- Written by Robert McCaffrey, Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
In his inauguration speech as 32nd President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt said the following: “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” His New Deal - a muscular package of public spending and make-work programmes aimed at the Great Depression - dragged the country out of the economic doldrums and back into robust economic health during the next six years.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey, Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
One of my New Year’s Resolutions was perhaps a strange one: If there is a moment at which I could either shake someone’s hand, or not, then I should default to shaking their hand. We have all been in such situations, where it could go either way - either a nod of the head or an actual contact. Furthermore, and it might be going a bit far, but if I’m alone and someone else is alone, then let’s try to be less alone, together. Despite the Coronavirus outbreak, I’m opting for contact.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey, Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
It has been said that supply creates its own demand, and if you were to build a cement plant in the middle of nowhere, as sometimes happens, then the locals would start to use more cement. On the other hand, demand creates its own supply, in the capitalist system at least. Profit-seekers will always provide a good or service if a profit can be made.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
My parents told me many times while I was growing up that ‘pride comes before a fall.’ I am very often reminded of the truth of this aphorism in my later life. Whenever I think that I am getting the hang of ice-skating backwards, for example, I will almost inevitably promptly fall over. Exploring some tombs near the pyramids at Giza after the latest AUCBM conference in Cairo, I fancied myself as a modern-day Indiana Jones, striding over the dunes and uncovering lost treasures. Until, that is, I forgot to duck low enough going through an ancient doorway and struck my head on a 5000-year-old door lintel - which was inscribed with hieroglyphs which I now imagine spelled out ‘Mind Your Head.’ Being momentarily poleaxed, I fell down and badly twisted my knee. Pride, once again, came before a literal fall.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
I’m writing this at a height of 8km, flying somewhere over the beautiful north of Italy, on my way back from Thessaloniki in Greece, where I attended the EuroSlag Conference. Two startling ideas came out of the meeting; the possibility that CO2 might come to be treated on the same basis as waste in the waste hierarchy (avoidance being preferred to disposal/sequestration, for example); and the possibility of a net-zero CO2 iron and steel industry by 2050. It was a useful trip, with good food and a little bit of running and bird-watching as well (each to their own), but I can’t help but feel a little bit guilty.
