Hi all,

Just received this. Apparently she has formally been propagating lies about being on the ICANN board etc.... and even put up counterfiet letters on her website - this verges on criminal! What is her interest?

Brian

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Brian,

here is some info for you.. she constructed this whole thing on lies. you can judge for yourself. I did not want to spam all but I sent this to a few key people.  check this:

- there is no African Union Authority!!!! do you really believe that the Chairman of the AU Commission will have claimed to write on behalf of a non existent authority and give her a letter in that sense? so maybe she should explain to people why she has a 'weird' letter on her website. Check her website and you will see.

- here is an email that tells you how she lies! she actually took me to the ombudsman at ICANN in 2007, complaining that I was preventing her from doing dot africa, copied the whole board at the time --- all her claims were immediately dismissed when I sent the letters and emails to the ombudsman, of the same caliber as the below that she had been sending to regional organisations and bodies. My fault was to have written to all organisations, as the Regional Liaison, to dismiss her claims of ICANN endorsement of dot africa and her being on the board.

- she keeps saying ICANN is endorsing dot africa! how can ICANN endorse a TLD?? how can ICANN be judge and party???? she is supposed to have been at the GNSO council and ICANN and understand what she is talking about!!!! she has been in the ICANN process for the past 5 years and still has no idea how all this functions.

I let you judge. The woman does not have her wits together I think.

Cheers

Sophia Bekele <sophiabekele@yahoo.com> 30/08/2006 01:48 PM

Subject Re:

Hello <name removed>,
 
I hope your vacation is going well.  As per discussion, I thought I would convey someof what is on my plate that may be of mutual interest.
 
Presently, other than my private projects/business interests, I also serve on the board of ICANN, the international internet governance organization.  At this stage, I have outlined few projects in addition to an initiative that could quickly put under incubation.  Any or all of these could serve as a basis for mutual collaboration.
 
Generally speaking the projects span ICT, public sector governance, regional integration, internet governance etc..
 
The priority project I mentioned to UN Undersecretary General was that of dot.africa (.Africa) which he expressed great interest.  Thus, there will be a need to synergize and align strategies of possible project collaboration. 
 
Dot.Africa is an initiative supported by ICANN,  that aims at unifying and consolidating the African Information Society and presence within the Internet as distinct from other Continental communities.  As such, there now exists dot.EU (.EU),  dot.Asia.(.ASIA) and dot.LatinAmerica (.LA) as similar ongoing initiatives.  The present paradigm is to halt Africans marginalization in this age of globalization.  This is actually one of the goals of NEPAD, which of course is an initiative that is already endorsed b the UN.  There are no prices for guessing what would happen if dot.Africa is not also initiated and implemented at the same time that other Continental  communities on the net have been put in place.
 
To get this of the ground, it appears from the experiences of the others, a minimum of 13 countries in Africawould have to come on board.  The endorsement for UNECA would of course be helpful.   This initiative would require a proposal to be distributed to the potential participating countries.  UNECA’s help would be crucial in communicating who might wish to participate.  Countries that have already have ongoing National policies that relate ICT as a strategic tool for National development would be the primary candidates.   Being something that would turn into a Continental initiative, it is rewarding at best for the UNECA to play an active role in this initial stage.
 
As an African representative on ICANN board, I have taken the initiative to coordinate and see the successful implementation of the project.  I believe therefore, we should have a meeting to progress this further.  I suggest we meet ASAP to get this moving, as time is of essence to the extent that the application for the domain name must be submitted before January 2007.
 
However due to our travel schedules, we should arrange a teleconference meeting that is mutually convenient for all within the next two weeks.

Regards,
Sophia