Thursday, September 5, 2019
The Goods Service Tax In Malaysia
The Goods Service Tax In Malaysia IS THE INTRODUCTION OF THE GOODS SERVICE TAX (GST) IN MALAYSIA GOOD OR BAD? Chapter 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION. In the new global economy, more companies are operating cross border, and as such are faced with the need to deal effectively with many different taxes, often in many different countries, each with different rates, ruling and application. Coupled with this, the regulatory environment is increasingly challenging. The IMF has been trying to push for all countries to adopt the Goods Service Tax (GST), or also known in certain countries as Value Added Tax (VAT), so as to create a more level playing field amongst trading nations. Direct taxes have in the past been used to camouflage à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"protectionism policy of certain countries. High tariff on certain product like motorcar has prevented healthy competition amongst trading nations. The general populations of that country are left without a choice but to consume the local products, as imported products have become more expensive with the high tariff. Often, because of this, the local products tend to be inferior in quality as the re is no real incentive to compete. In the 2005 Budget, the Government of Malaysia announced that GST will be implemented on Jan 1 2007 to replace the current sales and service tax (SST). Following public outcry, on 22 February 2006 it announced a deferment to allow lead time to businesses for potential changes in processes, development of software and personnel training. The first reading of the GST Bill was tabled in December 2009 and the second and third reading is expected in April 2010. The Prime Minister recently announced that the increase in revenue expected from the introduction of GST will be used mainly to finance the hike in Civil Servants salary and to finance other infrastructure works for the benefit of the nation at large. Problem Statement Is GST really needed for Malaysia? If so, how does it affect the general public and the country as a whole? The aim of this paper is to discuss and bring to attention the problems which we might face with the implementation of the GST, or if we are to remain status quo with the SST. Chapter 2 Literature review The Ministry of Finance presented the following information to highlight on GST. It stated that it would be part of the overall tax reform to overcome the inherent weaknesses in the SST and to reduce the reliance on revenue from direct taxes and petroleum. GST is a more efficient and effective tax system as it is self policing and has an in-build cross checking features. It enhances tax compliance and deals with less bureaucracy. It is also a more stable source of revenue compared to income tax and less susceptible to economic downturn due to the consumption nature of the tax. The main types of taxes are direct and indirect taxes. Direct taxes are: Corporate Tax, Personal Income Tax, Real Property Gains Tax and Stamp duty whilst indirect taxes are Tariff (or Customs Duty), Excise Tax, SST (currently practiced in Malaysia) and GST. Contribution from petroleum revenue to total revenue increased from 29.1% (1990) to 40.1% (2008). The current high petroleum revenue is not sustainable as it is a depleting resource therefore and alternative source have to be sought. With the present average birth rate of 2.2, it is expected that by 2030, 12% of the population will be above 60 years old which almost double the current number. The working population paying taxes will therefore reduce, putting a greater burden on a smaller group of people. GST is a broad-based tax that distributes the burden of taxation among a larger section of the population based on consumption. GST preserve the incentive to work and encourages enterprise as it is not a progressive income tax. The tax rate does not increase according to income level; it is flat at the determined rate. It is levied at the production and distribution stages, thereby incorporating a self-policing mechanism that facilitates administration and makes it more difficult to avoid or evade. This further reduces the possibility of revenue loss through understatement of tax evasion. The GST model implemented in Malaysia is not expected to have cascading, or pyramiding, effect as the tax on a particular good depends upon its final value, and not the number of production and distribution channel it passes through. Furthermore, the output tax to be paid will be offset against the input tax, and there is no GST levied over GST. GST is expected to provide a more stable source of revenue as consumption is less affected by economic cycles compared to income tax. It can be an effective tax on the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"shadow economy, as those involved would consume, and thus pay indirect taxes through GST. It is likely that those involved in such activities would buy luxury goods, which would be subjected to GST. The government is cutting its operating expenditure for 2010 by 13%. This shows it is aware of the growing deficit that has widened due to the stimulus package. Recently, Fitch rating agency has cut the rating of the ringgit, which may cause imported inflation if it depreciates, and the International Monetary Fund commented that the GST needs to be implemented urgently. Malaysias budget 2010 reports on GST; is that, it is currently at the final stage of completing the study on the implementation, where analysts are measuring the social impact of its presence in Malaysia. The Malaysian government said that it could be possible for them to implement this in the near future. Looking at Malaysia in a broader scale, GST will not only affect big businesses, but small and medium enterprises (SME) as well. Although there were nimble of past information saying that a food outlet can only charge GST if its annual turnover is above RM3 million (3,000,000 Ringgit Malaysia), the GST compliance requirements and thresholds has not been officially announced. If we were to take into account GSTs implementation into goods and services, we have to assume that it will happen to all stages of the supply chain; which means from the purchase of raw materials or start-up goods all the way to end-user (consumer ready) products available for sale. Ultimately in a product, GSTs charged to every level are passed on to the next person and ultimately, the consumer. A Tax Review Panel was formed in middle of 2005, and it has come out with a Discussion Paper intended for businesses to understand the basic administrative requirements and procedures when GST is implemented so that they know the impact of GST. Secondly, the Tax Review Panel invites the business community and other relevant organizations and associations to review the proposal in that paper. Thirdly, by having a public consultation, it provides an appropriate forum for both the public and private institutions to exchange views with members of the Tax Review Panel so as to understand the rationale behind the proposals initiated. The GST was supposed to be implemented in Malaysia in the year 2007; however the government has to defer the move due to critical reviews by certain quarters. After losing four States to the opposition, it has to tread on a careful path in order not to lose more public support. It cannot afford to make any more major mistake in the wake of its dismal performance in the last General Election. GST is generally known as a tax system which results in regressivity (i.e. people with less pay a greater share of their resources than those with more), in contrast with the ideal aim of progressivity which is generally sought when implementing a tax. It is sometimes argued that a GST system does not work in a poor region such as Africa, where most countries have heavy external debt burdens, malnutrition, civil wars and lack of food and medicines which often result in inhuman living conditions. Nevertheless, with the support of the IMF, VAT/GST systems were designed in many African countries to combat or at least alleviate the adverse effect of VAT/GST regressivity by having a list of exemptions and zero-ratings which apply (generally speaking) to basic foodstuffs and other basic necessities. GST is not always simple to administer, contrary to what the advocates of GST would want countries to believe during the transformation stage. Unless a proper GST administration, supported by modern technology and electronic communication systems can be implemented, GST administration will inevitably be costly for both the Revenue Authorities and the business sector. The output/input mechanism of the GST system, coupled with GST refunds, may provide the ideal opportunity for fraud where corrupt officials and unscrupulous businesses exploit weaknesses in the system. This again results in a defensive attitude from the Revenue Authorities, resulting in bad communication, cash flow and other GST cost. In 1992, a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed which reduced import tariffs between ASEAN member countries. In the first three years of the FTA, exports amongst the ASEAN countries grew from US$43 billion to US$80 billion. In 1997, the leaders of ASEAN adopted the vision to build a stable, prosperous and highly competitive economic region, in which there is a free flow of goods, services and investments, a freer flow of capital, equitable economic development and reduced poverty and socio-economic disparities. The plan is to remove all tariffs for the six more developed countries by 2010 and for all countries by 2015. The summit also progressed the efforts to integrate ASEAN with the much larger economies of Asia- Pacific, specifically China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and New Zealand. China signed a pact to introduce the worlds largest free trade zone by 2010, covering almost two billion people. Japan signed a similar agreement to take effect by 2012. India agreed to join in by 2011. Australia and New Zealand have agreed to talks starting next year to free up trade within a decade. The master plan is to have a free trade zone that can compete with the US and EU. In South East Asia, Malaysia remains one of the few countries yet to adopt the GST system, which would indirectly be in the way, if we want to be part of this master plan. In Malaysia, it was announced that essential goods and services will not be subjected to GST, but fears that GST will spark a chain reaction that will increase the prices of most non-controlled items should not be dismissed. We have seen numerous examples of when there is an increase in a certain commodity; it sparks a price rise in most goods and services. For example, when the petrol price increased to RM2.70, prices of most goods, foods and services were hiked. But after the petrol price dropped, there has not been a substantial correction in the prices of goods, food and services. The relevant ministries are powerless to mitigate the situation and curb the necessary inflation. A recent example is on the removal of the subsidy on white bread resulting in price increase of one loaf of bread by 20 to 30 cents. The Deputy Domestic Trade, Cooperative Consumer Affairs Minister can only comment that the price adjustment was not necessary, urge traders to practice corporate social responsibility and call on the consumers to execute their power in hand. All these statements will not effectively curb excessive profiteering and traders taking opportunity to increase the price of goods and service. The public would want to know how the government intends to avoid the similar predicament What is GST and how does it work? GST is a consumption tax charged on a wide range of domestic international products, goods and services. Its a broad-based tax imposed on every level of a product, from raw materials all the way to finished goods. The proposed implementation of GST will replace the current Malaysian service tax and sales tax. Broadly, GST works by offsetting GST paid on purchases (input tax) against GST due on sales or supplies made (output tax). This is referred to as the credit offset mechanism. The multi tier stages of tax helps to ensure that GST paid by businesses for purchases does not end up being a permanent cost. However, the consumer ultimately bears the burden of the tax. Conceptually, GST is imposed on the value added to goods or services by each separate processor in the production and distribution chain. This can be seen in the simple illustration below. GST to Government RM 4 + RM2 = RM6 (i.e. 4% x RM 100) i.e.4% x RM 150 = RM6 Output tax i.e. 4%x150 Less RM4 Input tax RM2 Net 4% is the assumed standard rate of GST. It is assumed that the entire output is taxable and all input taxes are creditable. FINAL CONSUMER Cost to consumer = RM 156 SUPPLIER Selling price = RM100 GST(4%) = RM 4 Total = RM 104 MANUFACTURER Cost = RM 100 Value added = RM 50 Total = RM 150 GST (4%) = RM 6 Total = RM 156 2.1 SOME CONCERN ABOUT THE INTRODUCTION OF GST. There were some concerns that Malaysians could suffer even more with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). GST-driven inflation would be a calamity that the struggling lower-income group could do without. The GST Bill was tabled in Parliament at the end of the Budget sitting that ended on 17 December 2009. At its first reading, the bill was just mentioned, but there was no explanation of the bill or any debate. The second reading is when the bill is open for debate and proposed amendments. This may come as early as March 2010 for the GST Bill. Once approved, the new tax can be implemented as early as 2011. The table below lists the governments tax revenue for 2008 which contributed RM112.9 billion or 70 per cent of total government revenue. Government Tax Revenue in 2008 Personal Income Tax            RM 15.0 bil Company Tax                        RM 37.7 bil Petroleum Tax                      RM 24.2 bil Export and import duties      RM  5.4 bil Excise duties                        RM 10.7 bil Sales and Services Tax        RM 11.7 bil As shown in the table, the biggest source of tax revenue is company tax, which at 26 per cent of declared profits, currently brings in RM37.7 billion into government coffers. Petroleum tax makes up the second biggest tax item while the tax levied on the 1.5 million individuals who are now currently paying personal income taxes in Malaysia makes up the third biggest. All these taxes are deemed progressive for they tax the richest individuals and the companies that are making profits. Progressive taxes do not burden the poorer sectors of society. Progressive taxes tend to equal out income differences between the rich and the poor in society. It was argued that regressive tax regimes, on the other hand, burden the poor. Sales taxes are generally regressive as they tax consumption and not income. But sales tax in Malaysia has different rates for different types of goods and the government can make them less regressive by levying sales taxes exclusively on good that are consumed by the richer sectors of society such as expensive cars, big houses, overseas travel, expensive restaurants and other luxury items. The Goods and Services Tax, however, is perceived to be even more regressive for it is levied at a flat rate on a very wide range of products including many items that the poorer people need to buy. It might lead to a rise in prices and would definitely hit the poorest the hardest. As in most countries with the GST in place, a reduction of corporate tax and personal tax will follow suit. This then, is seen as the real reason that the GST is being brought in à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" to make Malaysia more business friendlyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? by cutting corporate tax (which has already been reduced markedly from the 40 per cent level in 1988 to its current 26 per cent). 2.2 LACK OF INFORMATION AND CONFUSION ON GST. The piecemeal release of information is creating great concern among the people and in the business sector. For example; Will the authorities furnish an extensive list of item that will be charged GST, and what will be exempted? If a product, like rice or chicken is exempted, does the exemption apply across the board regardless of the form of the product? For example, is cooked rice or cut, frozen or marinated chicken also exempted? What is the difference between exempt and zero-rated GST? Will there be any reduction in personal and corporate tax? What changes will be made to the sales and service tax? There is a perception that as GST is a multistage tax, it would result in higher effective tax rate than 4%. As GST is very technical, most people are unaware how it will impact them. When will the GST rate be reviewed? Recent media statement on its impact did not improve opinion on the introduction of GST. It is reported that under the sales and services tax system, the burden on the poor is 2.38%, but under the GST it will be 2.17%. For the higher income group, the tax burden will be reduced from 13% to 2.74%, according to the Finance Ministry. The overall savings for households will be between RM14.52 and RM346.92 yearly. This clearly contradicts other statement from politicians, and the public perception, that the GST will be inflationary. But as no further details are provided on how the savings are arrived at, public sentiment remains negative on GST. CHAPTER 3 EXPECTED IMPACT OF GST 3.1 Impact on the people in the street. The public is generally concerned that the introduction of GST will hit their wallets directly. In an initial assessment, as the GST is expected to be lower than service tax, the bill for a restaurant meal will be 1% lower as the service tax rate is 5% and GST is 4%. For other services liable to service tax, a GST rate lower than service tax should result in a slight decrease in charges if the cost of the other components in providing the service remain the same. On goods that attract sales tax, the current rate seems higher than the proposed GST, hence there might be a reduction if there is no further adjustment. Current rates are as follows; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Fruits, certain foodstuff and building materials (5%) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ General goods, including motor vehicle (10%) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Liquor and alcoholic drinks (20%) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Cigarette and cheroots (25%) For hawkers; even though they do not have a turnover of RM500,000 yearly, so are not required collect GST, the material procured, for example, noodles, fish balls, processed meat, chicken, equipments for the stall may be subjected to GST, resulting in price hike. But without detailed knowledge or mapping, or even information on the duties charged, the people are uncertain whether the prices of goods and services will remain stagnant, increase or decrease. 3.2 IMPACT ON BUSINESSES. The implementation of GST is expected to impact business in the following manner: Compliance costs are expected to be incurred as there is requirement to track the input tax and output tax to determine refund or tax to be submitted. Even though some Malaysian companies are already paying sales tax or service tax, there was no input tax to be monitored and accounted for to offset against output tax. Business process and procurement need to be mapped out, especially with respect to suppliers and promotional items. For example, a new car attract GST, but items provided for free during promotion like sports rims or a GPS system à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" may not be eligible for an input tax claim. Likewise the corporate souvenirs and hampers given out by businesses may not be eligible. The procurement department should start detailing the sales tax or the existing tax paid for their items used a raw material. As the GST is expected to be lower than most current indirect tax, there should be some potential cost savings. This is also to avoid being overcharged by supplier that intends to add the GST over the existing price of its supplies after sales tax, there should be some potential cost saving. Human resource factor: New staff may need to be employed to ensure a business is compliant and conversant with the GST requirement. As most staff have not been exposed to GST, training needs to be conducted. Accounting system and account payable: The business would require an appropriate accounting system to keep track of the GST amounts. Most systems could be upgraded, and it is important to notify software vendors to test run the data to avoid any potential complication. Cash flow management: Businesses should be aware that output GST may have to be settled before settlement of sales invoices by customer. Meanwhile, payables on which input tax has been claimed but remains unpaid after six months have to be accounted as output tax and are to be reclaimed as input tax only after payment is made. Businesses are concerned about the timeliness of the refund process as delays would results in a higher working capital cost. In addition, businesses that have thin margins are worried about the speed of the refund for input tax, especially if the business is mainly exported-oriented and procure its raw material locally. 3.3 OTHER IMPACTS: The expected impact on corporate and income taxes are as published in the news recently. Deputy Finance Minister Chor Chee Heung quoted that Malaysia will see a gradual reduction in its corporate and income tax rates once the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) is in place by mid-2011. He does not think that there was a timeline for achieving this reduction in corporate and income taxes, as this is a long-term objective of the government. Once the GST come into play, it will be a broad based tax and the trend is, once GST is implemented, corporate and income taxes will gradually be reduced. Chor also disclosed that businesses related to services such as those in the food and transportation sectors, would be exempted from the proposed GST. He gave assurance that the cost of living and lifestyle of the people would not increase or be affected with the implementation of a GST. He also added that the implementation of GST would not cause inflation. Once the GST is in, the service tax and sales tax (now imposed) would be abolished. Both taxes are quite high at 10 per cent and five per cent respectively. The GST at four per cent is considered very low. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministrys Tax Review Panel Chairman, Ms. Kamariah Hussain, said there would be revenue gains of about 1.0 Billion Ringgit for the government with the GST implementation. She explained that the introduction of the GST was part of an overall tax reform in the country. With the GST, the government would have a better mix of revenue, and not be too dependent on income tax and petroleum income. Second Finance Minister, Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah had indicated that while the GST would replace the existing sales and services taxes, it would not put pressure on prices and to ease the burden of consumers, staple foods such as rice, sugar, cooking oil and flour would be exempted from it. 3.3.1 IMPACT OF GST ON SMALL MEDIUM ENTERPRISE (SME). SMEs form the backbone of the business activities of a nation. Other than encouraging the growth of new industries such as tourism and biotechnology-based industries, the Government (2004 Budget Proposals) too has singled out SMEs to spearhead domestic growth. However, there is a group of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"unhappy people representing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the public who have expressed their non-approval for the introduction of the proposed GST. Their main argument is that GST favours the rich and burdens the poor at large. Their contention is that it will burden the people and contribute to the widening gap between the rich and the poor, not to mention the rise in the inflation rateà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. However, tax practitioner, Beh Tok Koay is of the opinion that perhaps this small group lacks an understanding of the whole system of GST. It is supposed to be broadbased and will replace the service and sales tax system, and this in turn will help to reduce income tax ratesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. There could be two GST rates: a lower rate for SMEs and a higher rate for large enterprises. Imposing two GST rates is, however, difficult to administer as they provide ample room for tax avoidance and increase compliance cost. Lowering the compliance cost of GST would ease the burden of SMEs. If there is convincing data to show that the compliance cost of SMEs are lower if the accounts are computerized, then the Government could provide software packages to the licensees to enable them to correctly compute GST. Free training and seminars including visits should be extended to SMEs to enable them to have a better understanding of the compliance requirements. One other option is to exempt small busine sses from GST altogether but such a decision too has its drawbacks. The Government has to analyze the revenue gain as compared to the compliance cost before making a decision to determine the threshold limit. With the two-year window period before GST is in force, all of us have a role to play in contributing towards the development of a better broad-based consumption tax system which ultimately would help reduce the rates of income tax. No doubt, everyone especially the SMEs will eagerly await the final introduction of the GST system and the extent of the expected income tax rate cuts. The business community, NGO and charity organization are concerned about the ability of the authorities to implement GST smoothly. Australia, for example, had to bring in foreign experts to help in rollout of GST. It would undermine investor confidence if the GST is not implemented in a structured manner with minimal hiccup. Burdening the poor and those economically vulnerable: Some 32% of the household in Malaysia have an income under RM2,000 per month. The introduction of GST without the necessary revamp of subsidies will result in a heavier financial burden on poor and low-income families. Families with an income below RM2,000 a month do not have to pay personal income tax. With GST, things that are not basic necessities toys, processed food, can food, packet drinks, and so on, could increase existing inflationary pressures. The ongoing restructuring of the subsidy will also create the tension, discomfort and dissatisfaction as people eligible for subsidy could unintentionally be left out as the government establishes and tries to refine its method of distribution. CHAPTER 4 4.0 CONCLUSION GST is unavoidable. It will just be a matter of time when it will be implemented. It may not be a perfect system, but has worked well as a revenue base for other countries. Malaysias problem may lie more in public education, implementation and enforcement. To move forward, Malaysia has to conform to the free trade vision of ASEAN and cannot lag behind the other countries. As of today, apart from Malaysia, only Myanmar and Brunei has yet to implement the GST. GST modernises the tax system by addressing tax evasion committed by free riders who want every benefit but refuse to pay for it, or rather have others to pay for them. GST will certainly be a good platform to increase the Governments revenue. Concerns of it being regressive can be overcome by careful and prudent classifications of zero rated supplies and exempt supplies for essential items as against standard supplies for non essential and luxury items. One good point of starting late is the ability to learn from the mistakes of others. The government has to be fully transparent in the implementation of the proposed GST. In this borderless world, news and knowledge cannot be curbed. The masses are getting more intelligent and informed. It will not be prudent for the government of the day not to move forward towards a more modern tax system. Rather than blind opposition, critics should provide examples and lessons learnt from the weaknesses of other nations in the implementation of GST or VAT. However, based from past experience, the skeptism voiced is understandable. We have heard of past Auditor General Reports on the wastage and the leakage of public funds into the pockets of the well connected; of RM 25 screw drivers being bought through tender at a price of RM200; commissions running into millions of ringgit for the purchase of Sukhov jets and submarines; and billions swallowed in the PKFZ scandal. The sums involved are astronomical. Then we have newly built hospitals that cannot be used, court room complexes with leaked ceilings and stadium roofs that collapsed in the absence of even a small earthquake. So, whether the GST will finally proved to be good or bad for the country will remain a question mark until its actual implementation. The actual salary increase as promised by the government might not be the expected pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if the GST is not properly implemented. The Goods Service Tax In Malaysia The Goods Service Tax In Malaysia IS THE INTRODUCTION OF THE GOODS SERVICE TAX (GST) IN MALAYSIA GOOD OR BAD? Chapter 1 1.0 INTRODUCTION. In the new global economy, more companies are operating cross border, and as such are faced with the need to deal effectively with many different taxes, often in many different countries, each with different rates, ruling and application. Coupled with this, the regulatory environment is increasingly challenging. The IMF has been trying to push for all countries to adopt the Goods Service Tax (GST), or also known in certain countries as Value Added Tax (VAT), so as to create a more level playing field amongst trading nations. Direct taxes have in the past been used to camouflage à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"protectionism policy of certain countries. High tariff on certain product like motorcar has prevented healthy competition amongst trading nations. The general populations of that country are left without a choice but to consume the local products, as imported products have become more expensive with the high tariff. Often, because of this, the local products tend to be inferior in quality as the re is no real incentive to compete. In the 2005 Budget, the Government of Malaysia announced that GST will be implemented on Jan 1 2007 to replace the current sales and service tax (SST). Following public outcry, on 22 February 2006 it announced a deferment to allow lead time to businesses for potential changes in processes, development of software and personnel training. The first reading of the GST Bill was tabled in December 2009 and the second and third reading is expected in April 2010. The Prime Minister recently announced that the increase in revenue expected from the introduction of GST will be used mainly to finance the hike in Civil Servants salary and to finance other infrastructure works for the benefit of the nation at large. Problem Statement Is GST really needed for Malaysia? If so, how does it affect the general public and the country as a whole? The aim of this paper is to discuss and bring to attention the problems which we might face with the implementation of the GST, or if we are to remain status quo with the SST. Chapter 2 Literature review The Ministry of Finance presented the following information to highlight on GST. It stated that it would be part of the overall tax reform to overcome the inherent weaknesses in the SST and to reduce the reliance on revenue from direct taxes and petroleum. GST is a more efficient and effective tax system as it is self policing and has an in-build cross checking features. It enhances tax compliance and deals with less bureaucracy. It is also a more stable source of revenue compared to income tax and less susceptible to economic downturn due to the consumption nature of the tax. The main types of taxes are direct and indirect taxes. Direct taxes are: Corporate Tax, Personal Income Tax, Real Property Gains Tax and Stamp duty whilst indirect taxes are Tariff (or Customs Duty), Excise Tax, SST (currently practiced in Malaysia) and GST. Contribution from petroleum revenue to total revenue increased from 29.1% (1990) to 40.1% (2008). The current high petroleum revenue is not sustainable as it is a depleting resource therefore and alternative source have to be sought. With the present average birth rate of 2.2, it is expected that by 2030, 12% of the population will be above 60 years old which almost double the current number. The working population paying taxes will therefore reduce, putting a greater burden on a smaller group of people. GST is a broad-based tax that distributes the burden of taxation among a larger section of the population based on consumption. GST preserve the incentive to work and encourages enterprise as it is not a progressive income tax. The tax rate does not increase according to income level; it is flat at the determined rate. It is levied at the production and distribution stages, thereby incorporating a self-policing mechanism that facilitates administration and makes it more difficult to avoid or evade. This further reduces the possibility of revenue loss through understatement of tax evasion. The GST model implemented in Malaysia is not expected to have cascading, or pyramiding, effect as the tax on a particular good depends upon its final value, and not the number of production and distribution channel it passes through. Furthermore, the output tax to be paid will be offset against the input tax, and there is no GST levied over GST. GST is expected to provide a more stable source of revenue as consumption is less affected by economic cycles compared to income tax. It can be an effective tax on the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"shadow economy, as those involved would consume, and thus pay indirect taxes through GST. It is likely that those involved in such activities would buy luxury goods, which would be subjected to GST. The government is cutting its operating expenditure for 2010 by 13%. This shows it is aware of the growing deficit that has widened due to the stimulus package. Recently, Fitch rating agency has cut the rating of the ringgit, which may cause imported inflation if it depreciates, and the International Monetary Fund commented that the GST needs to be implemented urgently. Malaysias budget 2010 reports on GST; is that, it is currently at the final stage of completing the study on the implementation, where analysts are measuring the social impact of its presence in Malaysia. The Malaysian government said that it could be possible for them to implement this in the near future. Looking at Malaysia in a broader scale, GST will not only affect big businesses, but small and medium enterprises (SME) as well. Although there were nimble of past information saying that a food outlet can only charge GST if its annual turnover is above RM3 million (3,000,000 Ringgit Malaysia), the GST compliance requirements and thresholds has not been officially announced. If we were to take into account GSTs implementation into goods and services, we have to assume that it will happen to all stages of the supply chain; which means from the purchase of raw materials or start-up goods all the way to end-user (consumer ready) products available for sale. Ultimately in a product, GSTs charged to every level are passed on to the next person and ultimately, the consumer. A Tax Review Panel was formed in middle of 2005, and it has come out with a Discussion Paper intended for businesses to understand the basic administrative requirements and procedures when GST is implemented so that they know the impact of GST. Secondly, the Tax Review Panel invites the business community and other relevant organizations and associations to review the proposal in that paper. Thirdly, by having a public consultation, it provides an appropriate forum for both the public and private institutions to exchange views with members of the Tax Review Panel so as to understand the rationale behind the proposals initiated. The GST was supposed to be implemented in Malaysia in the year 2007; however the government has to defer the move due to critical reviews by certain quarters. After losing four States to the opposition, it has to tread on a careful path in order not to lose more public support. It cannot afford to make any more major mistake in the wake of its dismal performance in the last General Election. GST is generally known as a tax system which results in regressivity (i.e. people with less pay a greater share of their resources than those with more), in contrast with the ideal aim of progressivity which is generally sought when implementing a tax. It is sometimes argued that a GST system does not work in a poor region such as Africa, where most countries have heavy external debt burdens, malnutrition, civil wars and lack of food and medicines which often result in inhuman living conditions. Nevertheless, with the support of the IMF, VAT/GST systems were designed in many African countries to combat or at least alleviate the adverse effect of VAT/GST regressivity by having a list of exemptions and zero-ratings which apply (generally speaking) to basic foodstuffs and other basic necessities. GST is not always simple to administer, contrary to what the advocates of GST would want countries to believe during the transformation stage. Unless a proper GST administration, supported by modern technology and electronic communication systems can be implemented, GST administration will inevitably be costly for both the Revenue Authorities and the business sector. The output/input mechanism of the GST system, coupled with GST refunds, may provide the ideal opportunity for fraud where corrupt officials and unscrupulous businesses exploit weaknesses in the system. This again results in a defensive attitude from the Revenue Authorities, resulting in bad communication, cash flow and other GST cost. In 1992, a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed which reduced import tariffs between ASEAN member countries. In the first three years of the FTA, exports amongst the ASEAN countries grew from US$43 billion to US$80 billion. In 1997, the leaders of ASEAN adopted the vision to build a stable, prosperous and highly competitive economic region, in which there is a free flow of goods, services and investments, a freer flow of capital, equitable economic development and reduced poverty and socio-economic disparities. The plan is to remove all tariffs for the six more developed countries by 2010 and for all countries by 2015. The summit also progressed the efforts to integrate ASEAN with the much larger economies of Asia- Pacific, specifically China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and New Zealand. China signed a pact to introduce the worlds largest free trade zone by 2010, covering almost two billion people. Japan signed a similar agreement to take effect by 2012. India agreed to join in by 2011. Australia and New Zealand have agreed to talks starting next year to free up trade within a decade. The master plan is to have a free trade zone that can compete with the US and EU. In South East Asia, Malaysia remains one of the few countries yet to adopt the GST system, which would indirectly be in the way, if we want to be part of this master plan. In Malaysia, it was announced that essential goods and services will not be subjected to GST, but fears that GST will spark a chain reaction that will increase the prices of most non-controlled items should not be dismissed. We have seen numerous examples of when there is an increase in a certain commodity; it sparks a price rise in most goods and services. For example, when the petrol price increased to RM2.70, prices of most goods, foods and services were hiked. But after the petrol price dropped, there has not been a substantial correction in the prices of goods, food and services. The relevant ministries are powerless to mitigate the situation and curb the necessary inflation. A recent example is on the removal of the subsidy on white bread resulting in price increase of one loaf of bread by 20 to 30 cents. The Deputy Domestic Trade, Cooperative Consumer Affairs Minister can only comment that the price adjustment was not necessary, urge traders to practice corporate social responsibility and call on the consumers to execute their power in hand. All these statements will not effectively curb excessive profiteering and traders taking opportunity to increase the price of goods and service. The public would want to know how the government intends to avoid the similar predicament What is GST and how does it work? GST is a consumption tax charged on a wide range of domestic international products, goods and services. Its a broad-based tax imposed on every level of a product, from raw materials all the way to finished goods. The proposed implementation of GST will replace the current Malaysian service tax and sales tax. Broadly, GST works by offsetting GST paid on purchases (input tax) against GST due on sales or supplies made (output tax). This is referred to as the credit offset mechanism. The multi tier stages of tax helps to ensure that GST paid by businesses for purchases does not end up being a permanent cost. However, the consumer ultimately bears the burden of the tax. Conceptually, GST is imposed on the value added to goods or services by each separate processor in the production and distribution chain. This can be seen in the simple illustration below. GST to Government RM 4 + RM2 = RM6 (i.e. 4% x RM 100) i.e.4% x RM 150 = RM6 Output tax i.e. 4%x150 Less RM4 Input tax RM2 Net 4% is the assumed standard rate of GST. It is assumed that the entire output is taxable and all input taxes are creditable. FINAL CONSUMER Cost to consumer = RM 156 SUPPLIER Selling price = RM100 GST(4%) = RM 4 Total = RM 104 MANUFACTURER Cost = RM 100 Value added = RM 50 Total = RM 150 GST (4%) = RM 6 Total = RM 156 2.1 SOME CONCERN ABOUT THE INTRODUCTION OF GST. There were some concerns that Malaysians could suffer even more with the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). GST-driven inflation would be a calamity that the struggling lower-income group could do without. The GST Bill was tabled in Parliament at the end of the Budget sitting that ended on 17 December 2009. At its first reading, the bill was just mentioned, but there was no explanation of the bill or any debate. The second reading is when the bill is open for debate and proposed amendments. This may come as early as March 2010 for the GST Bill. Once approved, the new tax can be implemented as early as 2011. The table below lists the governments tax revenue for 2008 which contributed RM112.9 billion or 70 per cent of total government revenue. Government Tax Revenue in 2008 Personal Income Tax            RM 15.0 bil Company Tax                        RM 37.7 bil Petroleum Tax                      RM 24.2 bil Export and import duties      RM  5.4 bil Excise duties                        RM 10.7 bil Sales and Services Tax        RM 11.7 bil As shown in the table, the biggest source of tax revenue is company tax, which at 26 per cent of declared profits, currently brings in RM37.7 billion into government coffers. Petroleum tax makes up the second biggest tax item while the tax levied on the 1.5 million individuals who are now currently paying personal income taxes in Malaysia makes up the third biggest. All these taxes are deemed progressive for they tax the richest individuals and the companies that are making profits. Progressive taxes do not burden the poorer sectors of society. Progressive taxes tend to equal out income differences between the rich and the poor in society. It was argued that regressive tax regimes, on the other hand, burden the poor. Sales taxes are generally regressive as they tax consumption and not income. But sales tax in Malaysia has different rates for different types of goods and the government can make them less regressive by levying sales taxes exclusively on good that are consumed by the richer sectors of society such as expensive cars, big houses, overseas travel, expensive restaurants and other luxury items. The Goods and Services Tax, however, is perceived to be even more regressive for it is levied at a flat rate on a very wide range of products including many items that the poorer people need to buy. It might lead to a rise in prices and would definitely hit the poorest the hardest. As in most countries with the GST in place, a reduction of corporate tax and personal tax will follow suit. This then, is seen as the real reason that the GST is being brought in à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" to make Malaysia more business friendlyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? by cutting corporate tax (which has already been reduced markedly from the 40 per cent level in 1988 to its current 26 per cent). 2.2 LACK OF INFORMATION AND CONFUSION ON GST. The piecemeal release of information is creating great concern among the people and in the business sector. For example; Will the authorities furnish an extensive list of item that will be charged GST, and what will be exempted? If a product, like rice or chicken is exempted, does the exemption apply across the board regardless of the form of the product? For example, is cooked rice or cut, frozen or marinated chicken also exempted? What is the difference between exempt and zero-rated GST? Will there be any reduction in personal and corporate tax? What changes will be made to the sales and service tax? There is a perception that as GST is a multistage tax, it would result in higher effective tax rate than 4%. As GST is very technical, most people are unaware how it will impact them. When will the GST rate be reviewed? Recent media statement on its impact did not improve opinion on the introduction of GST. It is reported that under the sales and services tax system, the burden on the poor is 2.38%, but under the GST it will be 2.17%. For the higher income group, the tax burden will be reduced from 13% to 2.74%, according to the Finance Ministry. The overall savings for households will be between RM14.52 and RM346.92 yearly. This clearly contradicts other statement from politicians, and the public perception, that the GST will be inflationary. But as no further details are provided on how the savings are arrived at, public sentiment remains negative on GST. CHAPTER 3 EXPECTED IMPACT OF GST 3.1 Impact on the people in the street. The public is generally concerned that the introduction of GST will hit their wallets directly. In an initial assessment, as the GST is expected to be lower than service tax, the bill for a restaurant meal will be 1% lower as the service tax rate is 5% and GST is 4%. For other services liable to service tax, a GST rate lower than service tax should result in a slight decrease in charges if the cost of the other components in providing the service remain the same. On goods that attract sales tax, the current rate seems higher than the proposed GST, hence there might be a reduction if there is no further adjustment. Current rates are as follows; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Fruits, certain foodstuff and building materials (5%) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ General goods, including motor vehicle (10%) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Liquor and alcoholic drinks (20%) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Cigarette and cheroots (25%) For hawkers; even though they do not have a turnover of RM500,000 yearly, so are not required collect GST, the material procured, for example, noodles, fish balls, processed meat, chicken, equipments for the stall may be subjected to GST, resulting in price hike. But without detailed knowledge or mapping, or even information on the duties charged, the people are uncertain whether the prices of goods and services will remain stagnant, increase or decrease. 3.2 IMPACT ON BUSINESSES. The implementation of GST is expected to impact business in the following manner: Compliance costs are expected to be incurred as there is requirement to track the input tax and output tax to determine refund or tax to be submitted. Even though some Malaysian companies are already paying sales tax or service tax, there was no input tax to be monitored and accounted for to offset against output tax. Business process and procurement need to be mapped out, especially with respect to suppliers and promotional items. For example, a new car attract GST, but items provided for free during promotion like sports rims or a GPS system à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" may not be eligible for an input tax claim. Likewise the corporate souvenirs and hampers given out by businesses may not be eligible. The procurement department should start detailing the sales tax or the existing tax paid for their items used a raw material. As the GST is expected to be lower than most current indirect tax, there should be some potential cost savings. This is also to avoid being overcharged by supplier that intends to add the GST over the existing price of its supplies after sales tax, there should be some potential cost saving. Human resource factor: New staff may need to be employed to ensure a business is compliant and conversant with the GST requirement. As most staff have not been exposed to GST, training needs to be conducted. Accounting system and account payable: The business would require an appropriate accounting system to keep track of the GST amounts. Most systems could be upgraded, and it is important to notify software vendors to test run the data to avoid any potential complication. Cash flow management: Businesses should be aware that output GST may have to be settled before settlement of sales invoices by customer. Meanwhile, payables on which input tax has been claimed but remains unpaid after six months have to be accounted as output tax and are to be reclaimed as input tax only after payment is made. Businesses are concerned about the timeliness of the refund process as delays would results in a higher working capital cost. In addition, businesses that have thin margins are worried about the speed of the refund for input tax, especially if the business is mainly exported-oriented and procure its raw material locally. 3.3 OTHER IMPACTS: The expected impact on corporate and income taxes are as published in the news recently. Deputy Finance Minister Chor Chee Heung quoted that Malaysia will see a gradual reduction in its corporate and income tax rates once the proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) is in place by mid-2011. He does not think that there was a timeline for achieving this reduction in corporate and income taxes, as this is a long-term objective of the government. Once the GST come into play, it will be a broad based tax and the trend is, once GST is implemented, corporate and income taxes will gradually be reduced. Chor also disclosed that businesses related to services such as those in the food and transportation sectors, would be exempted from the proposed GST. He gave assurance that the cost of living and lifestyle of the people would not increase or be affected with the implementation of a GST. He also added that the implementation of GST would not cause inflation. Once the GST is in, the service tax and sales tax (now imposed) would be abolished. Both taxes are quite high at 10 per cent and five per cent respectively. The GST at four per cent is considered very low. Meanwhile, the Finance Ministrys Tax Review Panel Chairman, Ms. Kamariah Hussain, said there would be revenue gains of about 1.0 Billion Ringgit for the government with the GST implementation. She explained that the introduction of the GST was part of an overall tax reform in the country. With the GST, the government would have a better mix of revenue, and not be too dependent on income tax and petroleum income. Second Finance Minister, Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah had indicated that while the GST would replace the existing sales and services taxes, it would not put pressure on prices and to ease the burden of consumers, staple foods such as rice, sugar, cooking oil and flour would be exempted from it. 3.3.1 IMPACT OF GST ON SMALL MEDIUM ENTERPRISE (SME). SMEs form the backbone of the business activities of a nation. Other than encouraging the growth of new industries such as tourism and biotechnology-based industries, the Government (2004 Budget Proposals) too has singled out SMEs to spearhead domestic growth. However, there is a group of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"unhappy people representing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the public who have expressed their non-approval for the introduction of the proposed GST. Their main argument is that GST favours the rich and burdens the poor at large. Their contention is that it will burden the people and contribute to the widening gap between the rich and the poor, not to mention the rise in the inflation rateà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. However, tax practitioner, Beh Tok Koay is of the opinion that perhaps this small group lacks an understanding of the whole system of GST. It is supposed to be broadbased and will replace the service and sales tax system, and this in turn will help to reduce income tax ratesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. There could be two GST rates: a lower rate for SMEs and a higher rate for large enterprises. Imposing two GST rates is, however, difficult to administer as they provide ample room for tax avoidance and increase compliance cost. Lowering the compliance cost of GST would ease the burden of SMEs. If there is convincing data to show that the compliance cost of SMEs are lower if the accounts are computerized, then the Government could provide software packages to the licensees to enable them to correctly compute GST. Free training and seminars including visits should be extended to SMEs to enable them to have a better understanding of the compliance requirements. One other option is to exempt small busine sses from GST altogether but such a decision too has its drawbacks. The Government has to analyze the revenue gain as compared to the compliance cost before making a decision to determine the threshold limit. With the two-year window period before GST is in force, all of us have a role to play in contributing towards the development of a better broad-based consumption tax system which ultimately would help reduce the rates of income tax. No doubt, everyone especially the SMEs will eagerly await the final introduction of the GST system and the extent of the expected income tax rate cuts. The business community, NGO and charity organization are concerned about the ability of the authorities to implement GST smoothly. Australia, for example, had to bring in foreign experts to help in rollout of GST. It would undermine investor confidence if the GST is not implemented in a structured manner with minimal hiccup. Burdening the poor and those economically vulnerable: Some 32% of the household in Malaysia have an income under RM2,000 per month. The introduction of GST without the necessary revamp of subsidies will result in a heavier financial burden on poor and low-income families. Families with an income below RM2,000 a month do not have to pay personal income tax. With GST, things that are not basic necessities toys, processed food, can food, packet drinks, and so on, could increase existing inflationary pressures. The ongoing restructuring of the subsidy will also create the tension, discomfort and dissatisfaction as people eligible for subsidy could unintentionally be left out as the government establishes and tries to refine its method of distribution. CHAPTER 4 4.0 CONCLUSION GST is unavoidable. It will just be a matter of time when it will be implemented. It may not be a perfect system, but has worked well as a revenue base for other countries. Malaysias problem may lie more in public education, implementation and enforcement. To move forward, Malaysia has to conform to the free trade vision of ASEAN and cannot lag behind the other countries. As of today, apart from Malaysia, only Myanmar and Brunei has yet to implement the GST. GST modernises the tax system by addressing tax evasion committed by free riders who want every benefit but refuse to pay for it, or rather have others to pay for them. GST will certainly be a good platform to increase the Governments revenue. Concerns of it being regressive can be overcome by careful and prudent classifications of zero rated supplies and exempt supplies for essential items as against standard supplies for non essential and luxury items. One good point of starting late is the ability to learn from the mistakes of others. The government has to be fully transparent in the implementation of the proposed GST. In this borderless world, news and knowledge cannot be curbed. The masses are getting more intelligent and informed. It will not be prudent for the government of the day not to move forward towards a more modern tax system. Rather than blind opposition, critics should provide examples and lessons learnt from the weaknesses of other nations in the implementation of GST or VAT. However, based from past experience, the skeptism voiced is understandable. We have heard of past Auditor General Reports on the wastage and the leakage of public funds into the pockets of the well connected; of RM 25 screw drivers being bought through tender at a price of RM200; commissions running into millions of ringgit for the purchase of Sukhov jets and submarines; and billions swallowed in the PKFZ scandal. The sums involved are astronomical. Then we have newly built hospitals that cannot be used, court room complexes with leaked ceilings and stadium roofs that collapsed in the absence of even a small earthquake. So, whether the GST will finally proved to be good or bad for the country will remain a question mark until its actual implementation. The actual salary increase as promised by the government might not be the expected pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if the GST is not properly implemented.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip: An Analysis
Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip: An Analysis The Role of Imagination in Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip and Its Analysis In Terms Of Reader-Oriented Criticism The imaginative and creative aspects of literature are essentials components of the word literature itself. Literature is the product of human being’s imagination and intellect so through literature we can live more than one life. Imagination can be expressed as a mental faculty which all people have and as an important principle in literary theory. Only imagination provides the possibility to take us to times, places and realities that we have not lived before. Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award in 2007 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Jones shows us that literature provides an escape from real life through imagination and it also allows entrance to another world escaping from oppressive political regimes in his novel Mister Pip. In this essay, Mister Pip will be analyzed in terms of the role of imagination and reader – oriented criticism. The novel Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones is set in the early 1990s on Bougainville Island in the Ocean, in the middle of a civil war. There is a blockade around the island, and the majority of natives and non-natives have gone. The last white man on the island, Mr Watts, has stayed behind with his native wife and he decides to teach the children. The only thing he knows, is Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. He reads the novel to them and the children are greatly affected by it. When the children carry on the story to their parents, and soldiers and rebels invade the village, a misunderstanding due to the novel results in the destruction of the village. In Mister Pip, we can realize that thanks to imagination an author and reader are able to deal with, judge, and enjoy literature. Literary works give the possibility of manifold inner experiences, because imagination enables the author to create and the reader to follow literary realities on different levels. According to Albert Einstein, â€Å"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.†In Mister Pip, although Mr. Watts has the only textbook which is Dicken’s Great Expectations, he gives his students more than knowledge by showing the true way to reach their imagination. Besides, if we have looked at the Dictionary of Psychology, we actually understand what imagination is. It is â€Å"the reorganization of data derived from past experiences, with new relations, into present ideational experience.†In other words it’s the ability to take old datas with some new datas mixed in and make a picture in your mind. We can divide imagination into three basic types: Imitative imagination, creative imagination and literary imagination. Imitative imagination is apparently the mind’s reconstruction of the past. People use their brains to conceptualize something they have experienced and recreate it. In Mister Pip, we can illustrate this imitative imagination that when the copy of Great Expectations which the only thing that the children have is stolen, the children are invited to recreate the text from the fragments they can remember. On the other hand, creative imagination involves mental imagery, which is based on past images or experiences to construct feelings or conditions that we have never experienced before. The island children discover the Great Expectations by means of Mr. Watts and for them the novel provides an imaginative escape route from their daily realities to a new friend for their adventures and confidences. Moreover, at the end of the novel, Matilda, the protagonist, comments on her life with these following sentences : People sometimes ask me â€Å"Why Dickens?†which I always take to be a gentle rebuke. I point to the one book that supplied me with another world at a time when it was desperately needed. It gave me a friend in Pip. It taught me you can slip under the skin of another just as easily as your own, even when that skin is white and belongs to a boy alive in Dickens’ England. Now if that isn’t an act of magic I don’t know what is. (Jones 199) She reveals her success in becoming a scholar and a Dickens expert and concludes her narrative by emphasizing the power of literature to offer escape and solace in the worst of times. Great Expectations has a long-lasting influence on her, and considering the novel as a whole, it is Dickens’ novel that prompts her to look back and write her life story. She also learns that â€Å"escape†can be achieved imaginatively, that one can furnish an alternative world in one’s own mind. Imagination also enables Matilda to learn that things could change and even a person can change into something because literature has a transformative power. Literature of significance says to us, â€Å"Change your life†. An intelligent voice appeals to our way of thinking and feeling and proposes a challenge. How does this affect the possibilities in your life? Steiner (142) remarks on the indiscretion of serious art; it invades our last privacies and exposes our unknown motives and belief. [] When we are emotionally engaged, our minds are more attentive and our opportunity for learning is heightened. Emotions code the information we are receiving and it enters more deeply into our awareness. When we are moved by what we read, we respond, either in thinking, discussions with others, or sometimes in writing our own stories. Our interpretation is a moral act. We find that our response to what is on the page is immediate, no matter how long ago the author laid down her words. With time and experience in reading, we form an intensity of sight, what we might call a literary intelligence.(Susan Barber, 2005) Based on the quotation above, we can grasp this idea that any author and reader can see the literary or possible world in reference to their personal realities by appealing to the imagination. Whether literature works best as an agent for social change or whether it is just entertainment, art is still able to delight us through contact with the author’s creativity and imagination. In addition, Lloyd Jones said in an interview that he chose to introduce it, rather than any other classic novel, because it would be â€Å"the perfect book [†¦] to position in a society that was broken down and [†¦] pulled apart by eternal strife and war. Here is [†¦] the role model, here is the possibil ity for you to think about your own life. You can reinvent yourselves†(Lloyd Jones Podcast) . In Mister Pip, Matilda realizes that the characters of Great Expectations teach her to enter the soul of another, ultimately to imagine and the novel invites her to imagine another life and also Mr. Watts gives his students a friend: Pip and their imagination. At the beginning of the novel, Mr Watts promises that the children get acquainted with Mr Dickens, at the same time he opens up the classroom as a space of ambiguity, a place where he acknowledges differing opinions and the subjectivity of interpretation. He wants to show them that it is possible to change their lives because Pip did it and Mr. Watts did it, too. He intends to give the village children an alternative world to the one they live in: an imaginary world where everything is new and different, as opposed to their own world of constant fear. The children perceive Great Expectations with fascination and are open to the idea of the imagination. When the soldiers invade the island and are told that this new world is fictitious, they refuse to believe it because they are far away from this new world. The rebels, all of them teenagers, do not get to listen to Great Expectations but Mr. Watts tells them a made-up story about his life acting like Pip, a character of Great Expectations although it is fiction, they believe it to be a true story and are fascinated, reacting just like the village children initially reacted to Great Expectations. All of them perceive it each in their own way. The world depicted in Mister Pip is one of Lloyd Jones’ imagination, because he has never been in Bougainville during the conflict. Moreover, Matilda’s imagination is so powerful that she believes her island will be saved and her life will change like Pip who is her childhood friend, however, when Matilda is a t the university, she reads Great Expectations once more but she interprets it quite differently.  Matilda temporarily reinvents herself, by starting a new life in Australia after leaving the island, but at the end of the novel she decides to return home. Her confronting the previous traumas will also be the subject matter of this article. Mr. Watts is somewhat similar to Pip, because he manages to move away from a situation he was unhappy in, and reinvent himself, just like Pip. However, his past continues to haunt him till his death. The novel affects people both positively and negatively. When the redskins have burnt down the village, Mr. Watts tries to comfort the children and himself by telling them that â€Å" we have all lost our possessions and many of us our homes, but these losses, severe though they may be, remind us of what no person can take, and that is our minds and our imaginations’’ (Jones 106). From this it is clear that fiction and the imagination work together to reinvent ourselves. In Mister Pip, Mr. Watts reads Great Expectations to his pupils in a different way and the characters in the novel understand it in a different way. A literary work can have more than one interpretation and each reader does not interpret in the same way. This is called reader-oriented criticism. According to the nineteenth-century essayist, novelist and literary critic Henry James, â€Å"this house represents the literary form-a story, a novel,a poem,or an essay-with each window being an individual reader’s distinct impression of that literary work†. Each person reads the same text but all will obtain different impression. Reader response criticism declares that the reader is just as much a producer of meaning as the text itself. Reader-response criticism began in the 1960s and 70s, particularly in America and Germany, in works byRoland Barthes, Norman Holland,Wolfgang Iser,Hans-Robert Jauss,Stanley Fish. Wolfang Iser, a German literary scholar, builds a reader oriented theory around the concepts of narrative. According to Iser’s gap theory and Rosenblatts’ transactional theory, no text can exist until either the reader or an interpretive community creates it and gaps mean the absent details and connections within a narrative that a reader must fill in or make up his or her own experiences. Iser also claims that â€Å"the reader is an active, essential player in the text’s interpretation, writing part of the text as the story is read and concretized and, indispensably, becoming its coauthor†. For Rosenblatts, â€Å"the text acts as a stimulus for eliciting various past experiences, thoughts and ideas from the reader, those found in both our everyday existence and in past reading e xperiences. Simultaneously, the text shapes the readers’ experiences by functioning as a blueprint, selecting, limiting and ordering those ideas that best conform to the text†. In this case, Mister Pip is an example novel which shows that a reader interprets the text in ways that reveal his or her identity and different readers produce different interpretations and even different texts. With this following quotation, we can openly comprehend that each reader should fill the gaps with his or her interpretation or imagination. Gist. This needed explaining. Mr. Watts put it this way.†If I say tree, I will think English oak, you will think palm tree. They are both trees. A palm and an oak both successfully describe what a tree is but they are different trees.†So this is what gist meant. We could fill in the gaps with our own worlds.(Jones 113) Based on the quotation above, we can realize that Mr. Watts teach to the children how to see and analyze something with their own eyes. An other important literary theorist, Norman Holland points out that the reader makes sense of the text by creating a meaningful unity out of its element. He also claims that if the facts of a text have satisfied the reader’s ego, the reader readily projects her or his fears and wishes onto it. For him, the text frees the reader to reexperience his or her self-defining fantasies and to hold their importance. For example, if we have deeply looked at the novel, we see that through its plot, characters, technical and stylistic preferences, it makes the reader reconsider roles of literature. In The Fictive and the Imaginary (1993), Iser argues that literature has lost the quality to lead and improve the reader because media and schools have imposed established beliefs and fixed thoughts so Iser suggests that fiction and imaginary provides breaking the boundaries and overcoming these fixed ideas. In this following quotation, we can see how fiction and imagination provide a psychological escape from thoughts of daily life in a novel. Mr Watts had given us kids another piece of world. I found I could go back to it as often as I liked. What’s more, I could pick up any moment in the story. No. I was hearing someone give an account of themselves and all that had happened. I was still discovering my favourite bits. Pip in the graveyard surrounded by the headstones of his dead parents and five dead brothers ranked high. We knew about death-we had seen all those babies burried up on the hillside. Me and Pip had something else in common ; I was eleven when my father left,so neither of us really knew our fathers.(25) Dickens’ novel changes the way Matilda perceives her life and her surroundings, lets her to draw parallels between Pip and herself, and provides her with another world to which she can escape. Additionally, literature has the potential to open up our minds, not only to what is but to what could be. Like Iser, Stanley Fish, a contemporary reader oriented critic, argues that meaning inheres in the reader, not the text and the text is tabula rasa and the reader determines the form and content of the text. His theory is radical and controversial. He states that In the procedures I would urge, the readers activities are at the center of attention, where they are regarded not as leading to meaning but as having meaning.†He defends this idea because he believes that there is no stable basis for meaning. There is no correct interpretation that will always be true. Meaning does not exist in the text. It exists, rather, within the reader. From this following quotation, we can co mprehend that Matilda interprets her experiences in the light of reader-response criticism. By now I understood the importance of the forge in the book. The forge was home: it embraced all those things that give a life its shape. For me, it meant the bush tracks, the mountains that stood over us, the sea that sometimes ran away from us, it was the ripe smell of blood I could not get out of my nostrils since I saw Black with its belly ripped open. It was the hot sun. It was the fruits we ate, the fish, the nuts. The noises we heard at night. It was the earthy smell of the makeshift latrines. And the tall trees, which like the sea, sometimes looked eager to get away from us. It was the jungle and its constant reminder of how small you were, and how unimportant, compared to the giant trees and their canopy’s greed for sunlight. [] It was fear, and it was loss. (Jones 46) Based on the quotation above, Jones shows us that Reader-oriented criticism opens a new window to the readers and shows that the subjective experiences and imagination affect readers’ interpretations. We can comprehend from these lines that interpretations of each work change from person to person.  In conclusion, Mister Pip is a novel that shows how literature and imagination can change our lives for the better or for the worse. Matilda also shows the reader that it is possible to get lost in a fiction and by means of imagination we can start a new life. In the novel, Lloyd Jones gives us the fact that there is always hope in spite of our bad memories. Through reading we can imagine ourselves into someone else’s life and empathize with them and we start feeling as them, to see the world as they see it. So this essay will be helpful to understand that considering Reader-oriented criticism, everybody has a different interpretation about literary works and also through imagination each work can be invaluable for the reader to guide him/her in the way of life.  Works Cited Barber, Susan. The Importance of Developing the Feeling Function: How Literature Can Help. Sfu Ca. Apr 2005. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. Bressler,Charles E.. Literary Criticism.New Jersey:Pearson,2007.Print Daly, Sathyabhama. and Stephen Torre.â€Å"Ecosublimity in Lloyd Jones’s Mister Pip†. Townswille: James Cook UP,2011.Print. Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. New York: Collins Classics,2010. Print. Jones, Lloyd. Mister Pip.New Zealand:Penguin,2006.Print. . â€Å"Lloyd Jones Podcast.† Mister Pip – Random House Official Website. Web. 14 Sept. 2010. Audio. 13 Mar. 2014. Klein, Jà ¼rgen. Vera Damm and Angelika Giebeler. â€Å"An Outline of a Theory of Imagination.† Journal for General Philosophy of Science 14,1 (1983): 15-23.JSTOR. Web.10 November 2013. Mazzoni, Giuliana. and Amina Memon. â€Å"Imagination Can Create False Autobiographical Memories.†Journal of Psychological Science, 14.2 (2003):186-188. JSTOR. Web.10 November 2013. Quincey, Thomas De. â€Å"The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power.† Essays of Yesterday and Today. L.Tinker, Harold. London: Macmillan,1934. 617-626. Print Robertson, Ian. Opening the Mind’s Eye: How Images and Language Teach us How to See. New York: St. Martin.2002.Print Taylor, Beverly . â€Å"Discovering New Pasts: Victorian Legacies in the Postcolonial Worlds of Jack Maggs and Mister Pip. †Victorian Studies ,52,1,(2009):95-105.JSTOR.Web.11 November 2013. Tompkins, Jane P..Reader Response Criticism:From Formalism To Poststructuralism. Baltimore:The Johns Hopkins UP, 1980.Print
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
The Great Depression :: essays research papers
Introduction It should be noted that all of the cures have been tried and while we seem to be free of Depressions, it's not clear that business cycles have been eliminated. Causes The Stock Market Crash The Stock Market Crash in October of 1929 is often cited as the beginning of the Great Depression, but did it actually cause it? The answer is no. First, the stock price for a particular company merely reflects current information about the future income stream of that company. Thus, it is a change in available information that changes the stock price. When the Fed began to raise interest rates in early 1929, this began the tumble. However, a stock market crash could cause people to increase their liquidity preference which might lead them to hoard money. In the August 1990 issue of The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Christine D. Romer writes that "the negative effect of stock market variability is more than strong enough to account for the entire decline in real consumer spending on durables that occurred in late 1929 and 1930." Hoarding Money People hoard money because they have a liquidity preference. I.e., people want to have their assets in a readily convertible form, such as money. There are several misconceptions about hoarding money. First hoarding is not the same thing as saving. If I put my money into a savings account, that money is lent out to someone else who then spends it. Second, hoarding, by itself, cannot cause a recession or depression. As long as prices and wages drop instantly to reflect the lower amount of money in the economy, then hoarding causes no problems. Indeed, hoarding can even be seen as beneficial to those who don't hoard, since their money will be able to buy more goods as a result of the lower prices. If a country has a gold standard, then hoarding money can make the money supply drop dramatically since a gold standard makes the quantity of money difficult for the government to control. The Gold Standard At the time of the Great Depression,America had a 100% gold standard for its money. This meant that all cash was backed by a government promise to redeem it in a specific amount of gold (at the time, one ounce of gold was redeemable for twenty dollars). Because the amount of money circulating in the economy is wholly dependent on the amount of gold available, the money supply is very rigid.
Vet Essay -- essays research papers fc
Veterinarians           The topic I chose was veterinarians. What is a vet (short for veterinarian)? â€Å"Vets are animal doctors†says Dee Ready. They care for sick animals. â€Å"Just as people visit the doctor when they are sick, animals need help of doctors too†says Betsy Imershein.      What do veterinarians do? The vet may operate, fix a broken bone or give an animal a shot. Whatever is wrong with an animal is what the vet has to do.      There are different kinds of vets. Some care for pets. This includes dogs, cats, birds and things of that nature. Others care for farm animals. This includes cows, pigs, goats, sheep, horses or other things you would find on a farm. â€Å"The large animal vet makes house calls†says Rod Bellville and Cheryl Walt Bellville and they also said that â€Å"large animals vets frequently vaccinate small animals during a farm visit.†Other vets work at the zoo and they never know what they have to work on, like lions, tigers and monkeys.      What do veterinarians wear? When they are in a lab, they wear lab coats. When they are on a farm, they wear coveralls and tall rubber boots, according to what environment they are in decides.      What tools do veterinarians use? They use the same type as human doctors but made for animals like a stethoscope and syringes.    &nbs...
Monday, September 2, 2019
Conceptualization of Culture and Language in Post Colonial Literature Essay
Culture and Language are the major issues in the post colonial theory. My assignment will deal with these three factors in terms of colonial perspectives. The post colonialism mainly explores the ideas such as cultural diversity, geographical dimensions, Diasporas, race, ethnicity, marginality, hybridity, national identities, cultural transformation, changes and politics in language etc†¦ Considerations of hybridity run the range from existential to material, political to economic, yet this discussion will not be able to tease out the extensive implications of each consideration. Rather, this discussion aims to explore the notion of hybridity theoretically, synthesizing the vast body of literature to critique essentialist notions of identity as fixed and constant. According to my understanding of Hybridity, there are three ways in which hybridity might serve as a tool for deconstructing the rigid labels that maintain social inequities through exclusion in race, language and nation. By exploring how the hybrid rejects claims of bonds within race, language, and nation, I understood that cultural studies like these are imperative in considering the politics of representation. For the purposes of this discussion, the cultural hybridity refers to the integration of cultural bodies, signs, and practices from the colonizing and the colonized cultures. The contemporary cultural landscape is an amalgam of cross-cultural influences, blended, patch-worked, and layered upon one another. Unbound and fluid, culture is hybrid and interstitial, moving between spaces of meaning. The notion of cultural hybridity has existed far before it was popularized in postcolonial theory as culture arising out of interactions between â€Å"colonizers†and â€Å"the colonized†. However, in this time after imperialism, globalization has both expanded the reach of Western culture, as well as allowed a process by which the West constantly interacts with the East, appropriating cultures for its own means and continually shifting its own signifiers of dominant culture. This hybridity is woven into every corner of society, from trendy fusion cuisine to Caribbean rhythms in pop music to the hyphenated identities that signify ethnic Americans, illuminating the lived experience of ties to a dominant culture blending with the cultural codes of a Third World culture. Framing Cultural Hybridity in post colonial context; Among postcolonial theorists, there is a wide consensus that hybridity arose out of the culturally internalized interactions between â€Å"colonizers†and â€Å"the colonized†and the dichotomous formation of these identities. Considered by some the father of hybrid theory, Homi Bhabha argued that colonizers and the colonized are mutually dependent in constructing a shared culture. His text The Location of Culture (1994) suggested that there is a â€Å"Third Space of Enunciation†in which cultural systems are constructed. In this claim, he aimed to create a new language and mode of describing the identity of Selves and Others. Bhabha says: It becomes crucial to distinguish between the semblance and similitude of the symbols across diverse cultural experiences such as literature, art, music, Ritual, life, death and the social specificity of each of these productions of meaning as they circulate as signs within specific contextual locations and social systems of value. The transnational dimension of cultural transformation migration, diaspora, displacement, relocation makes the process of cultural translation a complex form of signification. The naturalized, unifying discourse of nation, peoples, or authentic folk tradition, those embedded myths of cultures particularity, cannot be readily referenced. The great, though unsettling, advantage of this position is that it makes you increasingly aware of the construction of culture and the invention of tradition. In using words like â€Å"diaspora, displacement, relocation,†Bhabha illustrates the dynamic nature of culture, and the flimsy consistency of the historical narratives that cultures rely upon to draw boundaries and define themselves. As a result, culture cannot be defined in and of it, but rather must be seen within the context of its construction. More significantly, Bhabha draws attention to the reliance of cultural narratives upon the other. In illuminating this mutual construction of culture, studies of hybridity can offer the opportunity for a counter-narrative, a means by which the dominated can reclaim shared ownership of a culture that relies upon them for meaning. This theoretical erspective will serve as the foundation for the considerations explored in this paper, employing hybridity as a powerful tool for liberation from the domination imposed by bounded definitions of race, language, and nation. RACE: Racial hybridity, or the integration of two races which are assumed to be distinct and separate entities, can be considered first in terms of the physical body. Historically, the corporeal hybrid was birthed from two symbolic poles, a bodily representation of colonizer and colonized. These mixed births, mestizo, mulatto, muwallad, were stigmatized as a physical representation of impure blood, and this racism long served as a tool of power that maintained that even in this blending of two bodies, just â€Å"one drop†of black blood would deem the body impure and alien, an abomination. Institutionalized racism created a perpetual state of ambiguity and placelessness for the hybrid body and prevented cultural inclusion via race. However, the expanse of immigration since colonialism and the spectrum of shades of visible difference point to an increasingly hybrid populace in which these classifications of black and white no longer carry the same power of representation, yet the old labels persist. This labeling is significant as it elucidates the continuing power of racial labels in a society set on fixing bodies in racial space by binding them to labels, which are understood to contain fixed truths. I argue that utilizing the conceptual tool of hybridity to deconstruct these labels allows a means by which hybrid individuals can come together in powerful solidarity, rather than allowing their ambiguous place in racial space to render them invisible. Harnessing racial hybridity to project the simultaneously unique but common experience of hybridity can be a means by which the individual subject can join to a marginal community through stories and partial memories. Furthermore, racial hybridity must harness the dualistic experience of passing, or being mistaken for a race other than one’s own. All identities involve passing to some extent, in that a subject’s self can never truly match its image, but racial passing implicitly deconstructs the boundaries of Black and White. In passing, hybridity might function not as a conflict or struggle between two racial identities, but instead as constant movement between spaces, passing through and between identity itself without origin or arrival. The freedom to move between identities carries its own power in defying the claims of essentialized racial identity. Furthermore, the bounded labels of race do not account for the historical and geographic narratives that lie behind each body and inform their identity. In â€Å"Black Africans and Native Americans†, Jack Forbes explores the disconnect between racial labels and the consciousness of the bodies behind them using Native Americans and Africans as examples by which â€Å"groups are forced into arbitrary categories render their ethnic heritage simple rather than complex†. As a result, hybridity calls into question the boundaries of racial consciousness as a hybrid consciousness defies the imposed limits of race. The management of these identities becomes its own sort of performance, as the body negotiates each consciousness in different spaces. Again, the ability to play multiple roles, to â€Å"pass†in different arenas, carries significant power. In embodying the inability to bind identities to race, racial hybridity both in the physical body and in consciousness offers a means of deconstructing the boundaries of dichotomous racial identities. In addition to race, language has long been bound in definitions as a symbol of nation and a mode of exclusion. As a means to connect with other social beings, communicating with language is a meaningful performance in that speaking requires two parties, one to perform language and an audience to observe and absorb language. During colonialism, as the colonizer’s language dominated national institutions, the sense of being outside and â€Å"othered†was instilled in the colonized as their language and means of communication was stripped away. Now in a time after colonialism, can the colonized ever reclaim a language long lost, or has the colonizer’s language become their own? Has ownership of the colonizer’s language expanded over time? Fanon’s theorizing addresses the power of language in the formation of identity as he says, â€Å"To speak . . . means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization,†. He suggests that speaking the language of the colonizer stands in as acceptance or coercion into accepting a role in culture. Yet in accepting a role, whether by choice or force, the meaning of the culture shifts and evolves. No longer does it â€Å"belong†to the colonizer, as it relies upon the colonized to give it shape. Similarly, with the introduction of a new set of users performing a language, the language no longer exists as it was; it has shifted in meaning. Beyond the thematic implications of language, hybridity has inspired an immense movement in literary discourse and understandings of the very way language is managed and owned. Herskovits developed the notion of syncretism, a theory attempting to explain why certain cultural forms are carried and others lost. Similarly, Claude Levi-Strauss developed the term bricolage to describe mixed forms within narratives. Creolization describes the linguistic blending of dominant and subdominant cultures. These examples illustrate the broad realm of studies that have developed simply around the use of hybridized language. In an analysis of the rise of the â€Å"hybrid genre†in postmodern literature, Kapchan and Strong say, â€Å"Hybridization has become one such analytic allegory, defining lines of interest and affiliation among scholars of popular and literary culture, perhaps quite unintentionally. The extent to which these authors use the metaphor of hybridity consciously and concisely differs. That they use it, however, qualifies hybridity as one of several tropes, or forms of metaphoric predication, that most epitomize the scholarship of the last decade,†. Not only does this observation imply that the body of hybridized literature is growing, harkening to the rising voices and representations of the hybrid, but that hybridity is becoming normalized as an accepted form of literature and the purist notion of genre is diminishing. Furthermore, the use of a colonizer’s language by the colonized to speak of the crimes of colonialism is its own transgression and act of resistance. In taking ownership of the language, changing the way that it is used, the boundaries of language as belonging to a specific place or race are dissolved. Jahan Ramazani’s Hybrid Muse is an analytical review of the poetry that has arisen from the hybridization of the English muse with the long-resident muses of Africa, India, the Caribbean, and other decolonizing territories of the British Empire (2001). A hybrid himself, Ramazani suggests that the use of indigenous metaphors, rhythms, creoles, and genres has allowed a new form of poetry that not only speaks of the violence and displacement of colonialism, but embodies it in its very form. These hybrid poetries can be viewed as a gateway to understanding those once deemed unfamiliar, and hybridity of language becomes a way by which to deconstruct borders and relate to collectives across cultural boundaries. Further, hybridity must interrogate the notion that nationality is essential zed in a distinct culture that geographic borders somehow embody inherent knowledge or truth about the people they contain. Mamdani asks, â€Å"How do you tell who is indigenous to the country and who is not? Given a history of migration, what is the dividing line between the indigenous and the nonindigenous? . He addresses the nationalist concern over entitlement to nation, and the indigenous wish to lay claim to culture. I understood that theories of hybridity, in clarifying the shifting and indefinite nature of culture, can serve as a tool that complicate the nationalist exclusionary practice of determining who does and does not have claim to a nation. From health care to immigration, h is arguments resonate loudly with current events. Similarly, we must consider the ways in which the â€Å"things†that give culture meaning are unfixed and variable, negating essentialist arguments about inherent meanings of culture. In The Predicament of Culture, James Clifford (1988) analyzes sites including anthropology, museums, and travel writing to take a critical ethnography of the West and its shifting relationships with other societies. He demonstrates how â€Å"other†national cultures are in fact fictions and mythical narratives, and we must ask the question of representation and who has the authority to speak for a group’s identity. In his article â€Å"Diasporas†, he suggests that â€Å"The old localizing strategies by bounded community, by organic culture, by region, by center and periphery may obscure as much as they reveal†. Diaspora is defined as a history of dispersal, myths/memories of the homeland, alienation in the host country, desire for eventual return, ongoing support of the homeland, and a collective identity importantly defined by this relationship. In this consideration of culture, we understand the vast connotations of displacement, from asking which history the diasporic should identify with to asking if it is even possible to return to a homeland one never knew or left long ago. Second, in the representation of culture, be it by petrifying culture in a museum or nailing it to an anthropological account, the risk lies in taking these subjective moments as truths or knowledge. Furthermore, the far-reaching diasporic symbols and narratives that snowball into this thing we call national culture suggest that culture is itself a traveler collecting artifacts from various locations along the way, and its walls are too insubstantial to be used as a means of exclusion. Third and perhaps most significant, hybridity in a postcolonial world muddles the very definitions of culture by which nations define themselves. Given that nationalism is founded upon a collective consciousness from shared loyalty to a culture, one would assume this culture is well-defined. Yet the â€Å"solid†roots of historical and cultural narratives that nations rely upon are diasporic, with mottled points of entry at various points in time. An investigation of the roots of cultural symbols like folk stories, religion, and music would reveal sources varied and wide-ranging. Furthermore, culture is defined in relationship to other cultures. Edward Said’s Orientalism (1979) offers a strong description of the system by which nations appropriate from others to define themselves. He suggests Orientalism â€Å"has helped to define Europe as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience†. Using a theoretical framework influenced by Gramsci’s notion of hegemonic culture and Foucault’s notion of discourse, Said draws significant attention to the intricate and complex process by which the West must use the East to construct itself, its culture, its meaning. In an illuminating excerpt describing the process of Orientalism, he writes: To formulate the Orient, to give it shape, identity, definition with full recognition of its place in memory, its importance to imperial strategy, and its ‘natural’ role as an appendage to Europe; to dignify all the knowledge collected during colonial occupation with the title ‘contribution to modern learning; when the natives had neither been consulted nor treated as anything except as pretexts for a text whose usefulness was not to the natives; to feel oneself as a European in command, almost at will, of Oriental history, time, and geography to make out of every observable detail a generalization and out of every generalization an immutable law about the Oriental nature, temperament, mentality, custom, or type; and, above all, to transmute living reality into the stuff of texts, to possess actuality mainly because nothing in the Orient seems to resist one’s powers. †In a st ream of fragments, Said shows the diverse processes by which dominant cultures are formed at the service of Others. Using words like â€Å"shape,†â€Å"definition,†and â€Å"transmute,†he describes the act of defining nation and the artificial nature of these boundaries. Said offers a theoretical means by which to reject nationalist divisions between an us and Them, a West and Other. This conceptualization of the ways in which nations determine not only their own national identities, but the identities of Other is powerful in revealing the inherently hybrid roots of national culture. Studies of national identity are thus essential in deconstructing xenophobic nationalist claims to nation and the resulting miscegenation of immigrant Others. CONCLUSION This discussion draws from the body of postcolonial literature to suggest that studies of cultural hybridity are powerful in probing the bounded labels of race, language, and nation that maintain social inequalities. By examining how the hybrid can deconstruct boundaries within race, language, and nation, I understood that hybridity has the ability to empower marginalized collectives and deconstruct bounded labels, which are used in the service of subordination. In essence, hybridity has the potential to allow once subjugated collectivities to reclaim a part of the cultural space in which they move. Hybridity can be seen not as a means of division or sorting out the various histories and diverse narratives to individualize identities, but rather a means of reimagining an interconnected collective. Like the skin on a living body, the collective body has a surface that also feels and â€Å"Borders materialize as an effect on intensifications of feeling and individual and collective bodies surface through the very orientations we take to objects and others,†In the description that Formations our orientations can be shifted, our feelings towards Others transformed, there is a possibility of redefining our exclusionary systems of labeling. Furthermore, breaking down immaterial borders through explorations of hybridity offers the possibility of more effective public policy, one that refers to the broad expanse of its diverse population. Frenkel and Shenhav did an illuminating study on the ways in which studies of hybridity have allowed management and organization studies to manage their longstanding western hegemonic practices and to incorporate postcolonial insights into the organizational literature revolving around the relationships between Orientalism and organizations. The willingness of institutions to reform their long held ideologies in light of a changing world, as well as to consider their work through alternative lenses, is an essential practice in deconstructing the bindings of narratives-as-knowledge. In the boundary-shifting process, there is power in the notion of deconstruction in the service of reconstruction, breaking down boundaries in order to form a more inclusive sense of the collectivity. Furthermore, hybridity asserts the notion that representations of collective identity must be analyzed contextually. When we examine a representation of culture, be it in a film, poem, or speech, we should ask: Who is doing the representing? What are the implications of the representation? Why are they engaging in the process of representation? What is the historical moment that informs the representation? How are they being represented? In addition to the questions explored in this paper, I would recommend applying theories of hybridity to a realm beyond race and nation, in order to consider alternative boundaries such as gender and sexuality. The work of hybrid theorists from Bhabha to Said suggests that there is a vast intellectual landscape for cultural inquiries like these. Our mission must be to continue this work and to delve deeper. Cultural studies have great potential to liberate us from the socially-given boundaries that so stubbornly limit our capacity for thought and discussion, but we must take time to join in a collective critique of the knowledge we ingest and disperse. After all, the greatest power lies in the heart of the collective.
Sunday, September 1, 2019
How far is it true that the play ‘The Duchess of Malfi’, presents a moral world of Webster’s that is different from the conventional mores? Essay
The Machiavellian qualities seen in the villain’s, along with the pragmatic of even existentialist attitude to life displayed by the good as well as bad characters may give a first impression that the world Webster presents in The Duchess of Malfi, is a chaotic world, but for a closer and deeper look at the play will show that the world is influenced by a moral order though this order cannot be universally enforced. Though the moral presence exists, this world remains mysterious, incomprehensible and the future of worldly creatures is unpredictable. The growing immortality and sensuousness, which the court displayed, made the citizens sympathise with the Puritans. People began to criticize the court and religion more vocally. This critical temper had its effect in literature of the time too. Times were running out and pessimism and satire arose out of the dissatisfaction among the people. The melancholy mood found in the literature of the late 16th and early 17th century was not affection, but a natural expression of the gloom and frustration that people of the time felt. The preoccupation of Webster with decay, disease sickness and death can be explained in the light of the social history. Webster excels in the sudden flash, in the intuitive but often unsustained perception. At times he startles us by what may be called the ‘Shakespearean’ use of the common word. In the dark night of ‘The Duchess of Malfi’ at the high point of tension when the Duchess is about to die her last words are: â€Å"Go tell my brother, when I am laid out They then may feed in quiet†- The bareness of ‘Feed’ increases the force of the line, for it suggests animal’s engrossment. It has too, that kind of authority peculiar to the common word unexpectedly introduced. Its impact is that of ‘bread’ in Hamlet’s skill. [â€Å"He took my father grossly, full of bread, With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May:†] They too often remain isolated and detached from the main stream of thought. In his manner of writing such sentences come too often though they may not have a direct relation with the texture of the play. Such lines as: â€Å"O, this gloomy world: In what a shadow, or deep pit of darkness, Doth womanish and fearful mankind live! Let worthy minds never stagger and distrust To suffer death or shame for what is just; Mine is another voyage†, stand out as detached expression of Webster’s sententious wisdom. Many of Webster’s lines in The Duchess of Malfi have become almost proverbial and can be quoted like proverbs without consideration of the text in which they occur. Tragedy according to Aristotle should ‘arouse pity and fear leading to the catharsis of such emotions’. Webster, an Elizabethan and a Jacobean, possibly could not have written plays according to Aristotle’s cannons. However, there is plenty in the play that arouses pity. And surely there is fear too in abundance arising out of all pervading horror in the play. As it is generally understood, a tragedy deals with sufferings and misfortunes of the protagonists of the play. â€Å"That I might toss her palace ‘bout her ears Root up her goodly forests, blast her meads, And lay her general territory as waste As the hath done her honours.†The Duchess of Malfi, like any good tragedy teaches us to know the world and its ways better. There are plenty in the play that are sensational and horrifying making it melodramatic to some extent, and they appeal to the morbid instincts of the playgoer. However, the principal victim of this play is not merely the sufferer, the Duchess, but the unconquerable and unsubdued human spirit of hers. In this the Duchess comes close to Shakespearian heroes and heroines. She keeps up her dignified spirit of defiance towards the evildoers, but is remarkably humble before heaven. She displays her sensuality not only in her marriage but also in devouring the apricots with evident greed. She becomes blind in her passion for Antonio and is credulous in taking Bosola’s words at face value. Her shirking of her responsibility, as a ruler of Malfi is a glaring flaw. Still the resigned dignity with which she faces the spectacle showing her dear ones as dead and her own impending strangling make us respect her unbreakable spirit. That enduring spirit ennobles us and uplifts us. Our faith in the essential nobility of human beings is reinforced, despite the damaging effect on that faith caused by the evil and villainy of others. In the case of Bosola, it is an intellectual failure. He fails to understand his personal identity and his responsibility for his actions. The play suggestively tells that sin is inherent in man and that the corruption of the body will find its way into corrupt action. The drift towards an error is natural and it eventually arrives at the natural consequence: retribution. This appears to be the meaning of the play. â€Å"Right the fashion of the world: From decay’d fortunes every flatterer shrinks: Men cease to build where the foundation sinks:†The Duchess, Antonio and Bosola share the focus of tragic issues in the play. The tragic flaw (hamartia) in the Duchess is the ‘madness’ which Cariola identifies at the end of the first act. That of Antonio, mainly is ambition- â€Å"Ambition,madam,is a great man’s madness, That is not kept in chains and close-pent rooms, But in fair lightsome lodgings, and is girt With the wild noise of prattling visitants Which makes it lunatic beyond all cure.†Along with the realism may be mentioned the meditative energy and the capacity to realize the irony, the mysterious nature and the pathos of life. The meditative energy Webster displays is an essential part of his dramatic genius. Sometime he introduces fables or parables even when by doing so inconsistencies in character portrayal creep in. Duke Ferdinand’s parable or Reputation, Love and Death and the Duchess’s fable of the salmon and the dog-fish belong to this area. â€Å"Though we are eaten up of lice and worms, And though continually we bear about us A rotten and dead body, we delight To hide it in tissue:†Webster presents a moral world that is some mysterious ways that ultimately bring punishments for the crimes one commit. The devilish Arragonian brothers and their equally devilish instrument, Bosola, feel the pangs of conscience and meet ignoble death. Remorse touches Ferdinand the most, and makes him lycanthropic. His presenting a dead man’s hand to the Duchess is another indication. The sight of the dead Duchess indeed acts as a trigger in turning him fully mad. Finally he is killed by Bosola. Bosola is struck with remorse, when he finds that his much expected ‘preferment’ does not come to him. He declares that if he was to live once again he would not commit his crimes, â€Å"For all the wealth of Europe’ Further looking at the dead Duchess he says, â€Å"Here is a sight As direful to my soul as is the sword Unto a wretch hath slain his father.†Later he mortally stabs the Cardinal and the Duke and himself, is killed by the Lycanthropic Duke. Even the Cardinal, who is a cold and calculating Machiavellian, feels the pricking of conscience. He goes to the religious books for consolation but finding it futile, lay it aside. He expresses his mental agony clearly when he soliloquizes: â€Å"How tedious is a quality conscience: When I look into the fish –ponds in my garden, Methinks I see a thing arm’d with a rake, That seems to strike at me.†True, the Duchess and Antonio do have their flaws but the sufferings they face appear to be out of proportion to their sins. Really their mistakes are minor and the punishment too great. Webster illustrates that the moral order he visualizes does not mete out reward and punishment equitably. The intense suffering that is heaped upon Duchess and to a lesser extent on Antonio , is determined by the forces of evil that exist in her devilish brothers and their villainous tool Bosola. The three appear to be mentally diseased people, sadists who enjoy inflicting of pain on others. Bosola, despite his occasional moral meditations and occasional show of sympathy for the plight of the Duchess, inflicts subtle mental torture on the Duchess. â€Å"Who would be afraid on’t. Knowing to meet such excellent company In the other world?†The dramatist’s fondness for bloodshed, violence and horror can be seen from his preoccupation with the morbid and the macabre. The world he presents is one of corruption, immortality, cruelty, dishonesty, greed and Machiavellianism. â€Å"This is flesh and blood, sir; ‘T is not the figure cut in alabaster.†Altogether ten murders take place, on the stage, in The Duchess of Malfi. Tortures of the most repulsive and shocking kind are released on the Duchess. The presentation and the dead man’s hand, the spectacle of the waxen figures of Antonio and children, shown as dead, the letting loose of the lunatics on to coffin, the strangling of the Duchess, Cariola and the children, the lycanthropia of the Duke, the killing of Antonio and the servant and the final Carnage, all show the preoccupation of the author with the murky and the morbid. Further, he seems to show disappointment when he finds the Duchess unbroken in spirit, despite her effort to break it. In Webster, like in Shakespeare, the good people with minor flaws seem to suffer deeply. Revenge is not a sacred duty in ‘The Duchess of Malfi’. Thus the play defers from the traditional ones. Revenge in its most grotesque form is presented here. Both the brothers, who seek revenge, are beastly villainous beings. In their rage they lose their sense of judgment and behave as depraved human beings, which they really are. Their resentment at the Duchess’s marriage below rank is natural, but it makes them commit inexplicably monstrous atrocities. Their revenge is not even a wild justice but very unnatural and bestial cruelty born out of perversion. In presenting this changed kind of revenge Webster has moved away from the beaten path. â€Å"Would I could be one, That I might toss her palace ‘bout her ears, Root up her goodly forests, blast her meads And lay her general territory as waste As she hath done her honours.†Webster does not believe that human suffering is caused by a supernatural agency- God or Fate. The events in the play show that human suffering is caused partly by the flaw in the sufferers and partly by the devilish qualities that exist in other villainous people. The Duchess, who suffers most in the play, is not a blemishes person. She has her flaw, her hamartia which is her sensuousness that makes her marry beneath her. She does not care for the damage of reputation her marriage could bring to her illustrations brothers, a Cardinal and a Duke. â€Å"He and his brothers are like plum-trees that grow crooked over Standing-pools: they are rich and o’erladen with fruit, but none but crows, pies and caterpillars feed on them. Could I be one of their flattering ponders, I would hang on their ears like a horseleech, till I were full, and then drop off.†The Duchess of Malfi is one of the John Webstar’s finer plays. Several images are in the play which brings in tempests, thunder and earthquakes. Perhaps the best that belongs to this group is found in the Duke’s answer to the Cardinal’s question why the former behaves like a tempest. Very pungently he satirises the courtiers and courtly life of the time. The corruption of the court and the rewards the princes extended for devilish services is one of the major themes of the play. In the very first scene of the play we find Bosola making fun of the courtiers, and the evil patrons. Webster’s skill in stagecraft is displayed in several episodes of the play. The whole of Act IV is a theatrical tour de force. The Duchess wooing of Antonio leading to the secret marriage in Act I also shows equally great dramatic skill. The sudden appearance of Cariola from behind the arras gives a shock to Antonio. The meeting of Antonio and Bosola in the courtyard of Malfi palace, with its ‘sense of the theatre’ resembles the courtyard scene in Macbeth (Act II, Sc.I). Also dramatic is the Duke’s stormy appearance at the residence of the Cardinal with a letter in hand, fuming with rage. The Duke’s secret entry into the Duchess’s bed chamber gives a dramatically arresting episode. The Duchess s surprised at the continued silence of her husband, hears footsteps behind and turns expecting him coming back, but sees her brother the Duke advancing to her with his hand on his poniard. Another, theatrically very effective scene is where the Duke suffering from lycanthropic appears on the stage muttering ‘strangling is a very quiet death.’ The Duke, stealing across the stage in the dark, whispering to himself, with the devastating appearance of mad man is a figure one may not forget. Despite the existence of definite flaws in the nature of the Duchess and Antonio the sufferings and misfortunes they faced would not have arisen but for the evil present in the Cardinal, the Duke and Bosola. Webster appears to believe in the predominant existence of evil in this world. The various references to the devil and Machiavellianism stand testimony to it. Such references help to emphasize the evil nature of the Cardinal, the Duke and their tool-villain, Bosola. They are responsible for most of the sufferings and the ten deaths shown in the play. The tyrannous brothers become indignant at the news of their sister giving birth to a child, which they think to be illegitimate. The Duke is affected more and loses all self-control: He shouts in anger that he would become a storm: â€Å"That I might toss her palace ‘bout her ears Root up her goodly forests, blast her meads, And lay her general territory as waste As the hath done her honours.†In Elizabethan drama scenes of madness used to be shown on the stage, but they were episodic and did not contribute to the play at a psychological level. Webster too presents the chorus of madmen according to the revenge tradition. It creates, mostly a grotesque atmosphere with the antics and lunatic dance of the mad men. However there is some psychological interest too present in it. The Duke devises the scheme to torture the Duchess with the intention of turning her mad, but ironically he, not the Duchess, becomes mad. The lycanthropic madness of the Duke has still greater psychological significance. his madness is shown not only as an instrument to create horror, but to show that his crime has knocked him out of his sanity. Human beings inflict untold sufferings on his fellow beings prompted by ambition, envy, hatred, greed and lust for power. In Webster’s world it is the natural lot of man that he endures decay, disease and death. The Duchess and Antonio, the good characters of the play meet their death; one after a long suffering, the other by simple accident. Even the blameless Cariola, and the innocent children meet death by strangulation. Virtue, innocence and other good qualities appear to offer no assured safety against suffering and premature death. â€Å"If all my royal kindred Lay in my way unto this marriage, I’d make them my low footsteps.†Webster’s world is one where suffering embraces all, the good and the wicked. Suffering and death are inevitable. They result sometimes from deliberate contrivance as in the case of the Duchess, Cariola etc; sometimes from compulsive action as in the case of Antonio; and they can take place quite arbitrarily as in the case of the servant whom Bosola kills. Though he is a villainous person perpetrating some of the most heinous crimes, but he is also portrayed as a meditating malcontent who occasionally appears to act as a mouth-piece of the author’s view of life. Seeking happiness in the world, Webster seems to say is a futile effort for pleasure and is only momentary, but suffering is inevitable and profound. The dying Antonio makes it clear, â€Å"Pleasure of life, what is ‘t?only the good hours Of an ague: merely a preparative to rest, To endure vexation.†Webster could have been influenced by a few contemporary incidents to make the play what it is. One of them is the story of the fate of Torquato Tasso at the hands of Alfonso d’Este, an Italian Duke, because of his love for the Duke’s sister. Another was the imprisonment of Lady Arabella Stuart, as a punishment for het marrying Lord William Seymour against the wishes of King James I, her cousin. Lady Arabella became mentally deranged while in person. Though Webster followed Painter’s line, he made many noticeable additions. This can be found not only in the plot construction but also in characterization. In the play we find the Cardinal and the Duke warning the Duchess against a remarriage. There is nothing of the sort present in Painter. So also are the part played by Bosola, the secret entry of the Duke into the bed chamber of the Duchess and the sub plot of Julia’s adulterous relationship with the Cardinal. Further most of the incidents of Act IV especially the tormenting of the Duchess, by presenting the spectacle of the waxen images, the Duke’s presenting a dead man’s hand to the Duchess, the antics of the lunatics, Bosola’s entry as a tomb maker and a bellman etc., are all Webster’s inventions. Antonio’s visit to the Cardinal, the Echo-scà ¨ne, the lycanthropia of the Duke, Bosola’s decision to turn against his master and the final death of all the three, too are Webster’s additions. â€Å"I have ever thought Nature doth nothing so great for great men As when she’s pleas’d to make them lords of truth: Integrity of life is fame’s best friend, Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end.†The Duchess of Malfi has an admirable exposition in the first act. All the major characters are introduced sufficiently well. Antonio, knowledgeable in the fashion and manners of French Court, the Duke and the Cardinal who are like plum trees that grow crooked and right noble Duchess’ whose ‘discourse it is so full of rapture’ are painted with a few thick strokes . Later the Duchess shows her independence, vivacity and passionate nature by declaring her defiant attitude to the advice of the brothers and wooing Antonio abruptly and marrying him secretly. This may apply not only to the virtuous Duchess, but also to the wicked Bosola, who with determination kills the two characters. Bosola’s statement, â€Å"Let worth minds ne’er stagger in distrust To differ death or shame- for what is just:†makes this point amply clear. Whether virtuous or wicked, all should boldly decide not to compromise or surrender, but persist in being what they have it in themselves. Bosola by declaring: â€Å"I’ll be mine own example-â€Å" And the Duchess by asserting, â€Å"I am Duchess of Malfi still†He realizes that he has to ‘die like a leveret’. He does so and we feel as if he has faced the ultimate punishment for his crimes. Nemesis reaches all the three villains giving the impression that there is some moral -order that in some unknown way mete out punishments to the evil doers. The Duchess ridicules Cariola for her respect for religion and calls her ‘a superstitious fool’. However she displays her belief in God by kneeling before her death. We have to conclude that, Webster does not openly negate the existence of God in the play. However, the turn of events in the play makes one think that Webster’s moral world is an extentialist one. â€Å"Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman Reign most in her, I know not; but it shows A fearful madness: I owe her much of pity.†Bosola’s telling that â€Å"I will be mine own example†is a typical extentialist statement. The Duchess taking firm personal decision about her marriage, Duchess’s disregarding the opinion of her brothers and her accepting the consequences of that action with a resigned courage too is an existentialist attitude; so also is the detachment with Antonio faces his fate. One of the basic requirements of that philosophy, negation of God, however is not emphasized in the play. Antonio is an extentialist as far as his attitude to religion, but nothing is said to show that he does not believe in God. The fables, the Duchess and the Duke relate, too are significant for their moral worth. Bosola, though a dark and villainous tool in the hands of the equally dark brothers, during his meditative bouts brings out worthy moral; truths. About gold coins he says, â€Å"These cur’d gifts would make You a corrupter, me an impudent traitor:†He has other philosophic comments too. â€Å"Since place and riches oft are bribes opf shame: Sometimes the devil doth preach.†Musing over the ruins of the Abbey near the Cardinal’s palace he says: â€Å"But all things have their end: Churches and cities, which have diseases like to men, Must have like death that we have†To show the transcience of happiness he says, â€Å"Pleasure of life, what is ‘t? only the good hours Of an ague:†The moral message of the play comes out frequently through pithy statements. It is interesting that almost all characters utter some universal truth, some statement significant to human life, displaying the moral undertone of the play. Antonio moralizes from the beginning till his last moments. Even minor characters are often found to express moral ideas. Cariola comments on the Duchess’ marriage thus: â€Å"Whether the spirit of greatness or of woman Reign most in her, I know not; but it shows A fearful madness:†The first pilgrim has this to say about the fall of the great. â€Å"Fortune makes this conclusion general. All things do help the unhappy man to fall.†Julia, the trumpet too utters a pithy statement â€Å" ‘T is weakness, Too much to think what should have been done.†Delio has something moral to state very often â€Å"Though in our miseries Fortune have a part, Yet in our noble sufferings she hasth none:†He winds up the play with a statement pregnant with philosophic truth: â€Å"Integrity of life is fame’s best friend, Which nobly, beyond death shall crown he end.†All these moral statements may appear out of place in a tragedy to a modern reader, but an Elizabethan play goer would have taken it as a sign of the Author’s moral consciousness. â€Å"I am Duchess of Malfi still†, brings out Webster’s view of life. There is an amount of self-centered thinking in her. Further she is a credulous person and susceptible to flattery. We see her gloating over the praise Bosola showers on Antonio and reveals her secret of identity of her husband to Bosola. Then, pleased with his flattering comments on her marriage she takes him as a confidant decides to accept his advice and to go to Loretto on a feigned pilgrimage. Both the actions lead to disastrous consequences. Antonio too, faces his fate partly because of his flaws. Though he despises ambition as ‘a great man’s madness’, it is his ambition that makes him succumb to the desires of the Duchess and marry her. His passivity too led to his downfall. He does not show any inclination it out with the Arragonian brothers though he knows that justice is on his part. Many of the opinions expressed by the various characters of the play betray Webster’s extentialist leanings though, the word ‘extentialism’ as a philosophy evolved only in the nineteenth century after Kierkgoard. Extentialism rejects metaphysics and concentrates on the individual’s existence in the world. It is a pragmatic and psychologically realistic philosophy that negates the existence of a God. There is some inherent absurdity in man’s existence. For ‘all human activities are equivalent, all are destined by principles to defeat†, but a man is responsible for his effect on others, though only his existence is real to him, and he is ultimately his own judge. Among all these apparently chaotic happenings in this world one wonders what a man should aim at. Are there some values he should cherish? Webster answers, surely, through his unmistakable esteem for the virtuous characters in the play. He apparently advocates two qualities to be cultivated among humans: they should persist in being what they are and they should face calamities with fortitude. The closing speech of Delio may be Webster’s message to humans. â€Å"The weakest arm is strong enough that st rikes With the sword of justice†Webster presents in his plays, a view of the world where the destructive forces unleash their power on the individual. The inner reality one sees in Shakespearean characters is absent in Webster. He portrays only their outer nature, and even that is often absorbed into the general forces. This results in their losing even the exterior marks of individuality. After sketching their traits through narration, Webster shows them behaving in conformity with that narration. They become types, their characteristics being shared by many others in this world. The soliloquy of Webster does not give any deep insight into the character, which Shakespeare very well provides. Webster’s soliloquies only throw light into a plot and action. Further Webster removes the inner dimension of man from his tragic picture he presents. As a result development of character, as is seen in Shakespeare, is not possible in Webster. â€Å"I am puzzled in a question about hell; He says, in hell there’s one material fire.††¦ ************************************************************************************ EXCEPT IDEAS AND SETTINGS AND REFERENCES, WORDS AND SENTENCES FROM DR.S.SEN.
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