The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (1951)

“In 1953, The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and it was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to their awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954. “(Nobel Prize 1954)

 

The novel is about an old and poor Cuban fisherman Santiago who is a master in a fishing craft. However, he has a bad luck in fishing. 
His apprentice Manolin is a very polite and helpful boy. Manolin respects and appreciates the skill, the knowledge and the know-how of his master in fishing; Though Santiago did not catch fish for a long time. Manolin’s parents ask him to leave the old man and work for another fisherman.
 Manolin does not lose his faith in the competence of his master but he obeys his parent. So, Santiago fishes alone, but he does not lose his patience and faith. After 84 days at sea, he catches a huge "marlin” fish. After struggling with it for three days, but the sharks come and eat his big fish or his luck. Then, he returns back home with a huge marlin's skeleton as an evidence of his proficiency and his bad luck at the same time.

The Old Man and the Sea is a very interesting and wonderful novel. It is a story about the patience, luck, faith, and proficiency, about the struggling of a man against the obstacles (i.e. the hardship, the sea and the sharks); about the striving of a man strongly towards his aims (i.e. the giant marlin fish):

"But man is not made for defeat, he said. A man can be destroyed but not defeated". (Hemingway, p 80, 2000)

 The novel tells us that we should be brave, and bear in mind constantly that the lack of success is not a defeat. We will be defeated only when we lose our patience, courage and inner will. 

The novel highlights the positive effects of the good people around us, as Manolin. They support and encourage us to achieve our goals and overcome the obstacles. In my opinion, anyone will be lucky when he has a person in his life like Manolin, who strongly believes in his proficiency. I think Santiago was a lucky man because he had Manolin in his life.

  “I know you did not leave me because you doubted.

  It was papa made me leave. I am a boy and I must obey him.

  I know, the old man said. It is quite normal.

 He hasn’t much faith.

 No, the old man said. But we have. Haven’t we?

Yes, the boy said. “(Hemingway, p 4, 2000)

In conclusion, I think the main idea in this beautiful and inspiring novel is that we should strive and struggle to achieve our aims, believe in ourselves, and seek to be surrounded with positive and helpful people who like us and encourage us.

References:

-The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved from:

 http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1954/.

Or:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea#cite_note-nobel-2

-The old man and the sea. Hemingway, Ernest. London: Vintage, 2000.

                                                    The Future Of Money 

The digital currency researcher Neha Narula describes and paints In her TED talks ”The future of money ” a picture of a very different looking future.

She talks about using 'Cryptocurrency' in the future instead of traditional currency, so what is 'Cryptocurrency'?

A cryptocurrency: is a digital or virtual currency, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which is not run by any government, bank or intermediaries. Neha mentions in her TED talks.

Neha prefers to use this kind of money because she believes it is safer, transactions run faster and cost less than traditional methods. While this may be true, in fact, I do not trust in this type of currency. The program has been developed by individuals. Therefore, there may be errors or loopholes in the program. Moreover, others can modify the program and use it for self-interest.

I also think it is not easy to understand the mechanism of producing the Bitcoin. Though, anyone can download and run the software to produce the Bitcoin. However, the process is not as simple as expected. “If I tried to mine Bitcoin on my laptop, I probably wouldn't see any for about two million years. The miners, professional miners, use this special hardware that’s designed to solve the puzzle really fast.” Neha mentions. Thus, I think this is a negative point that there is a specific group of people who have special skills and computers will produce the Bitcoin.

I am also concerned that the use of digital currency   may eventually remove the need for banks. This means that many people who work in banks will lose their jobs due to digital or virtual currency.

Eventually, I prefer using the traditional currency. What do you prefer?

In their article 'Exploding myths about the gig economy' (VoxEU, 28 November 2016), Jacques Bughin and Jan Mischke highlight and discuss the importance of the rising phenomenon ‘gig economy’. The writers refer that some studies emphasize on the role and the significance of the ‘gig economy’ whereas others downplay the role of 'gig economy'.

So, what is the 'gig economy'?

According to the Cambridge English Dictionary the gig economy is “a way of working that is based on people having temporary jobs or doing separate pieces of work, each paid separately, rather than working for an employer”.

So the ‘gig economy’ refers to the new part of economy which depends on the independent workforce instead of traditional economy who depends on the large company.

I think if we would like to understand and evaluate the role of "gig economy”, we should compare between the positive and negative aspects of "traditional economy” and "gig economy”.

The traditional economy depends on the large company where the work forces depend on their employer as the only source for their income and they have long-term commitments towards the employers. The work forces in the traditional economy get permanent income and package of benefits such as: sick pay, retirement, rewards, etc.

With respect to "gig economy" the work forces are independent, and their works depends on achieving specific tasks, their commitments towards the clients are temporary and relate to fulfill the tasks. Thus the workforce in the "gig economy" will not get perks as the employees in the traditional type. On other hand, the "gig economy” provides many features to the independent work forces such as flexibility, autonomy and self-employment. Thus they have the ability to earn more when they work more. The "gig economy” supports the policy "Do not put all your eggs in one basket" because the employee here does not depend on one employer as the only source for his income.

I think also the traditional economy has got many benefits from the "gig economy".  The large companies in the traditional economy hire the independent work forces for specific tasks for specific time to avoid the high cost in the case of permanent employees. 

So I think the large companies should support the independent employees through many ways such as raising their experiences through free training courses or encourage them by giving them rewards. Thus, I would say the relation between the gig economy and traditional economy does not base on the competition, but in contrast each of them depends on the other part.