CONCERNING OUR INSTITUTION 

Perhaps it will be better to start with the positive contributions from local government sources that have contributed to the success of our non-profit work for the sake of Uruguayan culture. Regrettably, they are very few, but is is only fair to mention them.

URUGUAYAN MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS - They have always been inclined to help us in our endeavours as much as possible, perhaps because its officials have understood our aims as well as our achievements which increase Uruguay's prestige abroad. They have not only instructed their representatives in Egypt to cooperate with our activities, for instance, by sending us regularly copies of the Egyptian newspapers with archaeological information that is incorporated into our institutional Library, which is consulted by our members and students and also by other interested people in Uruguay, but also Uruguayan Ambassadors as well as other diplomats have facilitated our cultural work in Egypt solving logistic problems and saving us time, using their contacts and experience in that country.

URUGUAYAN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND CULTURE- They have allowed us several times to use their main lecture hall when we have had foreign scholars visiting us and when some of our students have travelled to Egypt for the purpose of studying their ancient civilization, they have declared such trips as of cultural interest, which enabled them to obtain a special passport that was more adequate for such purposes.

Unfortunately, these positive steps have been clouded by other attitudes that we will not call by the name they deserve because we are sure the reader will be able to find the appropriate terms to describe them. We assume that those who read what follows, have already visited our other Internet pages and are aware of all we are doing and our contributions to Uruguayan culture during the last twenty years. Although such attitudes could not prevent our work, they have curtailed its extent and reach, limiting its effectiveness. We think that if these facts are known, perhaps the circumstances may change in the future, but we fear that this will not be possible unless people protest against these indifferent and even hostile policies that hurt our cultural and educational efforts.

URUGUAYAN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND CULTURE- When scholars from our Institute requested financial assistance in order to be able to attend and actively participate in scientific events abroad, in which our country had always been absent in previous occasions due to the lack of interest by local universities in our chosen field, which is studied and taught at a Chair level in the most prestigious universities elsewhere because it deals with the birth of civilization in the world, not only our requests were ignored but the said bureaucrats did not even bother to reply to them. When we published in the local press a letter showing our surprise at such an attitude, then an official from that ministry called us and verbally expressed that our request had been denied. Denunciations supported by firm evidence were made when A. Mercader was minister for the first time, that an official of that ministry who was director of one of its museums and also was a member of the Academy of Letters also linked to the ministry, had incurred in unethical behaviour which caused serious harm to our Director, the file was closed after a cursory investigation and nothing was done about it. The Conicyt, part of that ministry, had to deal with the assignment of funds for research to be distributed among local scholars and in the process, ignored the merits and valuable contributions made by an applicant from our Institute, whose publications were quoted in important books on the subject published by prestigious scholars and universities, going to the extent of flatly rejecting his application in an open declaration of contempt for such achievements. Afterwards, several local scholars who were favoured with a positive decision, decided to reject the award because of irregularities in the procedure, as was consigned in the local press, among them, the fact that members of the Tribunal who had to decide on the matter, selected many of its members for the assignment of such funds. The scandal that followed did not cause any change in the policy or moved most of those favoured in such a challenged procedure to adopt any personal decision, quietly pocketing their allotted sums.

MUNICIPALITY OF MONTEVIDEO - We have already mentioned in other of our Internet pages the generous contributions to this municipality by scholars from our institution, which have even been acknowledged in the Catalogue of the Museum of History of Art belonging to such municipality. At the time when the mayor was Dr. Tabaré Vázquez and then when Arch. Mariano Arana became mayor of Montevideo, we decided to use our right to be exempt of all municipal and national taxes, as clearly written in article 69 of the Constitution of Uruguay:

"Private educational institutions as well as those of the same nature that carry out cultural activities, will be exempt of national and municipal taxes, as a compensation for their services".

That is, an exemption without any restrictions or other requirements except the basic one of carrying out a cultural or educational activity in the premises. The amount of such taxes, relatively small in the past, had considerably increased in recent years and forced us to apply for what we were perfectly entitled to. Our application was granted twice (although with inexplicable and arbitrary deductions) and was also rejected twice, using the bureaucrats at the municipality contradictory statements in order to justify their decisions. In order to avoid the danger of further denials (and the accumulations of exorbitant fines and interest rates which we faced once and threatened our very existence as an institution), we are currently paying full amounts for taxes as if we were not a cultural and educational institution. These attitudes and decisions, divorced from the constitutional text, have been endorsed by the mayor, M. Arana, a former professor of the history of architecture, whom we considered would be more sensitive to the difficulties of doing cultural work in this country. Afterwards, we applied for a so-called "Capital Fund" that this municipality organized in order to finance cultural activities in Montevideo. The official who received our application for funding for an amount well below the maximum allowed which would be used for the refurbishment of our Egyptian Museum, used by schools and other institutions and visited by many people, told the representatives of our institution who went there that it was one of the best projects she had seen. Strangely, it was put aside and other applications, like for instance for a play, a valuable but ephemerous cultural enterprise, were selected, preventing the improvement of our Musem which is permanently at the service of Uruguayan culture.

We could mention many other examples of such decisions and attitudes, which in some cases seem part of a comic opera because of their gross and unlikely distortion of fair and adequate criteria, but they are a true reflection of what happens in this country to those who reject the traditional way of influence manipulation that opens doors and clears obstacles, which we avoid considering it a distortion that leads to lack of prestige for the country as a whole.

It is you, friend who reads these pages, who has seen what we are doing, our goals and accomplishments, the one who can find names for such official attitudes against us. We think that only the protests of those who agree with our perception of how things are done here, may bring about changes that will not only benefit us but also all those who are repeatedly cheated of realistic expectations that will enable them to do a better job in their efforts to contribute to Uruguayan culture. The abuses and manipulations by government officials only prosper when they are received by the public with indifference and will cease when the people demands an end to such practices.