[Community-Discuss] Most disastrous distraction

[Paul Hjul]

I am quite perplexed (and like Andrew am nauseated) by what is perhaps the
most disturbing distraction.

Ultimately it is quite clear that this entire exchange is not doing
anything to help with getting Afrinic back on track. So with the hope to
steer back to the crux of things. Various parties and organizations who
have the view that a functioning legitimate Afrinic is a good thing have
been taking steps to make it possible for the Company to get on track. As a
result of these steps it was reliably indicated to me that at least one
litigating party had decided to again present court sanctioned mediation as
something they were willing to engage in. Predictably as soon as the
suggestion of the opportunity to get the organization functioning in a
proper and rule driven manner was made a predictable chorus of individuals
who try to control the organization and who patently would rather see
Afrinic destroyed than not under their control piped up. This is an old and
worn tactic that brings the Company into endless trouble. Unfortunately
until enough resource members are prepared to accept that the rot at the
core of Afrinic cannot easily be papered over and every time it has been
papered over it has festered and become all the more pus filled.
The patient can longer just have a bandage wrapped over in the hope that
the sepsis will only cause sickness and not death. Sadly rather than the
ugliness emboldening individuals with responsibility within each member to
stand up and be counted it is likely to cause people to fully disengage as
part of protecting their own mental health.

Any changes to the community standards for posting on this mailing list and
any selective enforcement is only going to foment further problems for the
organization. It is a catch 22 but quite simply draconian measures won't
solve the crisis. It is more of a little bit of a stretch to associate Eddy
with the sympathies of any individual on the basis of them having
communications or having a photograph taken with that person. But a little
bit of a stretch is still within the realm of engagement. The response has
been positively vile.

Resource members don't individually have the power to remove or force the
resignation of an Afrinic employee or a director but they certainly have
the right to call for a resignation, they have the right to demand answers.
One resource member doesn't speak for all resource members (no matter how
much certain individuals who have repeatedly brought toxicity and tribalism
into the mailing lists) but as a simple matter of rhetoric when you say
"members have the right" or the like you aren't asserting that you are
speaking for all members, you are asserting that

I am pleased that Eddy has personally recognized the conflict of interest
but am wholly unsatisfied that the "governance committee" that so
profoundly steered the ship into the board vacancy crisis is going to be
making calls. Moreover the sort of powers and actions are dependent on
there being a functioning Board. Three directors (one of whom is executive,
one of whom would be chair and one would chair the audit committee) simply
cannot functionally govern and supervise a company with Afrinic's
structure, bylaws and nature.  It is quite simply necessary for

The NRO and other RIRs have implored that the community cause the
resolution of issues through non-adversarial coming together initiatives
(which mediation is an example of). Nothing in their plea suggests doing so
in violation of the bylaws of Afrinic or the relevant legal framework but
it seems that this plea is being misused by the cancerous faction of
Afrinic as license to jettisone a rules based system. Sadly I have not
heard anything further as to the court annexed mediation and it seems that
Afrinic has rejected the opportunity to do what the other RIRs are
imploring it to do.

My own conclusion, reached some time back, and due to the manner in which
Afrinic engaged with Crystal Web has been that the efforts of the NRS
provide the best counter-balance in the partisanized environment that is
Afrinic.
My personal political inclinations are against indirect election party
approaches - even when I am a member of a party it is a party advancing
individual action and I have done work for different political
organizations (usually it entails provided I think this inclination is one
found widely within what historically is the community. Ultimately however
once a party machine is in full swing only a party type counterbalance will
prevent mayhem. There are ways and means and exercises of good faith that
can reduce and dismantle the partisan mess but my reading of political
history has been that when there is a party exercising power illicitly that
not only undermines your legitimate interests but when challenged feels no
compuncture is resorting to hate speech the time to to organize politically
arises and the time to reach across the aisle requires the emergence of an
aisle first.

Tellingly despite Owen having taken a rather left field and fiercely
oppositional stance towards the NRS there has not been any ugliness towards
him from anybody other than those trying to tie him to NRS. The evidence is
that while you can choose whether to support the NRS and its objectives (or
whether to sign its petitions and not join) and while there is a slick (and
sometimes in my view daft) marketing and recruitment campaign, not joining
doesn't result in you getting clubbed about or subjected to abuse. I fear
people who depart from the rot party will find themselves receiving
accusations of being "un-African" and a raft of ethnically and racially
charged abuse gets thrust upon them. The NRS has positioned itself as a
political party it does all the stupid things political parties do and they
do those things because of how partisan structures operate at their best.
Partisanship and frankly tribalism predate the NRS by a long way and unlike
the stupid but still discourse inducing things a proper functioning party
in a democratic context does the behaviour of the rot brigade is a constant
problem.

I fear some of the foreign observers who comment occasionally take comfort
in a position of naivety and are more afraid of the toxicity at Afrinic
leading to problems in their own backyards than realizing how much damage
has already been done. I only hope that the next engagement from certain
individuals will be (to put it unkindly) less naive.

It is very clear though that the distraction is the point. In all the
ugliness the energy to do the right thing has been evaporated. I don't know
whether reforming the mailing lists will fix anything. What I do know is an
opportunity for Afrinic's three directors to break off from the faction of
rot and open dialogue with resource members more widely has now been
broken.  I feel a sense of guilt because the real venom of the last few
days was brought forward by members of the party of rot as an orchestrated
reaction to the possibility that Afrinic was considering the mediation
option. This is an emotional rather than rational guilt because I
objectively know that the misconduct and venom would happen when the
perpetrators needed to resort to the same but knowing rationally something
doesn't make me any less depressed to see just how much pus there is that
needs to be cleaned out. It may be a bit of naivety on my part, after all
the Akplogan "outburst" (if I am not mistaken those comms were on Afren so
not a location under Afrinic's now exercised moderating trend). I think
many people are past anger, and the problem is that outright apathy is the
end result. I am really hoping somebody - preferably an organized body
containing many rational members - will step up to the breach and call on
their members to speak up and get this Company off the path which it has
been steered onto. I don't see it being possible without both approaching
the courts and holding an SGMM with an election of candidates not tainted
by the previous nomcom and with a credible nominations process that doesn't
brazenly align to put candidates supported by the rot in a position to
proceed.

I'd like to believe that an ability to sit down and get a plan of action
exists but I am afraid this is wishful thinking.

Paul
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