[Community-Discuss] Lu Heng + Larus and the Number Resource Society

[ALAIN AINA]

Hi,

> On 26 Sep 2021, at 15:03, Sander Steffann <sander at steffann.nl> wrote:
> 
> Hi Omo,
> 
>> Thanks.  I was trying to understand the dialogue between you and Lu and the "clarification".  How do you mean "may be of influence"?   
> 
> At AFRINIC meetings I have seen many cases where there was a lot of "steering" (people being sent to the microphones with pre-defined statements they didn't write themselves, but where it was pretended that it was their own opinion) which I have never seen at other RIRs.

Never seen people at the mic reading or building ideas from written notes?  
Let not generalise.

These issues have been discussed deeply and the archives can tell.  

You only see it happen at meetings? don’t you follow the discussions on Mailing lists?   Seen the eco chamber phenomena ?  

People should be allowed to express themselve, but accept the rules  and roles separation. 

Problems occurred :

 ⁃ when the consensus approach turns into numbers' game and people deliberately gaming and slowing down the system and refuse to adhere to the rules and principles.
 ⁃ When people promote voting against consensus and merit 
 ⁃ When community no longer shares common goals, with some challenging mission and mandate of AFRINiC
 ⁃ Etc…


> AFRINIC seems to be unique in the way there are plays for power and influence that are undermining the true bottom-up way, and people seem to accept this as normal.

The above statement is very surprising to me as this community has spent lot of energy and time discussing, opposing and calling out the authors of these behaviours. Some of these are outsiders with personal hidden agendas. 


>  In other regions there is much less hierarchy (we have no CoE for example) and everybody is treated more equally.


Why should all regions behave or follow the same structure?  Are we not Regional Registry which should accommodate local realities and practices?  
In AFRICA, we observe respect and consideration for elders as we value their experience and knowledge 

Can you show how people are treated differently and how the "hierarchy" is problematic?  

Can you point out your grievance with the CoE as defined  per the section 16 of the bylaws ?  

> 
> The "power games" I have seen in AFRINIC at all levels (board, management, RPD, community) and the distrust between for example Anglophone and Francophone parts of the community make it very hard to run a true bottom-up system.

Once again, can you prove your statements above? where is the distrust between "anglophone" and "francophone"  
Where are these sub-set ( anglophone and francophone)defined if not only in the imagination of those gaming and manipulating the system.

Don’t you have linguistic diversity in RIPE Region ?


> Such behaviour in AFRINIC and its community make it very vulnerable to top-down influences, because the framework for such influences is already there.

There is no top-down influences. The system is victim of external influences disguised in many forms fed by Jalousies and conflict of Interest, abusing  the community-driven and bottom-up.

While i do accept your disclaimer below, i would have expected an outsider like you, to hold some reserve, stick to the real facts, not make judgments and stand to be educated.  


—Alain
> 
> Cheers,
> Sander
> 
> PS: I am only part of the global internet community, not directly of the AFRINIC community. I can therefore only state how I see things from the outside. I am sure there are many things I interpret differently because of my different background. Please do not take offence, I only try to hold up a mirror. I have no personal, commercial or financial stake in AFRINIC, but I do care about the bottom-up principle and fairness. Those are the only reasons I speak up on AFRINIC mailing lists.
> 
> 
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