<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">fabio vicentini</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:fmvicent@gmail.com">fmvicent@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Wed, May 29, 2013 at 6:16 AM<br>Subject: The corruption series (16)<br>To: "<a href="mailto:presidencia@conicet.gov.ar">presidencia@conicet.gov.ar</a>" <<a href="mailto:presidencia@conicet.gov.ar">presidencia@conicet.gov.ar</a>>, <a href="mailto:FulbrightNEXUS@iie.org">FulbrightNEXUS@iie.org</a>, <a href="mailto:info@fundacionsadosky.org.ar">info@fundacionsadosky.org.ar</a>, <a href="mailto:info@mincyt.gob.ar">info@mincyt.gob.ar</a>, <a href="mailto:prensa@mincyt.gov.ar">prensa@mincyt.gov.ar</a><br>
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<p><span lang="EN-US">Canto
sedicesimo: <span><span>Throwing
a bottle in</span> the ocean</span></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span>Siendo evidente que ningun profesor decente de la FCEN se
atreverá a hacer un <span> </span>comentario sobre las
denuncias de la corrupcion de Exactas por miedo a que la mafia lo convierta en cadaver
académico estoy enviando un mensaje
a una lista de aprox 80 colegas de mi especialidad y a algunos editores de
revistas de Operations Research.</p>
<p>------------------------</p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Buenos
Aires, May 29 , 2013</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> To OR
colleagues</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Subject: Publish-or-Perish</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Dear Madam/Sir:</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> "Camelo"
is an Argentine slang term difficult to translate. It is an umbrella word
covering different meanings of deception like pretense, fake, and bullshit.
"Camelero" means a bullshit artist. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> In 1995 I
reentered my alma mater as a professor, and found that "professor"
did not mean a teacher anymore, now he had a new enhanced name: docente-investigador
(teacher-researcher). This stresses the fact that he endeavours himself
to discover <span></span>profound truths about
the universe which is more important than the menial task of teaching. Let me
emphasize the point, the plain teacher does not belong to my school, his place
is in a lower echelon institution named "tertiary". In my school the teacher-researcher
actually means that he writes papers to peer-reviewed journals.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> I am an
Operations Research practitioner, working right now in a research project on
the paper-making operations at FCEN/UBA the most prestigious School of Sciences
in Argentina.
Let me explain to you what is the subject of my inquiry.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> When I was
a student circa 1960 my instructor was a teacher who might write a book if he
pleased. Also he will publish a paper if he had a novelty to communicate to his
fellow academics, but nowadays the teacher-researcher is under the coercion of
writing papers lest he losses his job, and it is crystal clear, without much
pondering, that he is publishing <i>bullshit</i>.
</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Now, here
is my open question: When did our instructor <span>changed
into a </span><i>camelero</i>? When did he
transmute from teacher to bullshitter? Was it a gradual change or a
discontinuity jump? What caused this reversal from Jekyll to Hyde?</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> These
questions struck me when a colleague of mine noticed an exponential growth of papers
just about the time when we suffered Carlos Menem’s administration the most
corrupt we ever had in Argentina (now we are having a better one). Carlos
exhibited an anxious desire to fulfill all the directions posed to him by his
master: the USA.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> I think I
could display the phenomenon by plotting the number of papers as a function of
time in a S-shaped curve having an inflexion point in the nineties when the
World Bank bureaucrats dreamed up a plan for higher education in Latin America
and the Caribbean. I wonder whether a similar
curve can be drawn in your home country.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> I will
appreciate your comments. Even a simple yes/no response to the query: <i>Are
you publishing rubbish because of fear of losing your job?</i> I
cannot go around asking that to my own colleagues<span>. They are
compromised to our corrupt system, omertà keeps their mouths shut, they know
they are involved in sham </span>research,<span> but they cannot
question the system for Big Brother may turn the rebelious into an academic
cadaver.</span></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><span lang="EN-US"> </span>Sincerely,</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Fabio
Vicentini, PhD</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">OR
consultant</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
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<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
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