[extropy-chat] unevolved Italians

[Amara Graps]

Alfio wrote:
>Government misters in Italy are choosen for their political connections,
>not because they are experts on the subject, nor because they are good
>administrators. A recurrent exception is the minister for health care,
>who is frequently an ex-doctor.
>Most people realize that the situation is bad, but have a fatalistic (?)
>attitude and think they can do nothing about it. In the US such people
>would stop voting. In Italy they just continue to vote for the same party
>they have voted for in the previous elections... so voting percentages are
>high, but hardly anything changes.

Science seems to politicized in many ways in Italy, I'm discovering.
When Berlusconi came into office, he appointed a new head of Italian
Space Agency. I don't know if it is typical to have years of problems
for transitions between political terms, but it happened in this case.

The new director didn't follow or read the years of existing work
already performed before his term, so scientists spent huge amounts of
time justifying their existence when he began. No planetary science
contracts were signed by ASI for a year or two, which had a large
impact on existing space projects, plus new opportunities were missed,
plus some number of people didn't get paid. Even after the initial
'years transition period, major contracts between them and other space
agencies still were signed months late.  They ask for detailed reports
on every aspect of the planetary science work in order to have
funding, people run around like nervous bees preparing the reports,
then the reports don't get read and there's no funding anyway. On one
of my projects, which is a NASA mission, if JPL engineers need to talk
to the builders of our Italian instrument, then an ASI manager must be
present. There is no money to buy computers. A printer might be down
for a month because toner cartridge orders take that long to find the
money and order. Toilet paper is no longer given in the restrooms as
a cost-saving measure, the institutes are closed for a week in August
to save money too.

[This means no electricity to the running computers, including the
computers holding web pages for conference registrations like the one
that I was obligated to depend on as local organizing committee for
next month's Cassini workshop. So then I spent the next week writing
email apologizing to the participants for not being able to keep a simple
http server running on a PC. Why would they want to go to a conference
if the organizers cannot even do that?, they probably wondered.]

My job department secretaries were complaining that I don't speak
italian fluently yet, but when is there time for me to study? My
salary doesn't cover basic living expenses, so I must work at a second
job. I could study between my two jobs between 2am and 7am, but I
really need to sleep then.

So I think that it is a miracle that science in Italy is accomplished
at all, and what I've seen so far is truly excellent science, which
is even more amazing to me.

I think that what I've described above is normal in Italy. Some
politicians make sweeping statements and laws, some number of things
change, but underneath, there is absolutely no resources to support
the changes, and people turn into stress-monkeys trying to do the
impossible.

Alfio, I'll make a deal with you. I have not met any Italians yet that
approve of the Bush Administration: people here seem to be universally
negative about that government, and Bush's policies affect my life in
large ways here, as well. Since I cannot vote in Italian elections,
but I can vote (and I am registered this time) in US elections, then
please, do your best to vote Berlusconi out of office, and I will do
my best to vote Bush out of office.

Amara

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Amara Graps, PhD          email: amara at amara.com
Computational Physics     vita:  ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers         URL:   http://www.amara.com/
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"It's not the pace of life I mind. It's the sudden stop at the end."
--Calvin