A Subsidiary of an MNC in Saudi Arabia Research Paper

A Subsidiary of an MNC in Saudi Arabia - Research Paper Example Best Company, Inc, 2011). All these factors are set to affect political and financial stability of Saudi Arabia. The paper will look into the political and financial risks that will affect a subsidiary of an MNC coming to do business in Saudi Arabia for the first time. Political Risk The political risk in Saudi Arabia is moderate. Saudi Arabia is among the six countries that frame the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The objectives of GCC are formulation of consistent regulatory environment, cooperation of the private sector, and the establishment of a common currency. The regional political unrest, mainly in Bahrain, is a major concern for Saudi Arabia. There are expectations that King Abdullah will go on with his reform agendas in the next few years (A.M. Best Company, Inc, 2011). There are pressures mounting on the ruling House of Saud and several factors are set to compromise the political stability of the Kingdom. The first factor is the long-term implications of the population e xplosion in the Kingdom in the past 25 years. Population explosion linked with rapid urbanization, insufficient education system, persistent and increase in the numbers, and the lack of employment opportunities is straining the Saudi Arabia social fabric. The extensive unemployment among the young males is because of the education system that has failed to equip them with the necessary skills required to match the â€Å"Saudi Arabia’s requirements for a modern economic, commercial and industrial workplace† (Corbett, 2006). The labor market of Saudi Arabia is unable to sustain the huge number of new entrants together with the increasing number of educated women looking for employment. The state education system has failed to generate productive members in the society and thus, it has underpinned the employment problem. Primary and secondary education is based on the religious curriculum and this education material has been under criticism because it has encouraged stude nts to be prejudiced towards the other religions apart from Islam. The resultant effect has been that some Saudi Arabians have become vulnerable to radicalization and terrorist recruitment. Political instability fears are due to the succession issues and, perhaps, they may be a western obsession that is frequently accompanied by the failure to acknowledge how senior princes of the Kingdom have achieved collaboration in the past years. The succession debate has put a lot of pressure on the political stability of the nation. The debate is focusing on the time the leadership will go to the next generation. Despite the present pressures, Saudi Arabia is proving its resilience and it has started adapting to the challenges. As the reforms gather speed, the projections for long-term stability are improving. Short-term measures include effective measures to contain terrorism threat. In the meantime, the royal family â€Å"will continue to work towards addressing the underlying causes of in stability, attempting to reinvigorate confidence in its leadership among the Saudi Arabian public† (Corbett, 2006). Financial Risk The financial system risk in Saudi Arabia is low. Saudi Arabia business environment is average and the reliability and availability of corporate financial data or information varies widely. The collection of debt sometimes proves to be difficult because of the poor administration framework. The

Strategic human resource development

Strategic human resource development INTRODUCTION This essay will talk about the existence of strategic human resource development from just merely human resource development. Then, it will be proceed with both role of strategic human resource development and management, and, determine whether strategic human resource development have its own space or not. After that, this paper will essay on the impact of economic and social globalisation on strategic human resource development and followed by conclusion. THE EXISTANCE OF STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT Organisational Development (OD) practice creates Human Resource Development which led to individual and organisational learning. According to Hellriegel, Jackson and Slocum (2005), &lsqou;Organisation Development is a planned, long-range, behavioural science strategy for understanding, changing, and developing an organisations workforce in order to improve its effectiveness&rsqou;. McLagan (1989 cited in Wilson, 2005, p.10) described ‘HRD as the integrated use of individual training and development, organization development, and career development to improve individual, group and organizational effectiveness’. Pace, Smith and Mills (1991) state that ‘the goal of HRD is to achieve the highest quality of work life for the employee and to produce the highest quality of products and services possible in the environment and context of the organization in which development is occurring’. Nowadays, strategy is important in integrating the nature of HRD into the organisation. Therefore, Human Resource Development is implemented strategically. Hence, Strategic Human Resource Development (SHRD) can be defined as, strategising the integration of HRD with formulation and implementation with a long-term view of Human Resource policy. In other words, SHRD is how HRD is applied and aligned to achieve the organisational goals and objectives strategically. It can be done by horizontal integration among Human Resource functions and vertical integration with corporate strategy to achieve Strategic Human Resource as core competitive advantage. Therefore by the movement from being simply HRD towards SHRD shows that, there might be some changes going on within the environment that need the human resources to be develop. Beer and Spector (1989; in Garavan et al., 1995 cited in Wilson, 2005, p.10) maintain that ‘Strategic HRD can be viewed as a proactive, system-wide intervention, with it linked to strategic planning and cultural changeHRD can only be strategic if it is incorporated into the overall corporate business strategy’. THE ROLES OF STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) can be defined as relating the strategic goals and objectives of the organization with its human resources, so as to improve business performance and developing organizational culture which encourage innovation and flexibility to gain competitive advantage. SHRM will involve the HR functions through HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding personnel. De Cieri, et al. (2008) states that ‘SHRM can be thought as the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable an organisation to achieve its goals’. In the strategy implementation of HR practices in SHRM, one of the components is selection, training and development of people where this can be achieved by employee learning and development. This is where SHRD plays its part to implement new approach of training and development strategically and be flexible as well as to develop Individuals to possess certain skills to perform certain tasks in order to accomplish the companys goals. Hence, those individuals may be motivated through training to perform their skills effectively to increase the quality and productivity. Another role of SHRM is transferring the responsibility of managing human resource to a lower level because of the dynamic change happening nowadays instead of centralising decision making. Thus, the lower levels also have their say in determining, implementing and setting strategy which is the component of SHRD roles. During the implementation of strategic planning and systematic, strategy to reach company goals is carried out. Rather than being a functional specialist, SHRM and SHRD should be activities of management that aligned with business strategies of organisations. To support this, Boxall (1991) said: ‘Human resource development cannot be conceptualise as a stand alone corporate issue, strategically it must flow from and be dependent upon the organisations structure- it is therefore seen as strategic by virtue of its alignment with business strategy, organisational structure, and internal consistency’. According to Johnson and Scholes (2002 cited in Wilson, 2005, p.87) there are ‘three main elements to strategic management: strategic analysis, strategic choice and strategy implementation, which are not linear events but interlinked in terms of a role for HRD and HRM’. Here, it shows that, SHRD lies within the context of SHRM. IMPACT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ON SHRD Globalisation is about movement and change. ‘Globalisation can be defined as the ongoing economic, technological, social, and political integration of the world that began after the Second World War’ (http://www.usa.edu.pk/Web/Publications/PDF/globalization%20n%20role%20of%20HRM.pdf?m=8). As a result of globalisation, there is a wide customer-based and competitors all over the world. Organisations in high-wage countries will find it difficult to maintain low labour costs. Therefore, they may create business strategies that stress innovation and require employees with high levels of skills and knowledge. The following example will support the argument. Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2009, p.39) noted that ‘Malden Mills, the textile company that makes Polartec, is also counting on its knowledge resources. Located in Massachusetts, its factory employees cant compete with the low-cost labor in other countries. Instead, it needs to leverage research capabilities to develop new products and production methods. As these and other factories evolve, low-skilled jobs will be replaced by jobs requiring much higher skills. Employers and employees alike will be required to adapt accordingly’. For that reason, economic globalisation may amend the way a company manage their human resources. One way is to train their staff for present requirements and develop them for future requirements. Individual talents are being developed through strategic training programs to achieve that particular level of skills and knowledge to gain competitive advantage. And also, in order to achieve competitive advantage, top levels need to acquire, develop and retain appropriate expertise to connect the learning process directly to the strategic direction of the organization. One of the key challenges from globalisation is competitiveness. So, organisation should consider the competitive challenge, such as, how to keep competitors weaker, how many and what people to employ, how to lower production costs and many more. Due to the pressure of fast changes in the labour market and since globalisation may create and destruct jobs it may contribute instability in social relationships. The sense of security to maintain the job is through social protection as well as higher quality of work. In order to achieve higher quality of work that aligns with its strategic goals and competing with the growing pools of skilled workers in emerging market countries, individuals need to improve their performance through learning, training and development, and also adapt to the change of the environment. Adapting towards changes will have social impacts that need to be managed by HRD. Taking as an example, ‘As the European Policy Committee (EPC) notes in a recent report (EPC, 2005), it is imperative that Europes economies are able to move labour and capital swiftly and with ease ‘to take advantage of new opportunities and potential income gains, and minimise adjustment costs’. Particular concerns are to avoid concentrations of displaced workers’ (http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/docs/social_situation/simglobe_fin_rep.pdf).

Robert Frosts Poem Fire and Ice Essay -- Robert Frost Fire Ice Poet P

Robert Frost's Poem "Fire and Ice" If you had a choice on how the world would end, what would you choose? Would your choice to be go painfully but fast? Perhaps you would rather it be so slow and painless you do not even realize it is happening? That's what I believe Robert Frost's poem Fire and Ice is meant to express. Although the poem is short, it holds a very interesting question to think about. The question is which way would you rather the world come to an end. There are two choices.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The first two lines in Fire and Ice express the choices, "Some say the world will end in fire, / Some say in ice.'; I feel that he uses the term fire not to hold the direct meaning of a burning flame, but to represent the punishment something can inflict upon an object. It presents the image of the intense pain in which a burn can inflict, along with the extraordinary speed in which it happens. Fire causes a tremendous amount of destruction to virtually anything within seconds. It could also represent just a violent ending. Either way, it would be nice to have things over with fast, but the intense pain might not make it worth it. For the world to end in ice, seems to present the image of a slower, numbing effect. I feel he uses ice to represent a slow, almost unnoticeable change that eventually causes the destruction of mankind.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Fire, instantaneous combustion of an object. Frost uses fire to represent an ending with incredible speed and unimaginable pain. The quote, ...

Quality Education in the Philippines

We know that Philippines country is rich in agriculture and economics. But don't you know that Philippines are one of the top that is great in terms of education. And I can prove that in simply observing the status of my country and surveys in the rank of schools. Literacy rate in the Philippines has improved a lot over the last few years- from 72 percent in 1960 to 94 percent in 1990. This is attributed to the increase in both the number of schools built and the level of enrollment in these schools. The number of schools grew rapidly in all three levels – elementary, secondary, and tertiary. From the mid-1960s up to the early 1990, there was an increase of 58 percent in the elementary schools and 362 percent in the tertiary schools. For the same period, enrollment in all three levels also rose by 120 percent. More than 90 percent of the elementary schools and 60 percent of the secondary schools are publicly owned. However, only 28 percent of the tertiary schools are publicly owned. A big percentage of tertiary-level students enroll in and finish commerce and business management courses. Table 1 shows the distribution of courses taken, based on School Year 1990-1991. Note that the difference between the number of enrollees in the commerce and business courses and in the engineering and technology courses may be small – 29. 2 percent for commerce and business and 20. 3 percent for engineering and technology. However, the gap widens in terms of the number of graduates for the said courses. Aside from the numbers presented above, which are impressive, there is also a need to look closely and resolve the following important issues: 1) quality of education 2) affordability of education 3) government budget for education; and 4) education mismatch. In Quality There was a decline in the quality of the Philippine education, especially at the elementary and secondary levels. For example, the results of standard tests conducted among elementary and high school students, as well as in the National College of Entrance Examination for college students, were way below the target mean score. In Affordability – There is also a big disparity in educational achievements across social groups. For example, the socioeconomically disadvantaged students have higher dropout rates, especially in the elementary level. And most of the freshmen students at the tertiary level come from relatively well-off families. In Budget – The Philippine Constitution has mandated the government to allocate the highest proportion of its budget to education. However, the Philippines still has one of the lowest budget allocations to education among the ASEAN countries. In Mismatch – There is a large proportion of â€Å"mismatch† between training and actual jobs. This is the major problem at the tertiary level and it is also the cause of the existence of a large group of educated unemployed or underemployed. Improved quality of education in the Philippine schools The Philippine education system is plagued with problems from the basic level until the tertiary level, and although previous and present administrations took steps to reform the system, these reforms failed to improve the country’s education system. According to the latest â€Å"Economic Policy Monitor†, released in April 2012 of government think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies, despite the reforms pursued by the Aquino administration to address these failures, even more reforms are needed to improve the quality of education in the Philippines. The same study found that even the reforms initiated by the government may even bring more problems to the education system. Foremost among the problems in the early childhood education is the inequality to access to kindergarten education. THE INTENSE ECONOMIC CRISIS that the Philippines are currently undergoing has certainly buried the sanguine and unreasonable hopes that the government had projected for the near future. The triumphalism of Philippines 2000 has been shaken to the core and reduced to a laughable joke for the history books. This crisis only confirms that the Philippines have yet to liberate itself from the age-old problems, which have plagued it in the economic and political spheres. The much-trumpeted new epoch of free competition and borderless economies has not resulted in any real development but only in a more intense form of economic domination and exploitation of the poorer countries by the advanced capitalist countries. The seemingly neutral facade of Globalization has turned out to be more of the same old Imperialism that just cannot be wished away. Nevertheless, it would be too much of a simplification to arrive at the conclusion that the present global order has not resulted in any significant changes. It would certainly be correct to ay that for the educational system, as in Philippine society as a whole, that â€Å"nothing of the essence has changed. † However, even if it is true that the essential traits and defining characteristics of Philippine education has remained the same all throughout this so-called period of â€Å"Globalization,† it is also equally unavoidably true that certain changes have occurred and are still occurring that may not have actually touched the â€Å"essence† of things as they are but still have important implications for the understanding of the current situation and the various effective political responses that can lead to genuine social transformation. One of the main tasks is to attempt to identify what these â€Å"changes† are without losing sight of the â€Å"meaning† of these phenomena in relation to an essentially unchanged exploitative global economic and political system which must be identified as â€Å"imperialism. † The changes in question can be identified by analyzing the so-called â€Å"three major areas of concern† in education which have been underlined in the Medium Term Education Development Plan (MTEDP). These are: â€Å"(1) increasing access to and improving of the quality of basic education; (2) liberalizing the regulation of private schools, and; (3) rationalizing the programs of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs). † The question of â€Å"increasing access to† and â€Å"improving the quality of† education have been constant themes since even before the intricate and obfuscators jargon of â€Å"globalization† entered the scene. It cannot even be asserted that these ideas have changed in the sense that they previously had an altruistic meaning which has currently been lost in this period of technocratic appeals to â€Å"efficiency† rather than â€Å"morality. Reyes, John Christian A. BSIT-109I Improved quality of education in the Philippines schools This is the first major issue that the Philippine government should resolve but somehow it is recently improving. The quality of Philippine education has declined few years ago due to poor results from standard entrance tests conducted among elementary and secondary students, as well as the tertiary levels. The results were way below the target mean score. High dropout ates, high number of repeaters, low passing grades, lack of particular language skills, failure to adequately respond and address the needs of people with special needs, overcrowded classrooms, and poor teacher performances, have greatly affected the quality of education in the Philippines. Philippine education is strongly viewed as a pillar of national development and a primary avenue for social and economic mobility. It has undergone several stages of development from the pre-spanish time to the present. It is handled by three government organizations, namely, the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports. The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the TESDA. The DECS govern both public and private education in all levels, with its mission â€Å"to provide quality basic education that is equitably accessible to all by the foundation for lifelong learning and service for the common good. † The government was mandated by the Philippine Constitution to allocate the highest proportion of its budget to education. However, among the ASEAN countries, the Philippines still has one of the lowest budget allocations to education. This is due to some mainstream political issues and humungous problems that the government is facing specially corruption. There are some measures that the Philippine government has looked into for the reformation of quality education. Technology use is starting to gain momentum in the overall education of this country. This helped improve the quality of education in the Philippines and to be globally competitive in this millennium. Improving the Quality of Education in our Country The Philippines has the highest number of college graduates among developing Asian countries, but that isn’t a substitute for quality. The role of education in economic development is widely acknowledged: education increases the innovative capacity of an economy and facilitates the diffusion, adoption, and adaptation of new ideas. More specifically, education increases the amount of human capital available, thereby increasing productivity and ultimately output. Education is especially important in a rapidly evolving economic environment where a rapid rate of job destruction and creation might otherwise lead to a gap between the skills demanded in the labor market and the skills of job-seekers. So how can regional cooperation improve the quality and availability of education? The role of regional cooperation in a particular country and what means of cooperation are viable will largely depend on that country’s position on the development ladder and the status of its education sector. The role of regional cooperation in a particular country and what means of cooperation are viable will largely depend on that country’s position on the development ladder and the status of its education sector. Since 1975 both GDP and education levels in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam have been catching up. Over the same period GDP growth and improvements to education levels have been losing momentum in developed countries including the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. The Philippines exhibits a curious pattern in this respect, because even as the level of education attainment plateaued, its GDP has been falling behind. This is an apparent contradiction. Given the well-established beneficial effects of education on GDP and on GDP growth rates, the Philippines should have witnessed an era of high growth since 1975, when it had the highest rate of completion of tertiary education among developing Asian countries – higher than Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, or Singapore. This suggests that the problem in the Philippines has been the quality of education, rather than its availability or accessibility. Regional cooperation in education is often identified with trade in education services. In the Asia Pacific, this most commonly takes the form of direct exchanges of people, whether they be students from less-developed countries going to study in more-developed ones, or, as in the case of Singapore and Malaysia, academics from more-developed countries encouraged to relocate to universities in less-developed countries by partnerships between the two institutions. Trade in education services also takes place through transnational education, for example when foreign institutions are encouraged to establish campuses in developing countries. Yet these forms of cooperation are not the most appropriate for the Philippines – for instance because poor local infrastructure makes it difficult to attract foreign institutions and academics. And, moreover, the principal effect of these forms of education cooperation is to make education more available, when the problem in the Philippines is the quality of education – not its availability. Regulatory reform is needed to ensure that the quality of education received at home is high enough to give domestic Filipino students access to education and work abroad. This reform process must start by establishing a credible accreditation system, because under the current system of voluntary self-regulation, less than 20 percent of higher education institutions in the Philippines are accredited. Forms of international cooperation other than through trade in education services would allow the Philippines to improve the quality of domestic education by following the example set by Malaysia, which has linked its own accreditation system to international ones. Malaysia has also been active in promoting the development of a regional quality assurance framework, the ASEAN Quality Assurance Network (AQAN). The AQAN was organized in 2008 in order to promote collaboration among quality assurance agencies in individual ASEAN countries. Though the Philippines has not yet fully acceded to the AQAN, negotiations are underway to formalize an agreement to adopt common standards in the education sector. The Philippines can also pursue bilateral mutual recognition agreements. Such agreements should include quality assurance on the part of both countries. In this way, even if the standards are not at the same level as in higher-income countries, there will be pressure on some of the higher education institutions in the Philippines to improve their programs and facilities in order to gain accreditation. Such agreements, whether bilateral or as part of the AQAN, might make it easier for Filipino policy makers to argue for domestic reform on the basis that it is necessary to meet international agreements. With a higher-quality higher education system, the Philippines would then be better placed to reap the well-documented economic benefits of an educated population.

Irish People and Father Flynn

In order to answer the broad question, the term ‘possibility’ will be analysed in the context of the characters of the texts and in the ‘possibility’ for their personal growth and opportunity for change, be it spiritual, physical or emotional. The essay will focus thematically on four chosen texts: James Joyce’s The Sisters and Langston Hughes’ poems I, too, New Yorkers and Harlem. Firstly this essay will analyse how the city of Dublin represented in The Sisters is shown, through Joyce’s literary devices, to both offer and restrict possibility for each of its central characters.Key themes identified will then be used as a basis for further analysis of how these themes are more widely represented within the selected New York poems to either confirm or refute Lehan’s statement that ‘The city both offers and restricts possibility’. Textual analysis of The Sisters reveals numerous literary devices that explicate the theme of the repression of possibility by the city of its people.Throughout, Joyce uses symbolism, metaphors, and ellipsis to emphasise his themes whilst allowing the reader to infer its meanings without the need to describe them explicitly. The italicised words ’paralysis’, ‘gnomon’ and ‘simony’ (page 1) is one such technique and immediately underscores the physical, spiritual and religious restrictions found within the story that Dubliners symbolises as a ‘paralysis’ (p1) of the city and its people.The story’s young, intelligent, and sensitive (unnamed) protagonist comes to experience first-hand the reality of paralysis and death: he achieves his desire to ‘look upon’ (p1) both the physical paralysis and death of Father Flynn, with whom he was ‘great friends’ (p2) and the more subtle psychological ‘paralysis’ of those around him – his Aunt, Uncle Jack, Eliza and Nanny Flynn and Mr Cotter. The story shows that the Dublin adults are mentally immobilised – metaphorically paralysed, by their conformity to the conventions of their city lives, for them, the beliefs of the Irish church is a given.Eliza, Cotter and the church men consider Flynn and not the church to be the cause of his predicament ‘the duties of the priesthood was too much for him’ (p9). They appear unable to acknowledge the truth of a priest ‘nearly smothered’ (p4) by his understanding of the demands of his – and their- church. The perceptive boy, finds the adults surrounding him ‘tiresome’ (p1) and notices how Nannie Flynn’s skirt was hooked ‘clumsily’ (p6).His judgemental and sometimes precocious style seems at times somewhat harsh ‘the old woman’s mutterings distracted me’ (p6) and his character seemingly reflects the ‘scrupulous’ nature of Father Flynn. The friendship between this fatherless boy and the priest also offered important possibilities for growth to our protagonist, he was taught ‘a great deal’ (p2) such as ‘how to pronounce Latin properly’, told stories ‘about Napoleon Bonaparte’ and was questioned until he ‘could make no answer’ (p6).This education, when contrasted to the ‘principle’ of education described by his Uncle as a ‘cold bath’ (p2), is something that, without Father Flynn, the boy might not have had access to. The question of whether, in the ‘sensation of freedom’ from (p4)Flynn’s death, the boy takes up this possibility for change or succumbs to the paralysis caused by the restrictions of the city is one which Joyce leaves unanswered. In the case of Father Flynn the city of Dublin both offered and restricted possibility.From a lower class upbringing in ‘Irishtown’ (p9) Flynn was able to travel to, and be educated in, ‘the Irish col lege in Rome’ (p5). Yet once he returned to the city and took up his post, he became the ‘disappointed’ (p9), Father Flynn who was paralysed by his ‘too scrupulous’ (p9) nature. Perhaps this is a reference to the potentially paralysing psychological disorder ‘scrupulosity’ which would explain his ‘nervous’ (p10) disposition and his failed attempts to perform his office – represented by the symbolic chalice that ‘contained nothing’ (p9) and the ‘idle chalice’ (p10) he ‘loosely retained’ (p6) in death.The story’s namesakes, the Flynn sisters, were perhaps the most restricted by their Dublin lives. Flynn’s economically and socially impoverished siblings lived with him in the ‘unassuming shop, registered under the vague name of Drapery’ (p3) have been forced to receive the debilitating legacy of a ‘truculent’ (p6) defector whose fortunes once t ook him to college in Rome. Their lack of education becomes apparent through Eliza’s malapropisms ‘freeman’s General’(p8) and ‘rheumatic wheels’ (p9) and the fact they remain unmarried is made clear through the address of ‘Miss Flynn’ (p8).The sacrifices the sisters made for their brother’s career within the Irish church, is clearly represented by the symbolic communion of sherry and cream crackers when they receive the boy and his Aunt into the death-room, all highlight the sacrifices they have made. Joyce does not veil his opinion that the Catholic Church is responsible for a large portion of Dubliner’s paralysis of will and also hints at another malefactor: England. The death notice on the door of the shop on ‘Great Britain Street’ (p3) states that the priest died on 1st July 1895.This date coincides with the Battle of the Boyne (1690) in which Catholic supporters of James II were defeated by William III in a defeat that ‘brought death to the Irish hopes for national and religious freedom. ’(Walzl, 1965, p45) . The date is also that of the Feast of the Most Precious Blood which is symbolic of Father Flynn, his strokes, the broken chalice and the communion served in the death-room. This analysis has demonstrated a number of themes in The Sisters that restrict (paralyse) the possibility of its characters growth, and fewer that display the offering.The paralysis of its character’s resolution for change, caused by the restrictions of the city, is a theme that is also echoed throughout the rest of Dubliners. Joyce presents the city as an ever present â€Å"channel of poverty and inaction† (p. 35) which often leads to a life of â€Å"commonplace sacrifices closing in final craziness† (p. 33). Trapped by poverty and political and religious repression, Joyce's citizens cannot summon  the hope or energy that Gallaher  from ‘A Little Cloudâ€⠄¢ did, to â€Å"revolt against the dull inelegance† of the city (p. 68). However, Joyce's portrait of Dublin is not entirely bleak.Joyce could simply have condemned Dublin, as  Gallaher  does, or followed the example of Duffy, who, in A Painful Case, seeks refuge in brittle, lonely seclusion. But Joyce chose the more challenging course of confronting and accepting the loss of the ‘dear’ in ‘dear, dirty Dublin. ’ (p70) The city’s ability to supress its citizens hope of, or will to change, is something that it is clear, the paralysed characters of The Sisters had experienced, and it is this theme that this essay will now explore further, in an attempt to draw conclusions as to the validity of Lehan’s statement.The chosen Langston Hughes’ poems I, too, Harlem and New Yorkers display continuity of the theme of ‘paralysis’ through the restriction of a city on its citizens although in differing ways and to differing e xtents. Langston Hughes’ poem, I, too, is a poem whose main character is in complete contrast to the those of Joyce. Hughes positions the readers to feel the emotions of guilt and sympathy by applying his personal narration and allows the readers to recognise the inequality of the ‘darker brother’ who is sent ‘to eat in the kitchen /when company comes’ (lines 3-4).The isolation of the ‘darker brother’, his presence an embarrassment to the people around him, serves to anger and motivate his determination for change that is so differing to that of Joyce’s Dublin characters. When he ironically states, ‘But I laugh,/And eat well,/ And grow strong’ (5-7) the speaker is making clear his determination to utilise even the worst situation as an opportunity for growth. Hughes’ use of humour and irony demonstrates this positivity and certainty of change for the future which is in complete contrast to that of Joyce’ s characters.The physical symmetry of the anthem-like poem centres around the line ‘tomorrow’ (8) and seems to gain momentum and passion, as he defiantly promises white America that he will not be spoken for ‘Tomorrow, /I’ll be at the table/ when company comes. / nobody’ll dare say to me,/ eat in the kitchen [†¦] they’ll see how beautiful I am’ (8-16). Hughes positions the reader to feel both sympathy and admiration in the statement, ‘and be ashamed’ (17).The word ‘beautiful’ seemingly symbolises both the speaker’s skin colour and his cultural heritage, his pride demonstrating that he does not want to change himself so the city will accept him, but for the ‘white’ city to awake from its own paralysis and to actively accept change by valuing their separate and distinctive black culture, establishing that he, acting as a representative for the rest of his culture, is as part of the city a s â€Å"I [he] too am [is] America† (18).The theme of ‘paralysis’ is also present in Hughes’ poem Harlem albeit in different way to that of I, too. The speaker’s tone of disdain towards the city is instantly clear through the powerful imagery of it being situated on ‘the edge of hell’ (line 1). This is then compounded by the frequent punctuation and repetition of ‘old’ (3-5), successfully portraying the tedium and hopelessness that it is clear the speaker feels about the situation.The narrative uses the term ‘we’ suggesting that, like I, too, that the speaker is not just speaking as himself but acting as a ‘voice’ for a wider, black culture. When he speaks of the price increase of sugar, bread and the ‘new tax on cigarettes’ (11) he suggests political repression, when he speaks of the job they ‘never could get/and can’t have now/Because we’re coloured’ (13-15 ) he displays his embitterment towards the city and its reluctance to change. The feeling of hopelessness is carried through to the end of the poem, ‘We remember. a sombre statement echoing the ‘remembering of old lies’ (5) from the beginning and accurately portraying the sense of time passed over which they have been ‘patient’ (5) despite what ‘they told us before’ (5). The sense of hopelessness present within the speaker, and by association the African-American culture, is one that Hughes is suggesting has been gradually attained through their sacrifices for, and repression by, the city in which they live, much like that of Joyce’s Dublin upon his characters.The third poem which this essay will use to explore the validity of Lehan’s statement is that of New Yorkers. The first stanza opens introducing the male character as that of a native New Yorker ‘I was born here’ (line 1), the internal rhyme of ‘that ’s no lie, he said/right here beneath God’s sky’ (2-3) draws attention to the apparent need to reassure the female character that he was telling the truth, the implication being that they had been subject to previous dishonesty.If, like in Hughes’ other two poems we assume that each ‘voice’ represents the voice of their particular cultures we can infer a deeper meaning to the previous statement: that the female voice who ‘wasn’t born here’ (4) represents the new immigrants, the statement therefore seemingly echoing the ‘old lies’ seen in Hughes’ Harlem that promised of better possibilities. ‘where I come from/folks work hard/all their lives/ until they die/ and never own no parts/of earth nor sky’(6-11) Hughes draws attention to her belief of the better possibilities that the city would offer and the fact that they were misguided, by his use f her believing she could own a piece of ‘s ky’ (11). The repetition of the word also serves to demonstrate the similarities between the ‘sky’ of the place from which the immigrant originates and that of the city’s despite her initial beliefs that the city would offer more ‘Now what’ve I got? ’ (13). The following declaration of love ‘You! ’ (14) acts to convey that an unexpected possibility for emotional growth has been offered. However the hint of irony in the final line ‘The same old spark! perhaps implies that she has closed her mind to her original dreams of expanding possibilities, for what might be a temporary ‘flame’. In conclusion, Hughes’ poems, like The Sisters, all indicate the offering of, and restrictions on, the possibilities within a city and therefore confirm Lehan’s statement. Both authors, upon first glance, seemingly highlight more restrictions than opportunities. It is important to remember however, that as each c ity changes, so do the opportunities and restrictions offered, and at the time of writing, both cities were in a period of dramatic change, to which there is always resistance.At the conclusion of The Sisters we are left wondering how much of a character's plight is due to the city’s restrictions Joyce so specifically illuminates, and how much is due to human qualities that transcend environment. Perhaps the lesson in both Joyce’s and Hughes’ work, is that a city is made up of individual characters, and as long as its individuals remain backward-facing, without hope and closed to change, they will be paralysed from seeing the possibilities that the city has to offer them.Word Count 2186 Bibliography †¢ A230 Assignment Guide,( 2010) TMA 04, Open University press †¢ Bremen, B (1984) â€Å"He Was Too Scrupulous Always†: A Re-Examination of Joyce's â€Å"The Sisters† James Joyce Quarterly  , Vol. 22, No. 1 pp. 55-66 †¢ Haslam, S & Asbe e, S (2012) The Twentieth Century, Twentieth-Century Cities, Open University Press †¢ Haslam, S & Asbee, S (2012) The Twentieth Century, ‘Readings for part 1’, Open University Press James Joyce (2000 [1914]) Dubliners (with an introduction and notes by Terence Brown), Penguin Modern Classics, London, Penguin. †¢ Walzl, F (1965) The life chronology of the Dubliners , James Joyce Quarterley Websites: †¢ A230-11J, Study Guide: Week 26: Extra Resources, Milton Keynes, The Open University, http://learn. open. ac. uk/file. php/7066/ebook_a230_book3_pt1_chpt4_langston-hughes-poetry_l3. pdf (accessed 21st March 2012) †¢ http://us. penguingroup. com/static/rguides/us/dubliners. html