Shalman Scott, Contributor 
Phillip Paulwell - CONTRIBUTED
THE CRISIS in the building and construction industry resulting from the shortage of cement exposes once again how we can, with style, humbug ourselves. And again, the man at the centre of all of this is the youthfully exuberant minister of Science, Technology and Commerce the Hon. Phillip Paulwell.
It is often said that trouble does not set like rain, but this cement shortage did show dark storm clouds long enough to have distracted the minister even as he hones his skills as a DJ.
The Minister has learnt well through the NETSERV and Intech Fund foul ups that a couple hundred millions going to waste is not as important as the shielding of a loyal comrade. As a matter of fact, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has given him another portfolio responsibility when, under normal circumstances given his dismal record of bleeps and blunders he should have been dismissed long ago.
I AM DISMAYED
I once had high expectations of Phillip Paulwell. I am dismayed that a young man who seemed at first glance to possess so much promise has turned out to be such a disappointment.
Fortunately for him, consistent with the growth internationally in the Informational Technology sector, Phillip Pauwell is covered by a configuration of sectoral progress that tends to downplay if not obscure his record of confusion and humbug.
Despite his many good news announcements some of which he has belatedly discovered to be costly tricks Phillip Paulwell's handling over the years of ministerial responsibilities has left much to be desired and demonstrates clearly what government ought not to be about i.e the propping up of failure.
The consequence of this personal failure and worse, the failure of the government of PJ Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller to act has been far reaching.
Recently, the Planning Institute of Jamaica announced that the Jamaican economy, for the first quarter of 2006, grew by only one per cent. Analysts have located the cause in the downturn in the building and construction industry. But, look at the enormity of the problem not only in terms of depressing employment levels and drastic reductions in demand in the hardware business, but the longer term psychological impacts. Things in the building and construction industry have been thrown into a tailspin and its catastrophic effect on the Jamaican economy is already being seriously felt.
The Caribbean Cement Company's distribution of bad cement to the market up to now, in my view, has not been properly explained. How did the problem start and, more critically, can the public be convinced that there will not be a repetition?
SHODDY WORKMANSHIP
What good is being served by people going into buildings which have been recently constructed and wondering if they are safe? Shoddy workmanship has always been part of our way of life and, as if that were enough, we now have to contend with the possibility of the use of poor quality material in places that are supposed to keep us safe.
The Caribbean Cement Company was given a monopoly on cement manufacturing and distribution by Minister Phillip Paulwell and the PNP government. In response to his handiwork, he announced in March of this year a reduction of the duty charged on imported cement importation from 40 per cent to 15 per cent.
It was clearly hoped that, with that incentive, private importers would have jumped into the cement importing business. What the Government and the Minister may not have paid sufficient attention to is that the monopolistic Caribbean Cement Company had only reduced output not stopped production. In this scenario, no sensible business person was going to make a heavy investment-duty reduction not withstanding - in cement importation without first knowing when and how long the fallout at the CCC would last.
When Minister Paulwell and the government realised that the anticipated excitement which the duty reduction should generate was not forthcoming, the minister hit the airwaves to make another one of his shaky announcements. This time, he said that shiploads of cement will begin to arrive from Cuba in June. The contract for the delivery of cement from Cuba up to the time of writing has not yet been signed by the Solicitor General!
But to entirely focus on the bungling of the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Technology is to lose sight of the deeper historical problem of our own inability to maintain collective progress as a people.
The architects of the New International Economic Order have coined the phrase "absorptive capacity" to describe
the state of affairs in third world countries where weak institutions impose limits on our capacity to progress.
In Jamaica's case, our penchant for self sabotage has created a consistent culture of national paralysis.
It is this inability, unlike so many of our Caribbean neighbours, to create and sustain our own progress that has landed us in the present state where our acceptance of mediocrity has become most relaxing.
From the belief that the world owes us a living through our practice of wish fulfilment and glamorising of superficiality to a strong belief in the use of force to snatch that which does not belong to us our culture of humbug has propelled us into a place where we will continue to bounce about from crisis to crisis.
It is true that not all of us fit into the mould that I have just presented, but what does it matter if, after the PNP has won an unprecedented fifth term, Phillip Paulwell becomes General Secretary and then PNP president! Those others of us may not be able to stop the progress and again, the culture of humbug would have won the day.
