- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Gypsum Magazine
Back in the middle of one of the lockdowns (I forget which - it’s all becoming a bit hazy now as it recedes into the past), my brother-in-law Richard Crane gifted me a copy of a book called ‘The courage to be disliked,’ by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga1. I wonder, was he sending me a message? Anyway, Richard told me that it was a challenging book. The blurb on the front cover said “How to free yourself, change your life and achieve real happiness.” Although I didn’t feel the need to do any of those things, I read the book and it was indeed both challenging and interesting. I wonder if the main points of the book could help you in your own life, both at work and at play?
- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
Over the past 12 years I have written many country reports for Global Gypsum Magazine, often googling the locations of cement plants, checking distances or otherwise snooping about. This has had an unexpected benefit that my ‘school book’ geography - country locations, outlines, capitals, populations - has become reasonably sharp.
- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
In March 2020, the Global Gypsum team went home from its ‘last normal day’ at the office. Shortly afterwards the UK, like much of the world, entered its first lockdown. While the picture was bleak, we were sure that the ‘novel coronavirus’ was a temporary blip during an otherwise normal year. ‘See you at Christmas’ we joked, knowing that it wouldn’t take that long.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
Winning the war is hard - but winning the peace can sometimes be harder. That’s the essence of the struggle back to the new normal for many governments, companies and people. The Covid Pandemic has been awful around the world, but as it starts to slowly recede into the rear-view mirror, we are trying to deal with a new and sometimes unrecognisable world.
- Written by Peter Edwards Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
Between 1968 and 1977 the BBC produced a TV comedy called Dad’s Army. It concerned a platoon of the ‘Home Guard,’ a rag-tag band of men who, being too old, infirm or ‘essential’ to fight the Second World War proper, stayed in the UK as a last line of defence against invasion. The show depicts the flawed group trying their best to prepare with minimal equipment and know-how. They fall into mud and become tangled in parachutes on exercise, run over important dignitaries, blow things up too early, eat prized carrier pigeons and otherwise partake in classic slap-stick.
