<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: Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 5:05 AM<br>Subject: The Argentinie chapter of the academic show (Seventh 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><span style lang="EN-US"></span></p>
<p style="text-align:right" align="right"><span style lang="EN-US">Buenos Aires, June 29, 2012</span></p>
<p><span style lang="EN-US"> Dear
Colleague:</span></p>
<p><span style lang="EN-US">Subject:
Mafia</span></p>
<p><span style lang="EN-US"> I
have sent you seven letters on academic corruption in the School of Exact
Sciences of Buenos Aires University (FCEyN/UBA). Fifty years ago I was a
student in the same school and nothing of this sort was apparent. I wonder what
happened in the meantime to debase the academic moral.</span></p>
<p><span style lang="EN-US"> Let
me sum up the essential facts. Eduardo Saguier is a researcher of CONICET, the
government agency for the promotion of science and technology in Argentina. He
denounced a mafia stealing funds from ANPCYT, the agency providing funds for
research. This led me to investigate my school mafia and, as a result, I published
a report on corruption at FCEyN. The authorities of my school came down on me
like a ton of bricks, calling me nazi, demented and some other niceties.</span></p>
<p><span style lang="EN-US"> I
cannot pinpoint the evil seed that triggered the decomposition process of my
school. I suspect that the World Bank started the ball rolling when issued instructions
on how to administer higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean in the
nineties while Argentina was under the Menem administration.</span></p>
<p><span style lang="EN-US">Whatever the cause might
be, my school is at the hands of a gang. It may be called mafia or camarilla,
but no matter the name for it, what I mean is an inner<span style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white"> circle of</span></span><span style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;font-size:8pt;font-family:Arial" lang="EN-US"> </span><span style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% white" lang="EN-US">rascals</span><span style lang="EN-US"> who hold the power, and
use the institution for their own benefit. They won’t kill anybody but are ready
to get rid of those who won’t submit to their academic dogmas. They have
perfected the scheme to win the elections. When election time comes they
pretend a change with no change. As put it humorously by Lampedusa: "Si
vogliamo che tutto rimanga com´è, bisogna che tutto cambi."</span><span style="color:blue" lang="EN-US"></span></p>
<p><span style lang="EN-US">I
reentered FCEyN in 1995. Having a practical background I found the academic
policy not to my liking. They had driven the "publish-or-perish"
culture to mockery. The professor's performance is gauged by the number of
papers, the content having no bearing. As a consequence, professors are intent
into maximizing the number of published papers, and the school has become a
bullshit producing engine. Also, professors are expected to ask for funds to
sustain their research, so bullshit is financed by the ANPCYT, that is, the
taxpayers. There are even scoundrels who boasts of scientific achievements by
faking a project, submitting a bogus grant proposal, publishing bullshit papers,
going on vacation to attend foreign meetings, you name it. And I know of cases
because I made the scrutiny inside the whale myself.</span><span style="color:blue" lang="EN-US"></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">I reacted to this pretence of
science by publishing satirical pamphlets. Irony infuriated the gangsters, and
I was manipulated by a task force. The mobsters gave me a full mobbing
treatment. Then they got rid of me by aborting my contract. I appealed to the
dean Jorge Aliaga, and he responded by filling out a bureaucratic form. </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">I had been an odd man out in my
school, the unique academic in the math dept who did consulting jobs instead of
papers for journals. The mafia kicked me out of the school for being an heretic
dissenting from the paper-making dogma. The impervious heads of these
inquisitors cannot get the point that theory on papers serves no purpose if
there is nobody to apply it in the real world.</span></p>
<p><span style lang="EN-US">This is the last letter.
</span></p>
<p><span style lang="EN-US">Very truly yours, </span></p>
<p><span style lang="EN-US"> </span><span style lang="EN-US"> Fabio Vicentini <span> <br>
</span></span></p><p><span style lang="EN-US"><span></span>Operations
Research Consultant</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p>
</div>
</div><br></div>