[Community-Discuss] Ongoing thefts of AFRINIC Legacy Resources -- Ongoing collusion?

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <CA+kM3Ap95KwPGUBYBusF5Vj-+q7QK=ujOTgoXHTzZA-4_Pu7yQ at mail.gmail.com>
Antone Bahu <blackboythinking at gmail.com> wrote:


>Also, I think it is reasonable for the board and staff to stand up to

>Ronald on the subject he raised.


Thank you for this note of support.  I want to make sure that everyone is
crystal clear however.  I have not raised just one issue/subject.  I have,
raised, as you have seen, and entire raft of questions that the AFRINIC
board and staff have been utterly avoiding answering for an entire 8.5
months now.

Each and every one of these questions contains within it very troubling
implications.  I have waited 8.5 month already, just as have the dues-
paying members and the AFRINIC community, and not a single answer has
been forthcoming from the Board, from magement, or from staff.  Now,
today, I see some people assuring me that if we all just wait a little
longer...

We have a word for this kind of obfsucation and permanent, ceaseless, and
never-ending deflection where I come from, but because Mike Silber has just
reminded us all to keep a civil tongue I shall not utter it here.  I hope
and trust however that everyone will understand what word I am thinking of.
(A substitute term that is sometimes used in polite company is "bovine
excrement".)

I must ask the obvious additional questions:

   (*)  Does time run more slowly on the African continent?  Why should
        the status quo, and Mr. Cohen's illegal thefts and illicit profits
        still be going on, even after they were publicly reported on 8.5
        months ago?  Is this evidence of speedy professional remediation of
        the issue by AFRINIC management and staff?  Or is it rather clear
        evidence of gross and unforgivable incompetence and world-class
        foot dragging?

        I and Jan Vermeulen labored tirelessly, for many months, to carefully
        and meticulously resarch and document all of the problematic blocks.
        All that was left was for AFRINIC management and staff to un-do
        the illicit changes that had been made to the relevant person:
        WHOIS records.  But it seems that they could not even manage to do
        such a simple thing as that, even given a full 8.5 months!

        Why not?  Was the entire AFRINC staff on vacation this whole time?
        Or was the whole staff just having one nice long siesta?

        Was the progress of the AFRINIC staff on this critical project
        delayed or impacted due to the kinds of massive pandemic-related
        staff layoffs that have afflicted so many other companies, all
        around the world, that are answerable and accountable to their
        shareholders?  If so, how many AFRINIC staff positions were
        eliminated since the beginning of the pandemic and how did that
        impact this simple task of remediation?

        Have any AFRINIC staff positions at all been eliminated since the
        start of the pandemic?  (If not, then I guess staff jobs at AFRINIC
        must be very desirable, since they are clearly pandemic-proof.)

   (*)  What new developments am I, and the dues-payying members, and the
        AFRINIC community being asked, still, to wait for?  What will
        be different, tomorrow, or in another week, or in another month,
        or in the year 2029 that will finally allow all of the questions
        I have raised to be answered?  What are we waiting for, exactly?

        I refer again to the terminology used above: bovine excrement.
        Nothing has changed, apparently, over 8.5 months, and there is no
        reason to even hope that anything is going to change that will
        cause the AFRINIC Board or management to suddenly become
        forthcoming, where they have not been willing to be so in the
        past. So what is the hold up?  What is the delay?  Why can't we
        all have answers to these quite reasonable questions now?  Who
        and what is being protected by the Board and management hiding all
        of the facts, even from the members, whose money keeps AFRINIC
        alive and who are also, by implication, being sued by Mr. Cohen?

   (*)  Where I come from in any legal case the accused has two fundamental
        rights:  (a) The right to know what the charges against him are 
        and (b) the right to face his accusers.
 
        In the present context, Mr. Cohen is accusing the whole of the
        membership-based organization that we call AFRINIC of some as yet
        unknown kind of wrongdoing.  Fine.  What is the wrong that AFRINIC
        is being accused of, exactly?  Is it slander?  Is it stealing
        valuable property from him?  Did some AFRINIC staff member run over
        Mr. Cohen's dog?  Did they urinate into his luxurious Tel Aviv
        swimming pool?

        I say again, the whole of AFRINIC stands accused in the dock, and yet
        the members are not even allowed, apparently, to know even the very
        nature of the charges against them!  This is a clear violation of
        law in every civilized country on earth, it violates SEVERAL United
        Nations Conventions on basic human rights, and more to the point, it
        is self-evidently grossly unfair.

        So, who is it, exactly, that is putting forth this obviously bogus
        contention that the accused in this case, i.e. the whole of the
        AFRINIC membership, is not even allowed to read the charges against
        them?  Whoever is putting forward this ridiculous claim needs to
        anwser the obvious follow up question:  Just exactly how corrupt is
        the judicial system in Mauritius that it does not even allow the
        accused to know the charges against him?

This entire matter has caused more reputational damage, and has been handled
with more associated secrecy and skullduggery than the biggest oil spill
off the coast of Mauritius.  And unlike the oil spill, in this case, the
criminally sinister effects are just being ignored, or swept under the
carpet, where they will seep into the groundwater and make all of AFRINIC
toxic for generations to come.

Regards,
rfg