<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: Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 4:40 AM<br>Subject: The Argentine chapter of the academic show (Third letter)<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>
<br><br><div dir="ltr">
<p style="text-align:right" align="right"><span lang="EN-US">Buenos Aires, June 17, 2012</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Dear
Colleague:</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Subject: Raising
funds </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> It is clear
that the garbage collector does an useful work, but as we ascend the social
pyramid it is not clear the usefulness of minds sailing through the strastopheric
altitude like academics studying mathematical structures. Common people <span style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white">view those wearing the academic gown with
respect and admiration, they will certainly not imagine such a remarkable
personality stealing funds from</span> ANPCYT, the government agency to promote
scientific research. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> I read the
article "La red mafiosa en la ciencia y la universidad argentina" listing
250 academics who were in charge of granting funds and, at the same time,
receiving the money. “Mafia" in the heading suggests that they are wise
guys stealing funds by invoking<span> </span>Minerva,</span><span><span style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;font-size:8pt;font-family:Arial" lang="EN-US"> </span></span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_mythology" title="Roman mythology" target="_blank"><span style="color:rgb(11,0,128);background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;text-decoration:none" lang="EN-US">Roman goddess</span></a><span><span style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-US"> </span></span><span style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-US">of wisdom</span><span lang="EN-US">. <span> </span></span><a href="http://quebec.indymedia.org/es/node/26184" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US">http://quebec.indymedia.org/es/node/26184</span></a><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><span> </span>At that
time I was living on a miserable pension, and when I read this<b><i> </i></b><span>piece of mind</span>
I got sick - I decided to endeavor myself to investigate the academic mafia.
Here is a couple of hints :</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> 1) The
Computer Science dept at FCEyN/UBA concocted "<span>UBASoft"
a project they promised will obtain software for all the present, future and
fancied areas of Computer Science like </span><span style>Cryptography,
Combinatorial Optimization, Software Engineering, Paralell Computation, Image
Processing, Computation Biology and Data Mining.</span> They were awarded
100,000 dollars to develop this high-sounding <span>pretension</span> that
never produced a thing for any of the aforementioned areas. I denounced the
project to the dean of the school, but he disclaimed the charge. There is honor
among thieves.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> 2) ANPCYT called
for projects in need of funds to retool equipments in research labs (PME 2006).
All the departments of my school discovered right away the peremptory need for
modernizing their equipments, so they asked for grants, specifically</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><table style="width:131pt;margin-left:2.9pt;border-collapse:collapse" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="218"><tbody><tr style="min-height:13.2pt"><td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
department<br></td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">award</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">quimica
bio</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">2790000</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">quimica
bio</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">896578</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">geologia</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">2969526</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">geologia</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">299900</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">geologia</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">200992</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">geologia</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">1200</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">fisica</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">1509000</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">fisica</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">800200</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">fisio y
bio</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">2309000</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">ecologia</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">1382278</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">ecologia</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">267000</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">ecologia</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">198931</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">biodiversidad</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">1047171</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">matematica</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">627360</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="min-height:13.2pt">
<td style="width:76pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="127">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">industrias</span></p>
</td>
<td style="width:55pt;padding:0cm 3.5pt;min-height:13.2pt" nowrap valign="bottom" width="92">
<p><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial">458000</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><span> </span>I do not
mean that all this money was wasted. However, I was a faculty member in the
math dept and $ 627,360 sounded fishy to me</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial" lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">: What was it for? Which math lab
equipments they mean? - I asked the math chairwoman, but I never received an
answer. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> I worked as
an operations researcher for Du Pont de Nemours and the Techint Group. They
paid me a salary but no grants or funds for doing my job. These private
enterprises stay alert that money is not spent uselessly - but who is
there to prevent <span><span>thievery
by the </span></span>academic nomenklatura? There is a rhetorical difference
between aggravated assault and filling out an ANPCYT form asking a grant for a phony <span>p</span>roject. ANPCYT had the money as a loan from IDB, adding
to Argentina's external debt that We the People have to repay.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> So it
happened that after reading the aforementioned article I started an
investigation on academic corruption at my alma mater. My first report "Los subsidios de la
investigación: Corrupción en Exactas - UBA"<span> </span></span><a href="http://www.freewebs.com/subsidios/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN-US">http://www.freewebs.com/subsidios/</span></a><span> <span> </span><span lang="EN-US">was greeted by
insulting responses from the school mafia. </span></span></p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<p><span lang="EN-US"> Fabio
Vicentini</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><span> </span></span></p>
</font></span></div>
</div><br></div>