topic 1. Why on earth are some Italian academics laughed at and ridiculed by the scientific community? The wolf packs of "ordinari" professors
There is this perception, that the Italian university is based on
clientelism
and that many Italian professors (especially the so called "ordinari" professors) are nothing else than
mediocre people who reached
their position nurturing a network of relationships, even though they should
not have been allowed to even serve as doormen.
In other words, a form of intellectual dishonesty
which permeates the higher layer of the system, and has also connection in the
judiciary system.
Clearly, one might disagree with this view, however, sometimes objective
evidence can’t be disproved.
Using the term in a broader meaning, people like Prof.
Perotti or Prof.
Paris
, and many others
(including the media), talk about
“academic camorra”. Clearly this has (most often) nothing to do directly with the
corresponding crime organization. However, there are some "analogies" which
justify the common use of the term even in the media, being the use of
physical violence replaced with other form of, more subtle, but not less
effective, moral violence. Examples of that include exclusion from the
system, impossibility to have justice through the ordinary means of
justice (which are also connected with the academic and political
system), persecution, through a creative use of the disciplinary processes and
other vexatory
instruments reachable through personal connections.
Sometimes the term "academic mafia" is also used, but we think that it should be
avoided, as the mafia valued concepts such as "honor" and "respect", which are
instead unknown the above mentioned "ordinari" professors. The word "Camorra", better
captures the essence of the phenomenon, which is mainly organized in distinct wolf packs
with a leader,
abiding to no rule of intellectual honesty and well above the reach of the
ordinary law, due to their connections. For instance, in trials I witnessed
personally against them,
they have lobbied to influence the judge, or they have make sure to buy the
prosecutor by promising a promotion (eventually granted). While a member
of the governing
organ of judiciary system (CSM) was also directly involved as lawyer
There is a form of mockery of the “Italian ingenuity” in this
behavior. Clearly, not the same kind of ingenuity that can attributed to
Michelangelo, Einstein,
Tesla, or Chopin. Not even the Carlo Gambino's shrewdness. It’s more like the way how mediocrity finds its way in
the world. In
fact, the mediocre has no other choice to emerge that getting
organized with others like him for reciprocal support, creating a self-referencing system
and "wolf packs" (with apologies to wolves acting moved by hunger), from which all the participants draw, at the right time,
greedy and dishonest
benefits. It’s often an highly unjust benefit, because it is obtained defrauding
(and often persecuting) people of clear superior value and dedication, just due to the
system of relationships.
topic 2. What's the root of problems in the Italian academic system
The fact that being a professor "ordinario", for instance, has a legal, social, and substantial economic value and is achieved
through a "public competition" (called "concorso") where the commission is formed by other
"ordinari" professors.
This creates a real feudal system, where the positions are "exchanged" within a network
of relationships and favors, and has, often, nothing to do with scientific
contributions.
The result of most "competitions" are in fact well known before
they are held, and
the proceeding becomes an exercise in "public dishonesty". Although this
might sound as illegal, the judiciary system does not prosecute it even
if charges are pressed, but
on the contrary, as a matter of evidence, protects it, due to
the relationships between university, politics and justice (in other words, they
are, in part, part of it, just as the politicians, who all have at least one, or
more, relatives hired in a university). Politics uses this
intellectually dishonest system, although in public speeches, clearly, the
corruption is condemned.
See for instance these cases or many others here.
Paper
Reviews
PROF. ALFREDO RIZZI, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”
STATISTICA,
anno LXIV, n. 2, 2004
“TEST
DI
PRIMALITÀ DETERMINISTICI E PROBABILISTICI” [ Deterministic and
Probabilistic Primality Tests ] - by
Alfredo Rizzi
Paper: http://rivista-statistica.cib.unibo.it/article/view/1291/697
Let’s examine this paper published in the Italian journal "Statistics" ("Statistica"). This is the same journal where well know Italian geniuses, such as Prof. Paola Monari and Prof. Mary Fraire have published their breakthroughs, for which the international scientific community will never be thankful enough (and which will also be reviewed in detail).
Someone inserted his name
in this list of
famous mathematicians”: http://felix.unife.it/Root/d-Mathematics/d-The-mathematician/t-Mathematicians-A-Z
Therefore, w
The paper starts up with some triviality, scattering
around names of actual mathematical geniuses, like Euler or Gauss, to convey
the notion that the author has read something about the history of mathematics..
“Le questioni riguardanti i numeri primi hanno interessato molti studiosi sin dagli albori della matematica. Basti ricordare nell’antichità Euclide e negli ultimo quattrocento anni Fermat, Eulero, Legendre, Gauss, Hilbert. Gauss, nel 1801, nelle Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, affermava che il problema di distinguere i numeri primi da quelli composti e della fattorizzazione di questi ultimo è uno dei più importanti ed utili in aritmetica”
Then, suddenly, among these geniuses, a quotation
emerges from the brother of the (ex) Italian Prime Minister (who
happened to be a professor of mathematics).
“Giovanni Prodi, ad una domanda postagli
sui risultati che più lo avevano colpito, tra quelli conseguiti in matematica
negli ultimi decenni ha risposto: “I teoremi probabilistici di primalità.”
Now, one trait of this kind of “ingenuity”, we clearly need to learn is: always
quote the right persons. [We might recall that
Prof. Alfredo Rizzi was nominated by the ministry
in the Commission for retirement funds (Commissario nella
Commissione di Vigilanza
sui Fondi
Pensione),
a well remunerated appointment. ] This kind of quotations are good, because, for
instance, you can take a reprint of your paper and send it to the
personality, with some dedication.
We all have to learn from this. Clearly, there is no point to
be grateful to right great scientists in the field of prime numbers, those
who have literally given their entire lives to pure research and struggled to
be precise and rigorous in every single word they wrote
The interesting part is when the author attempts to
report the most basic results about prime numbers, such as their infinitude.
Sia P l’insieme dei numeri primi P =
[1,2,3,5,7,11,13,...,n,....] ove n ha solo i divisori banali 1 ed n.
So according to the author 1 is a prime number.
At this point, if you were a student at high school being examined, your
professor would immediately send you away in shame.
But no. Even though we don't know any number theorists who
think 1 is a prime, this must clearly be a sign of ingenuity and not a
misprint, as the thing is even object of further “examples” which enlighten the
unaware reader:
“Sia Zn
l’insieme degli interi primi con n. Ad esempio Z3 =[1,2], … “
Here there is an attempt to evocate the Euler’s Totient
function, but the author is totally missing to define the concept of coprime,
mixing up primes and coprimes
to n as if they were the same thing (in fact, 1 is coprime
to itself).
At this point we are just at page 3 of 13. And I
think I refuse to proceed any further, but you may continue and let me know. I
think we got the idea.
While I sadly close the article, I cannot help seeing
this sentence about the AKS primality test:
“Teorema 11. La complessità asintotica dell’algoritmo è: Olog
n ”
So, according to the great scientist and "famous" mathematician Prof.
Alfredo Rizzi,
University of Rome “La Sapienza”, the
AKS algorithm has complexity Olog
n (note it's "O" to the power of log n).
At this point we are speechless.
“Il risultato di M. Agrawal, N. Kayal
e N. Safena, come si…”
“Adlemane,
Pomerance
e Rumely
hanno fornito “
Poor Prof
Adleman,
poor Dr. Saxena
!
The paper has also a summary where we can read:
“di teoria di teoria dei numeri con
riferimento alle ricerche di Eulero, Fermat, Legendre,
Rieman e di altri
studiosi. Esistono molte espressioni che forniscono insiemi di infiniti…”
I guess
that
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann
will
be
turning
in his grave (btw,
Riemann's
grave site no longer exists).
In the abstract (http://rivista-statistica.cib.unibo.it/article/view/1291) we can read again:
“He remembers the very important researches of
Eulero, Fermat, Legen-re, Rieman and others scholarships.”
Just misprints? Sure it's likely that these kind of papers
which require months of hard work, and have to pass a tough refereeing process might have some misprints. But where is the
contribution
of this paper if, not having anything original in it, it doesn't even represent
at least an accurate review ?
This work - which is actually one
of the best by this Author - was good enough to be published in the (prestigious, rotfl)
"scientific" journal “Statistica”.
And the (proud) author of this work, Prof. Alfredo Rizzi "ordinario" professor at the University of Rome, and, as Giovanni Girone, has been president in many public competitions (**)
Our Rating of the paper (0-10)
Originality: 0
Accuracy: 2
__________
Total: 2
Other "famous" people connected with Alfredo Rizzi are:
Prof. Giovanni Girone
(University of Bari), author (according to his own claim) of a very ”famous” test
(the discussion on Wikipedia points out, in brief, that does not actually exist such a thing
like a "test by Girone" recognized by the international scientific community, and that,
as the wikipedia articles notes too, he attempted to
rename a statistic previously proposed by Corrado Gini,
trying to get undue credit from such intellectual plagiarism. The links are also reporting
many disturbing cases of clientelism
where Prof.
Giovanni Girone
is the protagonist):
Prof. Mary Fraire and Prof. Paola Monari (next
reviews). It is interesting to note, in theme of
intellectual honesty, that - in public trial proceedings, Prof. Rizzi has
compared Prof. M. Fraire to
Luigi Galvani (in the sense of a "misunderstood genius").
[ This statement was made to justify his behaviour as a President of a
Commission who has appointed (about 1 year before retirement) Prof. Mary Fraire
as "Ordinario" Professor. In that context Prof. Fraire documented her
scientifical activity essentially with 1
main paper
published on the journal "Statistica" many years before. That paper, was a
"review" of a preceding paper written by Prof. Rizzi. (It would be interesting
to examine in detail both these papers too, although this has been already done
in part, abiding by a Court order, in the context of criminal trial proceedings: see the
official review here (files
"CTUxx.jpg) ) ].
http://ilsensodellamisura.com/2008/08/concorsopoli-romana-chiesti-cinque-rinvii-a-giudizio//
http://socialeanimale.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/la-mafia-accademica-gli-imbrogli-nelle-universita-italiane/
http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=171259&START=0&2col
http://cnu.cineca.it/docum06/61053.pdf
http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=171259&PRINT=S
http://roma.repubblica.it/dettaglio/Docenti-a-giudizio-per-il-concorso-truccato/1503010
http://espresso.repubblica.it/dettaglio-local/Sociologia-il-concorso-truffa/1867027
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/c829b179?page=10#/c829b179/10
issue: 3/4/2009 di DMstud.bladet:
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/c829b179?page=10#/c829b179/1