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

[Owen DeLong]

Alan,
	I take some offense to your statement.  I am not opposed to smaller
IP block allocations.  I am not opposed to economic empowerment in Africa.
I am not in favor of the apartheid regime or system.

	I do think that this policy is needed, but, I think it is needed
globally.  I also think that it is a political reality that if this policy
is created as an exception for a portion of Africa, that will be used as
an excuse by large(r) providers in North America to claim that it isn't
needed in North America.  Given the historical dominance of large(r)
North American providers in ARIN politics, I do not believe this problem
will get solved for all of ARIN if an exception is granted.

	This isn't about dragging anyone down.  It's not about racism.
It's certainly not a desire to victimize Africa.  It's about making a policy
which is needed throughout the ARIN region available throughout the
ARIN region instead of for some small sub-region within the ARIN region.

Owen


--On Thursday, September 25, 2003 8:17 PM +0200 Alan Levin 
<alan at futureperfect.co.za> wrote:

> On Thursday, Sep 25, 2003, at 09:50 Africa/Johannesburg, Johann Botha
> wrote:
>> Hi Owen
>> > @2003.09.25_03:53:39_+0200
>>> However, there are non-African ramifications to ARIN adopting 2003-15
>>> which
>>> I believe override the desire to provide this solution for Africa.  I
>>> believe 2003-15 represents a good policy with one flaw.  It is Africa
>>> specific.  As long as it is Africa specific, I will vote against it.
>>> If
>>> 2003-15 is amended to cover all of ARIN, I will vote for it.  I will
>>> vote
>>> for 2002-3.
>>
>> this reminds me of the story of a guy with an open basket full of
>> crayfish.
>> somebody asked him if he wasn't worried that the crayfish would
>> escape..
>> no, he replied, as soon as one makes it to the top, the others will
>> drag him
>> back down.
>
> This story reminds me of how I was indoctrinated to think by the
> apartheid regime.
>
> South Africans are fortunate to be in the position to understand how
> economic empowerment balances the playing field (as an attempt to bridge
> the digital divide) in the development of information society and the
> (hopefully global) knowledge economy.
>
> warm regards,
>
> Alan
>