Describing how the civilizations were similar and how they differed Essay

Describing how the civilizations were similar and how they differed - Essay Example The civilizations extended and some areas developed dependently and together while the Chinese civilization developed independently (Schirokauer et.al 24). Although there was some influence on the West’s cultures. In most cases, the Chines development occurred in the sections known as the dynasties. The dynasties were divided into three categories namely, early dynasty, imperial dynasties and end of ancient china. The Qin dynasty was established as a type of China civilization dynasties by Shi Huangti. The Qin dynasty can be also referred to as the China era. Shi conducted the wall destruction and established the Great Wall of China (Schirokauer et.al 48). He also made travelling easy by building roads to improve the infrastructure of China. He fairly ruled the people and distributed lands. He also expanded his empire and its boundaries (Schirokauer et.al 48). All this and among others are the development of civilization in the empire of Qin dynasty. The empire of Persian developed civilization in terms of classical civilization. The classical development of civilization in the Persian Empire. Succeed due to the cooperation of leaders in the empire. Several areas of economic activities were taxed 20 percent. Such activities are like religious institution, manufacturing and agriculture among others. The activities were the cause civilization development. Finally, civilization in the Empire of Macedon. The civilization development started in the year 1913. In this empire, the Greek community was powered and the stabilization of the area. Unlike other empires, Macedon has developed its civilization through development of the area. The mentioned empires above having their differences and similarities. In most cases, development in all the empires influenced the economic development of the area. On the other hand, each empire had a different style of developing

Reaction paper of Ideoligy explore in venezuela Essay

Reaction paper of Ideoligy explore in venezuela - Essay Example Given its huge oil resources Venezuela should ideally command a lot of respect internationally as a economically stable state. This however doesn’t seem to be true with the larger percentage of it’s population living below the poverty line. At the time president Chavez took over the rains around 70% of the population was below the poverty line. It was expected and hoped that this condition would change. This however did not happen largely due to the ideologies adopted by the government. The gap between the rich and the poor is just too big considering the massive capabilities that the country has. The very thing that should generate prosperity seems to be driving the disparity. Oil should be good for any given country but when combined with corruption which is rampant in the country then the effects can be catastrophic as they are in this country. The oil industry is controlled by the rich and affluent political class. This class is well known for the greed with which they want to line their pockets with more wealth. They rarely consider the poor. The oil industry is very labour intensive which contributes for the high unemployment rates. Another factor that fuels this state is the fact that the country for the most part is dependent on imports which has never made it easy for any economy. Add to this the fact that every citizen is always trying to enrich themselves. Hoarding of these imported goods is rampart driving inflation in the country high (Dunaway 55). The high prices cause the government to try and rectify this and the most popular way for them is to make more money fuelling inflation. This inflation seems the poorer even poorer. One would argue that the best way to cure this would for a total overhaul the ideologies prevalent in the political class. Them being the main stakeholders in both the economy and the social level they are the ones who would drive any change in the country, ideological or otherwise. They need to

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF A DEFFINITION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF A DEFFINITION - Essay Example A hazard is a wellspring of potential harm, hurt or unfriendly wellbeing impacts on something or somebody under specific conditions at work. I think this a clear definition of the word hazard. Fundamentally, a hazard can result in damage or unfriendly impacts to people as wellbeing impacts or to associations as property or gear misfortunes. More often than not, a hazard is alluded to as being the real mischief or the wellbeing impact it brought on instead of the peril. For instance, the illness tuberculosis (TB) could be known as a peril by some however when all is said in done the TB-initiating microscopic organisms might be viewed as the "danger" or "perilous biotic executor". On the other hand, risk is the probability or likelihood that an individual will be hurt or experience an unfriendly wellbeing impact if laid open to a danger. It might additionally apply to circumstances with property or gear misfortune. For instance, the danger of creating tumor from smoking smokes could be communicated as "cigarette smokers are less averse to bite the dust of lung disease than non-smokers". An alternate method for reporting danger is "a sure number, "Y", of smokers for every 100,000 smokers will probably create lung tumor" (contingent upon their age and how long they have smoked). Such dangers are communicated as a likelihood or probability of creating a malady or being harmed. Although perils allude to the conceivable outcomes for example, lung tumor, emphysema and coronary illness from smoke smoking) considers that impact the level of danger incorporate: what amount of an individual is presented to a dangerous substance or condition, how the individual is uncovered for instance taking in a vapor, skin contact), and how serious are the impacts under the states of introduction. In sum, a hazard is any wellspring of potential harm, hurt or

Describing how the civilizations were similar and how they differed Essay

Describing how the civilizations were similar and how they differed - Essay Example The civilizations extended and some areas developed dependently and together while the Chinese civilization developed independently (Schirokauer et.al 24). Although there was some influence on the West’s cultures. In most cases, the Chines development occurred in the sections known as the dynasties. The dynasties were divided into three categories namely, early dynasty, imperial dynasties and end of ancient china. The Qin dynasty was established as a type of China civilization dynasties by Shi Huangti. The Qin dynasty can be also referred to as the China era. Shi conducted the wall destruction and established the Great Wall of China (Schirokauer et.al 48). He also made travelling easy by building roads to improve the infrastructure of China. He fairly ruled the people and distributed lands. He also expanded his empire and its boundaries (Schirokauer et.al 48). All this and among others are the development of civilization in the empire of Qin dynasty. The empire of Persian developed civilization in terms of classical civilization. The classical development of civilization in the Persian Empire. Succeed due to the cooperation of leaders in the empire. Several areas of economic activities were taxed 20 percent. Such activities are like religious institution, manufacturing and agriculture among others. The activities were the cause civilization development. Finally, civilization in the Empire of Macedon. The civilization development started in the year 1913. In this empire, the Greek community was powered and the stabilization of the area. Unlike other empires, Macedon has developed its civilization through development of the area. The mentioned empires above having their differences and similarities. In most cases, development in all the empires influenced the economic development of the area. On the other hand, each empire had a different style of developing

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF A DEFFINITION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

CAUSE AND EFFECT OF A DEFFINITION - Essay Example A hazard is a wellspring of potential harm, hurt or unfriendly wellbeing impacts on something or somebody under specific conditions at work. I think this a clear definition of the word hazard. Fundamentally, a hazard can result in damage or unfriendly impacts to people as wellbeing impacts or to associations as property or gear misfortunes. More often than not, a hazard is alluded to as being the real mischief or the wellbeing impact it brought on instead of the peril. For instance, the illness tuberculosis (TB) could be known as a peril by some however when all is said in done the TB-initiating microscopic organisms might be viewed as the "danger" or "perilous biotic executor". On the other hand, risk is the probability or likelihood that an individual will be hurt or experience an unfriendly wellbeing impact if laid open to a danger. It might additionally apply to circumstances with property or gear misfortune. For instance, the danger of creating tumor from smoking smokes could be communicated as "cigarette smokers are less averse to bite the dust of lung disease than non-smokers". An alternate method for reporting danger is "a sure number, "Y", of smokers for every 100,000 smokers will probably create lung tumor" (contingent upon their age and how long they have smoked). Such dangers are communicated as a likelihood or probability of creating a malady or being harmed. Although perils allude to the conceivable outcomes for example, lung tumor, emphysema and coronary illness from smoke smoking) considers that impact the level of danger incorporate: what amount of an individual is presented to a dangerous substance or condition, how the individual is uncovered for instance taking in a vapor, skin contact), and how serious are the impacts under the states of introduction. In sum, a hazard is any wellspring of potential harm, hurt or

India’s Trade in 2020 Essay Example for Free

India’s Trade in 2020 Essay Introduction Indias trade has generally grown at a faster rate compared to the growth of GDP over the past two decades. With the liberalization since 1991 in particular, the importance of international trade in India’s economy has grown considerably. As a result the ratio of international trade to GDP has gone up from 14 per cent in 1980 to nearly 20 per cent towards the end of the decade of 1990s. Given the trends of globalization and liberalization, the openness of Indian economy is expected to grow further in the coming two decades. The more exact magnitude of Indias trade in 2020 and its proportion to Indias national income would be determined by a variety of factors. Many of these factors are in the nature of external shocks and are beyond the control of national policy making. One illustration is the recent surge in the crude oil prices in the international market to unprecedented levels that have impacted the country’s imports in a significant manner. In addition, the implementation of various WTO agreements are likely to affect the Indias trade. Indias trade is also likely to be affected by various bilateral/ regional preferential trade arrangements that have been concluded and those that might take shape in the coming years. This paper attempts to provide a mapping of different factors that are likely to shape the patterns and magnitudes of Indias imports and exports over the coming two decades. These factors are classified into three, namely: 1) factors affecting the demand for Indias exports of goods and services; 2) factors affecting the supply of Indias exports of goods and services; and 3) factors affecting the demand for Indias imports. The supply of imports may be assumed to be elastic and hence is not discussed. The structure of the paper is as follows. Section 1 maps out various factors affecting demand for India’s exports, Section 2, factors affecting supply of India’s exports. Section 3 lists the factors that are likely to affect demand for India’s imports. Section 4 briefly summarizes emerging patterns of India’s comparative advantage in exports of good and services. Section 5 makes some concluding remarks. 1.Factors Affecting the Demand for Exports There is a multitude of factors that are likely to affect the demand for Indias exports of goods and services as seen below. 3 Growth Performance of World Economy and Key Trading Regions The growth rates of the world economy and world trade do influence the overall demand for Indias exports. For instance, the rates of stagnation in the growth rate of world trade in the period since 1996 have affected the growth of Indias exports. Some broad correspondence between the growth rates of world trade and Indian exports is evident from Figure 1. Depending upon the intensities of Indias trade relations the growth prospects in these specific regions may also affect the demand for Indias exports. The regions which may be particularly important for Indias exports include North America, the European Union, Middle East, East and Southeast Asia and South Asia. Therefore, it will be important to watch the growth outlook and projections for these regions. Figure 1: Growth Rates of World Trade and Indias Exports Over the 1990s Source: RIS on the basis of WEO Database of the IMF 1.1.1. World Output and Trade at the Turn of the Century and the Outlook The world economy in 2000 seems to have fully recovered from the slow down of 1998-1999 on account of the East Asian crisis. The estimated world output growth of 4.8 percent in 2000 is highest since 1988 and of world trade at 12.4 percent is highest of the past 25 years (Table 1, Figure 1). The impressive recovery of the world economy and world trade in the early part of 2000 generated optimism all around as countries expected to benefit from favourable spillovers in the form of rise in demand for their exports. However, the optimism has proved to be short lived. It has been partly tarnished somewhat by the crude oil prices hitting the roof in the third quarter of 2000 and adversely affecting the outlook of many regions besides raising the threats of inflation in different parts of the world. Furthermore and more importantly, the emerging trends confirm that a trend of slow down was set in the US economy in the third quarter of the 2000. Hence, fears of a hard landing of the US economy in 2001 have continued to grow. A scenario of hard landing of the US economy in 2001 is thus likely to short-circuit the rebound of the world economy of 1999-2000, even though the major European Union economies are improving their performance. The Japanese economy continues to remain sluggish. The slow down of the US economy has a compounded effect on the growth of the world economy by adversely affecting the demand for the products of partner countries as well. As a result the growth rate of world output is likely to slow down in 2001 from the levels reached in 2000 to 3.2. The world economy is expected to pick up moderately to 3.9 per cent in 2002. The effect of the impending slow down is more severe on the growth rate of world trade which is likely to reduce by nearly half from the rate achieved in 2000 to around 6.5 per cent in 2001 and 2001. In the light of recent trends, the outlook for the world economy and trade growth over the next ten years could be taken at 3 and 6 per cent respectively. *Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. #ASEAN-4. Source: RIS based on World Bank (2001), IMF (2001). 1. WTO Agreements Since the implementation of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round in 1995, the WTO Agreements have become important factors in determining the patterns of world trade. Their full impact is not yet obvious as many provisions of these agreements are yet to be implemented because of the transition period provided. Most of the remaining provisions of the WTO agreements would be implemented in the coming five years. Therefore, the patterns of trade in 2020 would have to be speculated keeping in mind the impact of full implementation of the WTO agreements. Some of the agreements which are likely to affect Indias exports are the following. 1. Agreement on Textiles and Clothing The Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) proposes to phase out the MFA quotas imposed by the developed countries on the imports of textiles and clothing from developing countries over a period of 10 years ending on 31st December 2004. Given the fact that India has substantially fulfilled her quota for the products coming under MFA, it may appear that the phasing out of these quotas would help in the expansion of exports. However, the impact of the phase out is likely to be a mixed bag. This is because with MFA phase out, Indian exporters would be competing directly with other exporters of textiles and garments such as China, Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey, Mexico, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, among others. Therefore, while ATC provides an opportunity to Indian exporters to expand their exports of textiles and garments by removing the quota restrictions, it also poses a challenge of increased international competition. Some of them will enjoy preferential access to the importing countries due to their least developed country (LDC) status such as Bangladesh. There are apprehensions on the full benefits of phase out being available to developing countries. As such the schedule of the phase-out has been back-loaded over a ten-year long phase-out period. The industrialized countries may use other protectionist measures such as anti-dumping to prevent market access after the phase-out of quotas. A large number of textiles and clothing products already face tariffs in the range of 15 to 30 per cent in the Quad countries (World Bank, 2000). Some attempts of restricting them with anti-dumping duties have already been made against these exports including those from India. Another factor that will affect the competitiveness of Indian exports of textiles and garments in the post-MFA regime is the availability of trade preferences to emerging competitors of India. For instance, Mediterranean countries such as Turkey, Cyprus and Malta and Central and Eastern European countries enjoy free trade agreement with the European Union ahead of their full membership. The Caribbean countries enjoy a similar preferential access to the United States market under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI). Mexico enjoys a privileged access to the North American Market as a member of NAFTA. These trade preferences have already resulted into diversion of trade in textiles and clothing to these countries. For instance, Mexican exports of clothing to the United States have grown at the rate of 27 and 15 percent in 1998 and 1999, respectively with the growth rate of exports to Canada in these years being 30 percent and 26 percent, respectively. Similarly, exports of clothing from Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Turkey to the European Union in 1998 have grown at 26 percent, 14 percent, 11 percent, 23 percent and 11 percent, respectively (WTO, 2000). The ability of Indian exporters to take advantage of phase out the MFA quotas by 2004 will depend upon a number of factors such as their ability to enhance overall international competitiveness with productivity and efficiency improvements, quality control, ability to quickly come up with new designs, ability to respond to changes in consumer preferences rapidly and the ability to move up the value chain by building brand names and acquiring channels of distribution to more than outweigh the advantages of her competitors. The reservation of the garment industry for small-scale sector has affected capital investment, modernization and automation in the sector in the country. Although the small sector operation has imparted flexibility, it has prevented exploitation of economies of scale and scope by the Indian industry. The new Textiles Policy takes care of some of the concerns. It remains to be seen if the Indian industry will be able to exploit the opportunities provided by the incr eased market access with the MFA phase-out. 2. Agreement on Agriculture (AoA): The AoA proposes to liberalize the international trade in agriculture by restricting the agricultural subsidies provided by governments to the farmers, reduction in export subsidies in agriculture, removal of QRs and establishment of tariff rate quotas applicable to trade in agricultural commodities. In general India’s obligations under AoA are limited given the low level of agricultural subsidies compared to EU and the US. It is believed that implementation of the AoA commitments by industrialized countries will benefit countries like India in terms of market access for some agricultural commodities. However, the implementation of the commitments on the part of industrialized countries so far does not provide any room for optimism. The extent of subsidies given by industrialized countries have actually increased over the past few years as acknowledged by OECD reports. It is possible that in the coming years the provisions of the Agreement are implemented in the letter and spi rit. The likely effect of the full implementation on India’s trade is difficult to be speculated. However, one can have an idea about the likely scenario from efficiency indicators and incentive structure. Given lower than world prices of rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, chickpea and cotton in India, their exports may expand under the liberalised trade in agriculture. Hence the area under cultivation for these crops may increase since profitability and effective incentives will get tilted in favour of these crops. The same is true for pearl millet, pigeonpea and soyabean. However, production of oilseeds e.g. groundnut, rapeseed, mustard and sunflower, and pulses may be adversely affected in a free-trade scenario given the lower world prices. Thus, the import dependence in edible oils and pulses may increase. 3. Anti-dumping Regulations The Indian exports of a number of commodities have been subjected to anti-dumping regulations by some of our important trading partners such as the United States and the European Union. The onslaught of the anti-dumping measures on Indian exports is likely to increase in future with the growing competitiveness of Indian products. In order to minimize their disruptive effect of these regulations on Indias exports, the industry and government will have to strengthen the machinery to counter such actions (Panchamukhi, 2000). 1.2.4. Tariff Negotiations and New Trade Round Although the average tariff rates in the industrialized countries are low, they have high peak tariffs for certain products, some of which are of export interest to India such as textiles and garments, and agricultural commodities (see Table 3). Market access for these products could be facilitated by our ability to secure reduction in these tariffs in the industrialized countries through future tariff negotiations in the WTO framework. N.B. HS Chapters are given in parentheses. Source: RIS based on UNCTAD/WTO (2000) The Post-Uruguay Round Tariff Environment For Developing Country Exports: Tariff Peaks and Tariff Escalation, UNCTAD, Geneva (TD/B/COM.1/14/Rev.1; 28 January 2000) 1.2.5.Trade Preferences for the Least Developed Countries One emerging development in the WTO system has been the tendency to divide the developing countries with the offer of special trade preferences for the least developed countries. A sizeable proportion of Indias exports still comprise labour and resource intensive goods that are also exported by some of the least developed countries. If successful these preferences have the prospects of diverting trade from India to the least developed countries. The potential of these trade preferences for adversely affecting India’s exports needs to be kept in mind. 2. Chinas Accession to WTO One of the important events of the coming years for the world trade may be the entry of China into the WTO regime. China signed an agreement with the US for its entry into the WTO in November 1999. It has subsequently been negotiating such agreements with other WTO members. The accession of China to the WTO and hence the MFN status that it will receive from other WTO countries may have some implications for the competitiveness of Indias exports. This is because India and China compete in the international market for a number of labour intensive and matured technology goods such as textiles and garments, leather goods, light engineering products, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, among others. China has already been giving tough competition to Indian exports in many commodities and markets. There is a view that the accession to WTO may further strengthen China’s competitiveness and hence may affect the Indian exports adversely. There is another view that the accession of China to WTO would force it to follow WTO norms and procedures, etc. and will bring their trade policy under international surveillance. State subsidies will be regulated and hence it will make it more difficult for the Chinese exporters to dump their products in the world market. The exact impact of the accession of China to the WTO on the Indias export prospects will depend upon these counteracting effects. It is important to analyze the effects of Chinese accession to WTO on the competitiveness of Indian exports. 1.4. Preferential Trade Arrangements/Free Trade Arrangements in Rest of the World The last decade and a half has seen the proliferation of regional trading arrangements in different parts of the world. The major trading blocks that have emerged over the years include the European Union, NAFTA, Mercosur, AFTA, COMESA, among others. Besides, these free trade and common market agreements, a number of other countries have become integrated with the trading blocks through a variety of preferential or free trade arrangements. For instance, European Union has extended free trade agreement treatment to a number of Central Eastern European Union and Mediterranean countries in anticipation of full membership to these countries in the EU. These arrangements could also act to divert trade away from India especially in the labour intensive goods, as indicated earlier in the case of textiles and clothing. 1.5.Regional/Bilateral Free Trade Arrangements India has taken several steps to liberalize trade with her trading partners in the South Asia region on regional as well as bilateral basis. These steps include participation to SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangements (SAPTA) that came into being in December 1995. Under this Agreement, India has exchanged trade concessions with the SAARC member countries for nearly 3000 commodities in the first three rounds of negotiations. The fourth round of these negotiations is in the process. It is expected that the process of trade liberalization in the framework of SAARC will culminate into a South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), although, it may take some time to take shape given the current impasse in the SAARC process. Besides SAPTA, India has recently signed a bilateral free trade agreement with Sri Lanka. India already has bilateral free trade agreement with Nepal and Bhutan. A bilateral free trade agreement is being contemplated with Bangladesh as well. There are other attempts of regional/sub-regional economic integration which may also come into being in the coming decade, for instance, BIMST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation) which has been formed recently may adopt a preferential trading arrangement between the member countries. Although India is also a founder member of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), a preferential trading arrangement is not contemplated as the Association has adopted the concept of open regionalism on the lines of APEC. All these attempts at free trade with the regional partners may open the markets for Indian goods further in the countries concerned. It is evident that the share of South Asian countries in Indias exports has increased from 2.73 to 4.9 over the period 1990 to 1999. The recent initiatives in regional/ bilateral trade liberalization may help to divert some trade of the countries concerned from their other trading partners in favour of India given the supply capabilities. 2. Factors Affecting the Supply of Exports It is widely believed that the major factors constraining India’s exports lie not in the lack of demand but more in the supply side constraints. Most of the supply side factors need to be addressed as a part of the policy towards trade. Some of the factors that constrain the volume and composition of Indias exports are as follows: 1. Infrastructural Bottlenecks It is widely accepted that Indias export potential remains considerably unfulfilled because of infrastructure bottlenecks such as power shortages, port handling facilities, delays in transportation which in turn are due to poor transport links within the country and poor communication facilities. The inability of Indian exporters in meeting supply schedules costs dearly in terms of image of India as a reliable source of supply. Not only that the availability of the infrastructure services is inadequate but the efficiency and quality of the delivery of what is available is highly uneven. The ability of the government in removing these constraints in the coming years will also determine the supply side of Indian exports. 2. Growth of Domestic Demand A rapid growth of domestic demand may also affect Indias ability to export at least in certain products, for instance, in tea where the rapid growth of domestic demand is expected to reduce the export surplus in the coming years. It may also apply to a number of other agricultural commodities such as rice, cotton, among others. 2.3 Inflows of Export-oriented Foreign Direct Investment Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have played an important role in the rapid growth of manufactured exports from the East and South-East Asian countries. This is because the South East and East Asian countries were able to attract export platform investments from US and Japanese MNEs in the 1970s and 1980s. The export platform or export-oriented investment arises in the process of relocation of production by MNEs abroad in order to maintain their international competitiveness in the face of rising wages and other costs in their home countries. In Malaysia and Indonesia, for instance, 70 percent of the projects involving FDI have been export-oriented. In China, the share of foreign owned firms in exports has risen from 5 percent in 1988 to 40 percent by 1997. In contrast, the share of foreign affiliates in Indias exports is marginal at 5 to 7 percent (Kumar and Siddharthan, 1997, for a review of evidence from different countries). Therefore, India has not been able to exploit the potential of MNEs for export-oriented production. MNEs can play an important role in promotion of Indias manufacture exports with relocation of export platform production in the country with their access to global marketing networks, best practice technology and organizational know-how. To some extent, therefore, Indias ability to attract export-oriented FDI will determine the magnitude of Indias exports in 2020. The studies have shown that export-oriented FDI inflows are of special type and are determined by different factors than other types of FDI (Kumar, 1994). The studies also find differences in the nature and determinants of export platform investments that are geared to MNEs home markets and those targeting the third countries (Kumar, 1998). India may make an effort to target the export platform investments of both types by sharpening her bundle of resource endowments and created assets in the light of determinants identified by these studies. 5. Technological Upgrading and Movement along with the Value Chain The Indian export structure has been highly dominated by simple and un-differentiated products where the main competitive advantage lies in cheap labour, low levels of skills and simple technologies compared to that of China and South East Asian countries except for recent growth of pharmaceuticals and software services (Lall, 1999). Not only these products are slow moving, the export structure is highly vulnerable to competition. Indias competitiveness has also been adversely affected by the failure to diversify the commodity composition of our exports. In fact the commodity concentration of Indias exports has increased with a 9 percent rise in the share of top six groups of exports in total and exports between 1987-1988 to 1998-99 (Kumar, 2000a). In comparison to India, Southeast and East Asian countries have rapidly diversified their export structure in favour of technologically advanced goods. For instance, share of technologically advanced goods (differentiated and science based goods) in India’s manufactured exports rose marginally to about 8 per cent by the mid-1990s over 5.6 per cent in the mid-1970s; in China, this proportion increased from 8.8 per cent to 23 per cent over the 1987-95 period, and for Malaysia from 12 per cent to 57 per cent over the 1980 to 1995 (Pigato et al. 1997). The markets for low technology undifferentiated goods are highly price competitive and margins are kept under pressure by constant competition by entry of new low wage countries.

Death And Paralysis In The Sisters

Death And Paralysis In The Sisters In order to recognize that Joyces Dubliners is a work unified by death, it is necessary for one to return to the beginning, where a meticulous reading is paramount, and start again. The opening story, The Sisters, is concerned with death and its impact upon the living individuals left in its wake. If the reader considers its function as essentially an introductory chapter, one will start to detect a palpable semblance of unity throughout Dubliners, as this story establishes the overarching theme of death and its associated motifs: paralysis, silences, and epiphanies-the latter of which are inextricably rooted in the poetics of modernity. The Sisters is a story that is concerned with youth, which represents the beginning of a progression from childhood to maturity. In this regard, the storys form parallels the narrative for the reader, as the story at its heart is concerned with the young narrators developing awareness; at the same time, the reader starts to acquire a simultaneous awa reness of the afore-mentioned themes and motifs. As we shall see, The Sisters functions as a gnomon for the entire collection of stories, as its narrator is but one of many more who are stifled and subjugated by their environment-like a patient etherized upon a table, as the ubiquitous J. Alfred Prufrock might say (Eliott 1). The Sisters ushers the readers into the world of Dubliners through the eyes of a child narrator. The narrator, along with the reader, confronts images of death in the opening paragraph through a lighted square of window-analogous to the window-panes of J. Alfred Prufrock. It is here, at the very beginning, that the narrator introduces the word paralysis, heralding a theme which reoccurs with death throughout the entirety of Dubliners. In A Beginning: Signification, Story, and Discourse in Joyces The Sisters, Staley emphasizes the beginning paragraph as an overture for the themes, conflicts, and tensions that were to be evoked again and again à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ throughout all of Dubliners (20). Furthermore, Staley affirms that the initial sentences tone of finality and certainty à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ begins the circle of death for Dubliners (22). If one were to accept Staleys claim that the opening paragraph acts as an overture for the novel, it could then be argued that death and paralysis ar e not to be seen as separate entities in the context of Dubliners, but that the two are directly related, if not intertwined. Father Flynn, through his physical paralysis, comes to embody many of the characters in Dubliners, the majority of whom are paralyzed to some extent, whether it is physically, mentally, or emotionally. Later, the reader witnesses the manner in which death interrupts or arrests the living, as the narrator lays in the dark of [his] room and imagines that he sees the heavy grey face of the paralytic (Joyce 11). Already, one can intuit that the dead play a haunting role in Dubliners, as Gothic elements are common to modernist literature. This is evidenced here, as the narrator feels that he is smiling feebly like the paralytic priests cadaver (11). Indeed, at this point the living and dead start to merge as a single image, with the narrator mirroring the state of an immobile Father Flynn. In his critical essay on The Sisters, Corrington states that the boy and the old man fuse briefly through this smile, which contrasts elements of youth and death (24). The innocence of youth is tainted early in Dubliners, as death and Father Flynns deathly influence permeate The Sisters, looming behind both reader and narrator like an ominous shade. The child narrator may very well be a reflection of the reader, mirroring the thought processes that lead to a simultaneous realization of deaths paralyzing nature in the world of Dubliners. The narrators epiphany on deaths paralyzing quality is inadvertent, even ironic, as he calls attention to a sensation of freedom as if [he] had been freed from something by his death (Joyce 13). His actions in the story are contrary to this supposed sense of freedom; it becomes apparent that Father Flynns influence fills the silence that he left behind and acts as an interrupting force. Such a force bears similarities to the dead Catherines effect upon Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, where the latters life is dominated by her memory. Indeed, the narrator goes so far as to anthropomorphize paralysis as a maleficent and sinful being that fill[s] [him] with fear, yet he long[s] to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work (Joyce 9). The boy is both repelled and oddly compelled by the paralysis he experiences here, which exposes his inability to be truly free from Father Flynns death. Therefore, paralysis can be regarded the work of death, as both the boy and his sisters find the mselves utterly torpid in the wake of Father Flynns passing. The boys inability to find any fraction of freedom from Father Flynns death becomes more evident as his mental haunting persists. Here, the child imagines the heavy grey face of the paralytic and feels the apparition follow [him] (Joyce 11). Father Flynn is referred to synecdochically here, defined by a heavy grey pallor that suggests death incarnate, further melding themes of death and paralysis. More importantly, perhaps, the narrator has rendered Father Flynn incomplete, a gnomon by definition. Joyce employs the Euclidian definition of gnomon: a remainder after something has been removed (Joyce 9). This depiction of Father Flynn becomes significant later when one considers who is left more complete by the end of the story, and further relates to Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights, who is left incomplete by his loss of Catherine, making him a gnomon of sorts as well. Nonetheless, this point illustrates the narrators inability, or perhaps reluctance, to be freed by Father Flynns passin g. Indeed, it seems significant that he imagine[s] Father Flynns face rather than dreaming about it, which would indicate a sort of conscious rejection of letting the dead be truly dead. In Dubliners: A Students Companion to the Stories, Werner states that when contemplating the word paralysis, the boy attributes to it an active presence that he wishes to observe rather than evade, and the same can be said about the concept of death for the narrator, as both themes are interlaced throughout the story (45). The development of consciousness in regard to death and its paralyzing quality is central to The Sisters. This development points to the storys role as a beginning, as the maturation, or lack thereof, of the various narrators consciousness and perception later becomes a major issue throughout Dubliners. Epiphanies are abundant in Dubliners, as they are in Virginia Woolfs To the Lighthouse, T.S. Eliots The Wasteland, and other modernist literature; nonetheless, as Werner notes in Dubliners: A Students Companion to the Stories, Joyce only gradually focuses his attention on the experience of revelation (47). Furthermore, the increasing complexity of his epiphanies is basic to the mature voice capable of articulating the contingent experiences of truth as an ongoing process for character, author, narrator, and reader (55). Such a development can be seen in the various protagonists encounters with death in Dubliners. In particular, The Sisters represents a beginning for both reader and na rrator. Just as the boy is experiencing his first encounter with death, the reader is experiencing his first bitter taste of life within the world of Dubliners. As a result, there is a simultaneous introduction to life and death. The moment of realization in the penultimate paragraph displays the narrators perception of death, as he states simply that the old priest was lying still in his coffin as we had seen him, solemn and truculent in death (Joyce 18). Here, the narrator still attributes a certain sense of hostility to Father Flynn as if to further affirm the haunting qualities of his death. The detached style in which Joyce imparts this realization is important, as it indicates that the narrator is barely cognizant of anything beyond the dead body. As Beck states in Joyces Dubliners: Substance, Vision, and Art , this realization communicates no incredibly precocious philosophical breakthrough, but the verisimilitude of a dawning awareness, a gradual, hushed, yet decisive epiphany (Beck 43). More importantly, the boy does not seem conscious of his paralysis as later narrators, such as Gabriel Conroy and Duffy, are. If the opening story is essentially a framing device, one can assume that the child narrator in The Sisters exhibits the start of a vicious cycle of internalizing paralysis. Werner claims that the narrator of Araby represents the first stage in the development of a destructive solipsism portrayed in adult characters such as Duffy, but one can argue that this stage actually begins with the narrator of The Sisters (54). Furthermore, Beck notes that the narrator of the Sisters eventually realizes his identity just that much more, and with it his secret isolation (43). Indeed, the core of the story is the boys beginning to see into himself as to the life around him, specifically the impedance of death upon that life. Death is the catalyst for epiphanies in both The Sisters and A Painful Case. In the former example, death triggers an emotional paralysis in the living, while in the latter story, death causes a realization of Duffys pre-existing emotional paralysis. Here, it is important to expound upon the significance of the narrators youth in the story. As Werner notes, the stories of childhood in Dubliners picture early confrontations of young boys with their corrupt environment (41). In The Sisters, such an environment is marked by an inevitable convergence of the living and the dead wherein the latter haunts the former. The young narrator is paralyzed by the external circumstances of his life, as Werner would argue. In fact, Werner goes on to claim that such a suffocating experience encourage[s] even the more sensitive à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ children to accept and internalize paralysis, which leads directly to adult counterparts who have surrendered utterly to paralysis (41, 42). James Duffy, the protagonist in A Painful Case, exemplifies the adult Dubliner who has repressed his emotional paralysis for entirely too long, measuring his life in coffee spoons in the same manner as J. Alfred Prufrock. Silence is introduced in the opening paragraph as yet another motif to be associated with death. As mentioned, the narrator of The Sisters characterizes the very presence of Father Flynns corpse with an antagonistic silence. However, one should note the relationship between Father Flynns silence and the sisters referenced in the title, as the two entities are almost at odds with one another. As the story progresses, the sisters keep attempting to break the persistent silence with their patter, but the dialogue is only ever about Father Flynn. In this manner, the dead haunt even the speech of the living. Corrington remarks that the old man has had a certain degree of ascendance over [the sisters] and even in death, he is their primary concern (22). Corringtons comments are primarily concerned with the sisters as a symbol of devoted service to the Catholic Church, the notion of Father Flynns ascendance and enduring presence speak to the haunting nature of the dead. Father Flynn is neve r more than a cadaver in The Sisters, yet his influence is undeniable. He looms over the environs silently, but to such an extent that the silence becomes a malevolent force. Rabate comments on the nature of silence in the context of Dubliners, writing that silence can finally appear as the end, the limit, the death of speech, its paralysis (33). If one works within the notion of silence as an antagonistic opposition to speech, the final moments of The Sisters can be seen as the ultimate paralysis inflicted by the dead Father Flynn. Joyce ends with Elizas speech, interrupted by ellipses before it finally trails off, imparting a paralyzing silence upon the reader. It is as if the characters, like J. Alfred Prufrock, are left wondering the same: how should I begin? Joyce extols little intimation of hope within the world of Dubliners, where the living portray an emotionally paralyzed life equivalent to that of the dead. It is only upon further examination that one can argue that Joyce actually glorifies death to some extent and indicates it as a more amenable condition. Although the eponymous sisters dialogue throughout the story is rife with clichà ©, a particular assertion is striking. Eliza declares that Father Flynn had a beautiful death, which brings to mind Joyces claim that death is the most beautiful form of life (Joyce, Dubliners 15; Joyce, James Clarence Mangan 60). She goes on to say that Father Flynn make[s] a beautiful corpse, which contrasts the paralyzed depiction of his earthly life. In fact, Father Flynn is marked by a certain incompleteness from the opening paragraph of The Sisters, when the narrator associates the priests paralysis with the word gnomon (Joyce 9). As mentioned, the narrator only represents Father Flynn symboli cally-by his face-which further suggests an incompleteness. Finally, the broken chalice symbolizes the beginning of Father Flynns broken state-his burgeoning madness. Another definition of the word gnomon is applicable to Father Flynn; as discussed in lecture, it is a shadow cast as on a sundial (66). Father Flynns influence as a deathly shade is undeniable, as he lingers throughout the story. On the other hand, his being, or lack thereof, serves to illuminate the partial, reduced lives of Joyces Dubliners, which seems to be Joyces ultimate goal here (66). The storys explicit concern with the dynamic of life and death is a deliberate one, as Joyce carefully arranged the order of stories in Dubliners (Beck 42). Indeed, the exploration of life and death is both central to modernity and the major crux upon which Dubliners is unified. Thus, Becks concern with the meaning and interpretation of the story are secondary to revealing the manner in which it functions as an overture to the novel (42). Ultimately, The Sisters establishes a pattern of the dead impacting life to the point of paralysis that is not altered until the final story. The Sisters makes it possible to explore the later stories of Dubliners in the context of themes and motifs set forth from the very beginning. Werner states that the remainder of Dubliners fulfills [the narrators] longing to be nearer to paralysis and its deadly work, which is an accurate assessment, as Joyce continues to develop this particular theme throughout the work (35). It is this inexplicable, paradoxical longing that harkens back to the poetics of modernity and notions of the sublime. The Sisters functions as an overture for Dubliners, introducing the themes and motifs that serve to unify the novel. Death and paralysis are intertwined throughout Dubliners, as they are in many other modernist works. Paralysis is present not only in The Sisters, but in A Love Song for J. Alfred Prufrock, in which the titular protagonist wonders endlessly, do I dare? The impact and implications of death can be seen as well through the influence of Father Flynn. Like Catherine of Wuthering Heights, he hovers over the lives of others like a shade, lending Gothic elements to an otherwise realistic, if stagnant depiction of Irish life. These themes provide an appropriate context-a modernist context-in which the rest of the novel can not only be enjoyed, but properly engaged.