Translated material
"Nature does not need our letters"
The “letter of five hundred doctors” was delivered to the reception of the President of the Russian Federation and the next day was transferred to answer - where? - That's right, to the Ministry of Education and Science. The ministry, of course, responsible for science, in no way capable of the problem posed in the letter, to solve: the question of the status of the RFFIF is outside its competence, and about the shortcomings of the law on public procurement in application to financing research and developments, officials of the ministry know no worse than those who signed the letter of sciences and can not do anything about it.
And something tells me that the fate of this letter will be the same as the fate of another letter, also signed a year and a half ago by hundreds of doctors and candidates ( TRV No. 1 ). All the same is the preparation of a letter and collecting signatures on scientific.ru, a touching unity of the forum participants, which do not approve of either the positions “on a wide range of issues”, or even personally each other, mass accession to the letter of colleagues, to the forum, to the forum, registration of the letter in the presidential reception of the Old Square, the transfer of the letter to the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Education andly Correspondence with the ministry (we still have to do this, with the proper persistence of the authors of the letter). Ultimately, the ministry even agreed that it was written in the letter and wrote: “The Department of State Policy and regulatory regulation in the field of education thanks you for the indifference and civil position and notes that it generally shares the approaches expressed in collective circulation” ( TKV No. 8 ). And where did we find ourselves in a year? Scientific degrees on theology are not introduced, but - follow your hands - the degree assigned by theological institutions are equal to scientific. The “Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture” under the pseudonym “Fundamentals of Religious Culture” were introduced into the program in eighteen regions, pushing the lessons of the Russian language. This is such an experiment who and how will teach an object, according to which there are no specialists or textbooks. In a word, the mat is in two moves.
Meanwhile, either there were already narrow and wide, but certainly high meetings to discuss whether the RAS controls the fundamental science. And it’s even clear that it is bad, but who is better? Three bird-the Ministry of Education and Science and Rosnauka with the Wemaging in the attached? Yeah. And on the horizon, the figure of the noble manager M.V. Kovalchuk habitually looms.
And there is a fear that, under the pretext of improving management of fundamental science, the control object itself will be abolished. The prerequisites for that are present. The newspaper “Arguments of the Week” suddenly published a text under the significant name “History figured out the story. In line is science ”, in which it retells (without exile) materials of checks of the Accounts Chamber, interspersing this with pseudo -scientific delirium, such as“ a method of non -drug treatment of AIDS ”(No. 35 of September 3). And to hell with it, with a boulevard leaf, so, by agreement with the Accounts Chamber of October 13, 2006, this publication ensures “wide coverage of the activities of state financial control bodies in print media in print media”. And someone Alexei Chadaev, candidate of cultural studies, author of the fantastically incompetent search for the Academy of Sciences under the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation (1) , according to Slon.ru of September 16 (2) , became a referen in the internal policy department in this very administration and, under the leadership of the First Deputy Head of AP Vladislav Surkov, will work on the president’s political program.
A government resolution has been adopted, clarifying how to properly apply the law on public procurement. The FAS with the lips of the head of the department, Mikhail Evraev, explains that “the maximum weight of the subjective criterion (functional characteristics, quality and qualifications), which are most often abused by unscrupulous customers, should not exceed 20%” (“Vedomosti” No. 179 of September 23). Immediately, the acquaintances of 35% (minimum) for the price - as it turned out now, Rosnauka with the wemetment was rebuilt, laying this into contests that have been held this summer even before the adoption of the decision. So they sailed. They say this will help the fight against corruption. And the struggle with the squandering of state funds for empty, meaningless projects proposed by incompetent authors will help?
But suppose that a miracle will happen and everything will turn out as the “letter of five hundred” says. The RFFF will remain with an independent status, and from the 94th law an exception will be made for scientific research and development. Can it be considered that the goal has been achieved? No. Because it will only mean preserving the bastard status quo.
The RFFF will continue to slide in the direction of crucifixion large projects without any examination. Administrative pressure on relatively independent sections will intensify and the distribution system according to the list of dependent ones will aggravate.
It will not be a clear examination in Rosnauk and Wedempted, because only part of the problems in ministerial competitions is due to state procurement law; The rest are quite endogenous origin. Here is a pair of examples. I was recently told about a project that, in one Rosnauk competition, the personnel of the FCP received 38 points out of 45 for “substantive” criteria and lost for price and terms, and in a second competition - without changing a single word - 22 points. This is such an examination. And in the competitions of "young candidates" conducted by the Wedemption, not young candidates come across among the winners. This assessment system is arranged so that a participant who is not suitable for criteria simply loses several points that can be returned, for example, by dumping in price; And if, as it was many times, the competition is less than a unit, and without any dumping. But for the lack of a signature (in the presence of a seal) on a piece of paper that seer the binding project of the rope, the projects were disqualified in dozens.
From the wounds, funding and powers will still be pinned a little, exacerbating the bureaucratic confusion. Here, say, there was a change in the nomenclature of scientific specialties, and many graduate schools in academic institutes must be re -registered. Previously, this was done more or less automatically, through the corresponding unit in the apparatus of the Presidium. Now this function has been selected from the wounds, but Rosobrnadzor replies to requests that we must wait, because the procedure has not yet been developed. And because of this, not only graduate schools, but also dissertation tips that also need to be re-registered; Many of them will be forced to stop working with the onset of 2010.
So even in the best case, the result will not be very victorious. Does this mean that all these ventures with letters are empty chores? I think there is no. Well, at least simply because you can’t give up without a single shot. It is necessary from time to time to remind the high authorities that we still exist. Otherwise, we will be judged by trade union pickets. Yes, and it is also useful for yourself to remind.
Just do not have illusions that such one-time, although mass shares will be able to change something serious. The stone sharpens a drop, not a bucket of water. It is necessary to put pressure and crush, pointing to stupidity in existing documents (and offering changes), the impurity of regulations and examinations (and, again, offering reasonable procedures), finally, opening the scam and cuts. Experience shows that sometimes it happens from this. Either some odious spotlights suddenly stop, then it is possible to remove a completely stupid point from the project of state-owned paper, then the competition is held relatively honestly. There are few such examples, they do not make the weather, but they are.
One of the main problems, it seems to me, is that the existing system of oppression and breaks people, and almost everyone who occupies at least any noticeable position (and therefore can influence what is happening) is no longer concerned about the state of the system, but his place in it. And therefore, such mass shares are useful. They not only show who is who; They psychologically mobilize-therefore, I may naively believe that it will be more difficult for a person who signed such a collective letter to persuade himself to participate in some next private disgrace. That's what we write for this. On the sand.
Mikhail Gelfand
(1) www.liberty.ru/themes/proekt-kademii-nauk-pri-administracii-prezidenta-rossijskoj-federacii-mezhdunarodnogo-komiteta-nauchnogo-audita