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

[Alan Levin]

On Sunday, Sep 28, 2003, at 13:22 Africa/Johannesburg, Bill Woodcock 
wrote:

>       On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 jlewis at lewis.org wrote:
>> Why does a NIC need offices in 4 countries?
>
> There are a variety of reasons, of which possibly none will satisfy 
> you as
> an engineer.  However, this isn't an engineering problem, this is a
> business and political problem.
>
> First: language.  Afrinic will have to operate in more languages than 
> the
> other RIRs.  Note that LACNIC operages a good low-overhead operation 
> out
> of two offices, in three languages.
>
> Second: politics.  How many more years do you want to wait, before you
> allow a compromise like this one to get things moving?  You were the 
> one
> complaining that it was taking too long to get going.  If there were an
> office in every gcountry in Africa, it could have been started
> immediately.  This seems a reasonable compromise.


These are the most important reasons but if I may add:

Third: National legislation and forex policy: The finances will be run 
from a tax-free location which is ideal for moving currency and saving 
taxes that could favour any specific African country (ideally from the 
same office that runs Africa's other infrastructure organisations incl. 
Aftld and AfrISPA).

Having served on the board of a US organisation I realise that these 
are not 'normal' US centric things for you to relate to but hopefully 
even an engineer can imagine how this can actually lead to cost savings 
and efficiencies for the community it serves.



---------------------------------------------
Alan Levin