[Community-Discuss] Joint statement on the current AFRINIC situation from the African Regional RENs

[Ronald F. Guilmette]

In message <PA4PR09MB47516ED2882A0ADF63101E2896F09 at PA4PR09MB4751.eurprd09.prod.
outlook.com>, AMADU YUSIF <yamadu at ug.edu.gh> wrote:


>Well, done REN. This is what we expect from likeminded community in support

>of AFRINIC no matter what the situation is. We are Africans and must protect

>what is ours not transferring your resources to different region/Network.

>We must fight together and together we shall win.


I'm sorry to say it, but I don't believe that Africans know how to fight
or win this battle.

You are not really looking at what the other side is doing or how it is
doing it, so you are not learning from their example.

Several Internet organizations on the continent have come out with statements
of support for AFRINIC on their web sites, including this REN organization.
Yawn.  So what?  Hardly anybody reads these statements of support.

On the other side, they are doing a professional job of public relations
where in counts... in the press in Mauritius, where the judges are sitting.
Have any of those judges or anyone in the entire government of Mauitius
read a single word about these matters, other than Owen DeLong's point
of view?  No, apparently not.

All you who say that you are supporting AFRINIC are like naive sleepwalking
children.  If you would concentrate your efforts where it matters, in the
Mauritian press and with the Mauritian government, then you might have
some hope of keeping your own Regional Internet Registry in African,
but since no one is doing that, there is no hope of AFRINIC surviving,
and thus, this experiment is African Internet sovereignty will end, and
once you lose it, you'll never get it back.  Ever.  Because no one will
ever again trust the African Internet community to manage its own affairs
without assistance from outside.



Regards,
rfg