[ppml] Policy Proposal 2003-15: IPv4 Allocation Policy for the Africa Portion of the ARIN Region

>> Why didn't the policy proposal indicate whether or not Afrinic
>> had been consulted or whether the Afrinic Board of Trustees
>> supports the proposal?

>At iWeek there were AfriNIC board members involved in the discussion 
leading 
>up to the 2003-15 proposal (and the discussions were unanimously 
supported 
>without a single person present against making the proposal).

This makes a big difference and should have been mentioned
in the discussion attached to 2003-15

>I will ask the AfriNIC board to send a letter officially supporting 
2003-15.

That would be helpful. At the ARIN meetings the person
proposing a policy change has the opportunity to make
a statement before the proposal is voted on. If this
policy is indeed supported by Afrinic and not just the
ARIN members who were at a meeting in .ZA then you 
make a stronger case for having this policy because
it is clearer that this is part of the transition to
full control by Afrinic.


>> I'm beginning to think that the best thing ARIN can
>> do to support African ISPs is to dump them and let
>> RIPE and Afrinic pick up the pieces.

>This is a completely unfair suggestion. Keep in mind that there are parts 
of 
>Africa served by ARIN and parts served by RIPE (even a few served by 
APnic). 

And soon all will be served by Afrinic. In the interim,
why not consolidate services with RIPE?

>There are a few key reasons for the close relationship with RIPE. 
>- RIPE have been kind enough to offer extensive training to the AfriNIC 
>hostmasters. 
>- It is significantly cheaper and faster to travel from Africa to Europe 
and 
>back than to North America and back. (I'm presently organising 
air-tickets to 
>attend to ARIN XII meeting and most of my options involve flying via a 
>European hub city.)
>- Time zones in Africa are similar to Europe
>- RIPE works in both French and English, a key requirement for AfriNIC

And there are a lot more Africans in Europe than in North
America so people tend to understand the African situation
better. We also have a lot of trade between Europe and 
Africa such as fruit and veg in the supermarket and holiday
packages. The politics is similar as well, i.e. the EU is 
a collection of small neighbouring nations struggling to 
find common ground unlike North America.

>It has taken many years to get the African continent to sing from the 
same 
>hymn book on this issue, and I can proudly say that we stand united.

If Afrinic will officially support this policy then
I would vote for it. But if .ZA ISPs could get RIPE
to service them sooner rather than later, I would be
happy to see these issues move away from ARIN's 
direct attention.

--Michael Dillon