[members-discuss] FW: RIPE NCC Executive Board election

I believe the below message (posted to the NANOG list) and news article linked therein is of concern to RIPE members, especially those that are voting.


-- 
Regards,
   Terrence Koeman, PhD/MTh/BPsy
     Darkness Reigns (Holding) B.V.

Please quote relevant replies.
Spelling errors courtesy of my 'smart'phone.
________________________________
From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg at tristatelogic.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 13 May 2020 11:51
To: nanog at nanog.org
Subject: RIPE NCC Executive Board election

> Many of you here may be dues-paying members of both ARIN and RIPE. 
>
> Those of you who are may wish to be aware of the fact that there will 
> be an election held on (I believe) May 14th, just a day or two from 
> now, for three open RIPE NCC Executive Board seats. 
>
> I have it on good authority that one of the candidates running for 
> the open RIPE NCC board seats in this election has hired legal 
> counsel in South Africa, and that said legal counsel has then 
> proceeded to threaten various officials of the City of Cape Town, 
> South Africa with possible legal action if they do not relinquish 
> to him their rights in and title to the 165.25.0.0/16 block, a 
> block that all historical records, including even ARIN "WhoWas" 
> historical records show, clearly and unambiguously, has been 
> legally registered to the City of Cape Town for over twenty years. 
> (I am assured that at no time did the City of Cape Town ever sell, 
> trade, or barter away their rights to this valuable IPv4 block, 
> and that they are defending themselves, as best as they can, against 
> this attempt to extort them out of their rightful prooperty.) 
>
> Where I come from, this kind of thing is called barratry, but you 
> be the judge. 
>
> In any case, prior to the RIPE election, I wanted to let you all 
> know these facts about the candidate in question, as well as a 
> number of additional startling facts relating to the people who 
> nominated this candidate for a RIPE NCC Executive board seat, as 
> documented by my friend, South African journalist Jan Vermeulen: 
>
> https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/350973-man-connected-to-african-ip-address-heist-running-for-board-position-at-european-ip-address-organisation.html 
>
> I could go into more detail about many of the nominators mentioned 
> in the above article, but I don't want to make this email too long, 
> so I'll await some explict request for that additional info.  For now 
> it should suffice to make at least some of the basic facts more widely 
> available, a task which is accomplished just by sharing the above link, 
> IMHO. 
>
>
> Regards, 
> rfg 
>
>
> P.S.  I have been specifically and explicitly enjoined and constrained 
> from posting here anything at all that might smack of being either 
> partisan or of an even vaguely "political" nature, and thus, I will 
> refrain from doing so.  I would be remiss hoever if I did not at least 
> note in passing that history records that in times such as these, when 
> people of good character and good intent are, as they rightly should be, 
> focused on the health and safety of themselves, their loved ones, and 
> their professional collegues, and when the gaze of the world is elsewhere, 
> persons of less than honorable intent reach for power and, with unfortunate 
> regularity, obtain it. 
>
> I cannot and do not ask that those of you who have been saddled with 
> personal or local crises during this sad time turn away from those 
> responsibilities to give attention to matters of Internet governance, 
> however urgent those may appear at the moment.  For all of us, our first- 
> order duty lies nearby, with family, friends, and collegues.  But for 
> those of you who still have a few cycles to spare, I do ask that you 
> consider carefully the newfound and critical importance of this tool, 
> this Internet, in the lives of so many millions, all around the world, 
> and the self-evident risks of its governance being handed over, by default 
> or otherwise, to persons with an interest only in what is best for them 
> personally, to the exclusion of all else. 
>
> P.P.S.  I would be posting this info and the above link also to the 
> very relevant RIPE members-discuss mailing list, but as I am not a 
> due-paying member of RIPE, I have no ability to do so.  Separately, 
> due in no small part to the candidate's own recent and manifest on-list 
> transgressions on that very list, that list has recently been switched 
> to a heavy-handed moderation, under which, it seems, even discussion of 
> the pros and cons of candidates in the upcoming RIPE NCC Executive Board 
> election are now categorized as "too controversial" and thus, themselves, 
> are now entirely off-limits. 
>
> I cannot help but be reminded of a catch-phrase that I saw somewhere, 
> not too long ago: 
>
>                  "Democracy dies in darkness." 
>                                   -- anon 
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