
coals by the public in general and would not be able to participate in 
organisations moving forward.

What concerns me about your apology is that you are apologising for sending 
the email to the list and not for your racist thoughts. If you have an issue 
about demographics on the board, the minority (by far) are white, only two, 
the CEO and one community elected member (not white elected or black 
elected, community elected).  What about focusing our energies on positive 
things gender equality?

You're entitled to have your own personal concerns about the board, their 
actions, perceived issues and your stated incorrect facts for which people 
have been cleared. But to make this a race issue, public list or private 
thoughts is not acceptable!

Saul

-----Original Message-----
From: Adiel Akplogan (akp.com) [mailto:adiel at akplogan.com]
Sent: 08 June 2016 07:05 PM
To: Sunday Folayan <sfolayan at skannet.com.ng>
Cc: community-discuss at afrinic.net; AfriNIC Discuss 
<members-discuss at afrinic.net>
Subject: Re: [Community-Discuss] [members-discuss] AFRINIC Board Statement, 
5th June 2016

Dear all,

For those of you who are wondering, the e-mail mentioned in this statement 
was a personal e-mail from me. To close the loop here, I think it is in 
order for me to also share with you the apologies note (below) I have sent 
to the AFREN mailing list were my original e-mail was accidentally posted. I’m 
deeply sorry for the trouble that this may have caused.

Thank you.

Adiel Akplogan (Associate member in my personal capacity).

>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> From: "Adiel Akplogan (akp.com)" <adiel at akplogan.com>
>> Subject: Apologies - [Was: Re: [afren] [rpd] Board Composition]
>> Date: June 5, 2016 at 22:50:15 GMT-4
>> To: AFREN <afren at afnog.org>
>>
>> Dear listers and friends,
>>
>> I’m sorry that my private e-mail below ends up accidentally on this 
>> mailing list. I would like to apologize to my many friends and colleagues 
>> globally who have supported and worked with me over the past 20+ years 
>> and who may have felt targeted by its content. I truly value your support 
>> and friendship irrelevant of your origin and I hope you will not see in 
>> this private message anything malicious. Contrary to what was reported I 
>> did not accused Mike Silber particularly in my e-mail. He is someone I 
>> know well and hold a lot of respect for.
>>
>> Even though I do not deny my frustration, I should have exercised a bit 
>> more control and not allow it to burst publicly.
>>
>> I hope that all of you who really know me and have worked with me know 
>> that there was no ill intention behind that mail.
>>
>> Kind regards.
>>
>> - a.
>>> On May 3, 2016, at 13:16, Adiel Akplogan (akp.com) <adiel at akplogan.com> 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Boubakar and all, this has always been serious and the plan has 
>>> started very long ago and has deeper ramifications than just what we are 
>>> seeing here. It is in fact not about a particular company trying to take 
>>> over but a clear racial fight for the white to take over. They have 
>>> always claim that we Black cannot run an organization like AFRINIC (too 
>>> complex for our small bird brain … that was said on my face in 2005 by 
>>> some of the people pulling the strings behind … they are far beyond just 
>>> this guy undercover of “friendship"). Some of us have witnessed that 
>>> fight at the early days of AFRINIC. I have leaved through that during my 
>>> 10 years as CEO both in Africa and globally. But the reality is that our 
>>> own people let this kind of thing perpetuate … sadly though no one else 
>>> will fight that fight for us.
>>>
>>> This is the same guy that was accused by Board members last year of
>>> manipulating his own election (by making companies in ZA pay for
>>> people to come and vote for him), the same guy who said in writing
>>> that Gaberonne is across the South African border and he plan to
>>> bring as many South African as Possible to vote for Mike (he said
>>> that back in October 2015 … Some in this group have seen the
>>> transcript of such conversation). The same guy who vouch to push me
>>> out of AFRINIC because I prevented him to run his IPv4 consultancy
>>> firm for Academia (by being strict on community policy
>>> interpretation) … The same guy is writing to private lists
>>> campaigning for his friends and making judgement about the community
>>> capability today …
>>>
>>> But well the same guys will end up telling us that there is nothing
>>> dramatic about all of this and that it is normal course of democracy
>>> and we should move on .. and it will be a new start. We are in this
>>> since several centuries … :-/ when will it stop? I had to step back
>>> because at some point this was about to touch on my life … when it
>>> reaches such level and you turn back and you see no one behind you
>>> (beside the usual suspects… who’s voices are interpreted as
>>> rhetoric) it get very scary. A very sad day for me …
>>>
>>> - a.
>>>
>>>
>>>> This is a _clear_ plan of a single company trying to hijack
>>>> AfriNIC. <snip> B.
>>>>
>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>> From: Noah <noah at neo.co.tz>
>>>> Date: Tue, May 3, 2016 at 4:25 PM
>>>> Subject: Re: [rpd] Board Composition
>>>> To: Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com>
>>>> Cc: rpd List <rpd at afrinic.net>
>>>>
>>>> +1 Delong...
>>>>
>>>> On 3 May 2016 18:50, "Owen DeLong" <owen at delong.com> wrote:
>>>> It has come to my attention that Mike Silber is running for the 
>>>> independent seat that is opening on the AfriNIC board in the next 
>>>> election.
>>>>
>>>> While I consider Mike to be an excellent candidate and believe he would 
>>>> be a true asset to the AfriNIC board, I have a concern that I must 
>>>> express. This concern has nothing to do with Mike himself, but rather 
>>>> is a concern about organizational structure.
>>>>
>>>> There are only 8 elected members of the AfriNIC board. If Mike Silber 
>>>> is elected, then 25% of the elected board seats would be held by 
>>>> employees of Liquid Telecom. Personally, I do not feel that the board 
>>>> can properly represent the diversity of the AfriNIC community if we 
>>>> allow multiple board seats to be held by representatives from the same 
>>>> organization. While I do not believe that Liquid has any sort of goal 
>>>> of organizational capture or any nefarious intent whatsoever, the 
>>>> reality is that if this is allowed, then it does create the possibility 
>>>> for some other organization to achieve a form of organizational 
>>>> capture.
>>>>
>>>> The board has tremendous authority and responsibility within the 
>>>> AfriNIC organization. As such, I think it is important to consider 
>>>> these generic structural issues seriously, no matter how much we may 
>>>> like and admire the candidates in question.
>>>>
>>>> Again, this is not personal. If it were, I’d be endorsing Mike rather 
>>>> than calling his candidacy into question. However, from a structural 
>>>> perspective, I think it is important that the community at least 
>>>> consider the issue.
>>>>
>>>> Owen
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> RPD at afrinic.net
>>>> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/rpd
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> RPD mailing list
>>>> RPD at afrinic.net
>>>> https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/rpd
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> afren mailing list
>>> afren at afnog.org
>>> https://www.afnog.org/mailman/listinfo/afren
>
> On Jun 6, 2016, at 04:14, sfolayan at skannet.com wrote:
>
> Dear Community,
>
> Our attention has been drawn to some email message containing allegations 
> of racism within the AFRINIC Community and subsequent press coverage.
>
> The AFRINIC Board has zero tolerance for racism and this is clearly
> reflected in the Code of Conduct available at
> http://afrinic.net/en/community/code-of-conduct
>
> Community members are asked to be mindful of this, in their interactions 
> either in person or online.
>
> Best regards ...
>
> Sunday Folayan
> Chair, AFRINIC Board
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Members-Discuss at afrinic.net
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