[members-discuss] NRO letter to Mauritian Government

Hi everybody,

So, after clearing up my position against Lu Heng (assuming that messages makes it through the moderation queue before this one), I’d like to focus again on what I was actually trying to say.

I wrote my previous message while very angry, and my wording has caused some confusion and offence. My apologies. I therefore like to clarify some things:

First of all, I have no opinion on whether AFRINIC should be regarded as an international organisation by the Mauritian government or not. I don’t even know what that means. I have however checked the AGM and board meeting minutes, and there is no mention of requesting a special status anywhere. So it’s at the least very weird that other RIRs sent a letter to the Mauritian government pushing for it. But ok, that is not what upset me.

The first thing that upset me was the mention "that if granted, it might lead to more appropriate outcomes” in the context of the lawsuits going on at the moment. Who are we (the RIRs are speaking on the member’s behalf after all) to decide what is “appropriate” here? I spoke to a CEO of one of the RIRs after sending this email, and they told me that they meant that it shouldn’t be possible to have ex-parte rulings against AFRINIC, like what happened last year where AFRINIC’s bank accounts were frozen for months. I fully agree that that was bad and unfair. But if that is all that concerns the RIRs, then that is not clear from their letter. The contents and tone of the letter are quite different.

And in my view the tone gets even worse when talking about whether Mauritius and the Mauritian legal system (I have heard it called “too French, not English enough” in private, but I won’t attribute that) would be the wrong place for AFRINIC. This attitude, coming from non African organisations, triggered all the anti-colonialist nerves in my body. Hence my strong wording.

And the last sentence of my message, asking how they “dared” to do this, was certainly written in anger, and I should never have worded it like that. My apologies for that. I hope providing this extra context aids in asking for forgiveness for that.

Cheers,
Sander