The human race differs from other species on earth. It has developed in a way that makes it able to think independently from other individuals, to control its instincts and urges and to communicate with other human beings. In addition, it has learned to criticise and to ask questions about its existence. Hence, it has also learned how to gain knowledge. But what is knowledge?

In everyday speech, people use the information they gain in order to expand their level of knowledge. In what way this expansion takes place depends on the person who possesses information and what he chooses to do with it. He or she can for example hear about a theory, and decide if he or she wants to adapt it to his or hers knowledge.

This way, facts and theories work as building bricks in a wall of knowledge, and you have to choose on which areas you want to expand this wall. Sometimes, when facts and theories become refuted, a brick disappears in the fundament of a wall and the wall falls down and must be rebuilt with other theories and facts as a point of support.

To have a common sense is closely related to knowledge. It is the starting point of its expansion, and a point for further individual development. Therefore, the common sense is essential to accept on a daily basis, in order to be able to communicate with other people and to expand one’s horizons. The common sense is also a way to define normality, even though there can be no exact definition of what a normal person is, since everyone owns the ability to think for themselves and therefore are different from each other. Still, the common sense can be looked upon as a norm for normality and how people must act to behave in proportion to others in a society, and in order to expand their knowledge.

In conclusion, we can say that everyone has their own knowledge, but that this knowledge is fragile. If a person wants to expand his or hers horizons and knowledge, he or she must be able to accept theories or facts as genuine and use these as a fundament for further development and learning. This leads to the fact that knowledge is fragile, in the way that if the fundamental common sense and knowledge can be disproved and rejected, a whole branch of a person’s knowledge is torn down and must be rebuilt. In the end, it is all a matter of how solid you can build up your wall of knowledge, and what materials you use during the construction.

The year is something around 2000, because there are letters in the book dating back to 1997, and the majority of the story takes place in Swindon, England. Here lives Christopher Boone, a 15 year old boy with the ailment called Asperger’s syndrome. This syndrome gives him autistic features and a totally different view than others of the world he lives in.

Christopher’s mother, Judy, is short-tempered and impatient. Although she loves her son we can often read about how Christopher’s ailment gets on her nerves. This is one of the main reasons of why she left. The father, on the other hand, is a lot calmer and patient. His name is Edward, and he is the one who takes care of Christopher most of the time.

We can also read about Mrs Alexander, an old lady living in the neighbourhood, who tries to make friends with Christopher in her surely lonely existence. But she seems to believe too much of the gossip going around in the neighbourhood…

When Christopher finds Mrs Shear’s dog murdered, he starts to investigate. During his search he finds more and more information, but this information is about him and not the dog. He gets closer and closer to the truth about his mother, who does not seem to be dead after all, and when he discovers that his father has lied to him about his mother, that she is still alive and lives in London with Mr Shears and that his father killed Wellington, he leaves the house in fear in search for a way to get to London, to his mother.

The story is written in a dramatic and comic manner, so I guess you can say that the genre is dramatic comedy. To find one main theme is a bit difficult, but since the book was written for an adult audience, I guess that the author wanted to write about parents’ self-sacrifice for their children, no matter what. He wanted to write about parents’ difficulties with having children with ailments like Asperger’s syndrome. Mark Haddon himself has worked with children with different ailments, and he therefore knows a lot about Asperger’s syndrome.

The pictorial elements used in the book gives us a little more insight in how detailed and vigilant a person with Asperger’s syndrome is. He can describe and draw a pattern he has seen days before, and he can write a detailed map. They also help the readers to understand what happens during the story.

Although the plot dragged on in some moments, the plot ran smoothly through the actions and made the book easy to enjoy. I can easily – and warmly will – recommend this book to others.

Sources

(Outside of word count)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Haddon

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon ©2003 (Vintage 2004)

If you care enough for photography to move away from flickr, facebook and all those other photosharing pages you know that there are a lot of good photographers and photojournalists who publish some of there works and portfolios online. I have many favourites in my bookmarks, and here are some of them.

Tobin Rogers

Tobin Rogers is a freelance photographer who publishes some of his works online. This is what he says about himself:

What drives freelancers? They would rather fail at something they love than succeed at something they dislike. – George Burns, modified by Tac Anderson, modified again by Tobin Rogers.

Copyright Tobin Rogers

His work is astonishing, and I really recommend you to check out his blog and his website for more information.

Luke Sharrett

Luke Sharrett is a photojournalist working for the New York Times. His works and photographies have impressed me a lot, and they can be studied in greater detail on his website. Not only does he work in the media, but he makes portfolios of topics that are closely related to the system of government, the army and Society. One of my favourite pictures of his is this one.

Copyright Luke Sharrett

Keep updated on his blog for more information about his work and recent projects!

Jonathan Andrew

Jonathan is a British, award-winning photographer that lives in the Netherlands. Next to his profession as a professional photographer he informs about his passion for landscape photography and sceneries on his website. By entering his website you can explore some of his published portfolios as well as finding more information.

From a WWII bunker portfolio. Copyright Jonathan Andrew

Magnum

A website calling itself Magnum photos is a multinational photography company that has existed for many years. It says that the organisation has been working to give information of what is going on in the world in images. From their own website:

Within the library, most of the major world events and personalities from the Spanish Civil War to the present day are covered. There are constantly updated profiles on most countries of the world, covering industry, society and people, places of interest, politics and news events, disasters and conflict. The Magnum Photos library reflects all aspects of life throughout the world and the unparalleled sense of vision, imagination and brilliance of the greatest collective of documentary photographers. In short, when you picture an iconic image, but can’t think who took it or where it can be found, it probably came from Magnum.

Visit their website for more information and to have a peek on some of their amazing photos and projects.

This is just a small sample of all the great photography pages that exist online. Of you are interested in beautiful sceneries, portraits and landscapes, then why don’t start looking up some stuff online? I am sure you will find something of your liking.

- elgvin

I do not know if I have any regular readers, but if I do I must say that I am so, SO sorry for the way too long break I have been having from updating this website… I must have let you down, if you have been waiting.

I guess that some of the people who read this are currently in the middle of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Well, as I now am starting to look back on the last couple of years I see how much I have been through, how much I have learnt. Also, I see how hard it can be to see the lightt in the end of the tunnel when finishing the first year and knowing that you have one year left… All I can say to you is that when you get to the point that you are starting to hand in your major assignments and tasks and start to revise for exams, time simply flies past and suddenly you are standing at the after-exam party feeling free as a bird.

I am revising now. Meaning that I have to go now

- elgvin

When I was being introduced to questions such as “who decides what is history?” or “what causes events to happen?” I saw how wrong I had been. History is mainly a reference to the past, to what is behind us. This means that when I write the letter “K” on the keyboard in exactly this moment, it is already history, because it belongs to the past. But history is also a subject, something that can be studied. Some people dedicate their lives to study history.

I thought studying history mainly was about finding out what happened during some past event. And I was right, except that I did not think about the fact that they are also looking for causes for why these events took place. I find it intriguing and maybe also a bit frightening that it is the historians who have all the power when it comes to retelling a story or event, and what they tell might not be correct in regard to the actual events.

So creating a credible historical retell of an event is all about collecting sources and draw conclusions out of these. The only problem is that these conclusions might be horribly wrong. This is why many historians debate about what sources tell and try to persuade the public opinion into believing that their account is true based on sources and evidence. The causes of historical events are also debated; some think that the environment and the current situation make events happen, others believe in free will. I personally find it more logical to give the credit of occurrences to free will. Maybe this is because I dislike the idea of destiny, that all we do is already decided and cannot be undone or done otherwise.

- elgvin

Nic Marks is in his speech “About Happiness and Climate Change” talking about happiness. In his speech, he is considering economic progress and the way that the gross domestic product is internationally used as a measure for progress. However, what this number does not tell us is how happy the people in the countries really are. For although economy and wealth is important to people, it cannot be compared to the importance of happiness and love in people’s lives.

So what is really happiness? If it is not money, then what is it?

I remember reading about a philosopher once who said that “a man without dreams and ambitions is too miserable to exist”, or something similar. However, the point was that we as people are designed to work, to create and dream. These are things that drive us, that give our lives meaning, that make us happy,  was this philosophers’ ideas and thoughts. So is the recipe of happiness as simple as this? As long as you have things to do in your every-day life and have dreams and yearnings, you can be as happy as the happiest man on earth? Or is there more to it?

How about love? The famous and most well-used theme and emotion in the world. Well, one could almost say that happiness includes love in some way or the other anyway, at least in terms of being in a state of mind that pleases us so much that we cannot believe it as anything else as happiness. But is happiness a long- or a short-term affair? Is being happy for a short period of life the same as happiness? Is having a relationship with someone for a short period of time out of admiration rather then real feelings happiness?

Sorry for all the questions, but there are so many things that can join in when defining happiness. This is why I looked upon Nic Marks’ Happy Planet Index with a critical eye. He says that he can measure happiness. I believe that this is not possible. Point stated.

I think that we all must learn to find our own happiness. To me it would be finding someone that I can be together with for the rest of my life, one that I can love and (very rarely, hopefully) fight with, but that never leaves my side. I want to have a family, and a job that I can be content with. I want a good education, because knowledge interests me. I dream of growing old, and being able to look back on my life saying that life was worthwile.

What is your recipe for hapiness?

- elgvin

However, I have some questions that you could say are very ToK-based. First of all, how can we measure happiness? And how do we measure it?

I will be back with more on this soon, this is just a warm-up and an apologee for not having been very active recently…

- elgvin

In the development of a global village there are many opinions, and paricipants of the debate are often highly critical or very positive to many of the aspects of globalization. I will not express my view on the issue, but simply write here the quotations I took note of in the text “Living in a Global Village” from a textbook in the course.

“In a broader perspecitve, there are many signs that the world in some sense is becoming smaller and smaller” (The essence of globalization)

“[Today], business executives and governmental officials can attend a breakfast meeting in London and a dinner conference in Los Angeles – during the same day” (The development of crossing borders)

“Tourism is in fact one of the fastest-growing industries in the world”

“Furthermore, at the outset of the second millenium we seem to find ourselves in the middle of an electronic revolution centering around the Internet”

“A well-known principle says that ‘Hostility anywhere has the tendency of becoming hostility everywhere’”

“Our understanding of ‘Globalization’ may depend on whether we are talking about its economic, political or cultural aspects, and definitions will also tend to differ depending on whether we see these developments as largely positive or as threatening and destructive”

“Groups and people on the political left tend to see globalization as producing an unfair economic system which allows rich countries to exploit poorer ones” (One of the anti-globalizational economic arguements)

“Some critics argue that through globalization, western ideals are falsely established as universal, and local traditions are left to suffer”

“Supporters of the economic globalization include liberalists on the political right, who argue that encouraging world trade will promote economic growth and increase standards of living all over [the world]” (Pro-globalization arguement)

“The fear of cultural imperialism, combined with resentment of America’s political involvement abroad, may have been at the core of the anti-American sentiments behind the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C. on 11 September 2001″

These are the quotes that I took note of, and whether you find them interesting or not is up to you to decide. However, they are at least the essence of the opinions presented in the text and gives a good lecture on globalization. Any comments?

- elgvin

But now, this close to the end of the program (and the weeks are flying by quite fast now) I have been thinking a lot about what this course actually has been giving me. One might think that it is only for our own benefit when it comes to getting a good referance that can be used later for applying for universities or whatever, but is that really it?

Before answering this question I decided that it would be smart to look over what the IB stands for again. What values and ideals does the IB system aim to achieve for the students they educate? Well, the impression I have got this far in the programme is that it values independent learning by the students. In contrast to many other school systems, the teachers are on our level, not a superior. They are there to guide us and prepare us for the exam. This gives the class environment a good spirit, and learning becomes easier.

This opens up for motivation and joy with learning new things and gaining more knowledge. I must say that two years in the IB has not taken away my wish for becoming a doctor; on the contrary, I feel more ready for the long study of medicine that is ahead of me.

In addition to having given me motivation, experience and expertise in independent learning it has also been am interesting course when it comes to something I have termed “extended thinking”, particularly through the Theory of Knowledge course. We have learned to become critical thinkers and reflective learners.

I think that this is the most important ability I will take with me from the two years on the IB. It will become useful in the future world as it will be necessary to look what is behind things in our society. Who wrote this article? Why does he write it? What is his background? Can I find another article representing the same issue from another perspective?

All these questions have been given a new meaning and importance. A word that frequently has been used recently in my classes is bias. This is a word with many meanings, although we use it most commonly when we describe something that has been produced from only one point of view in order to persuade us into believing that this is the only point of view. In a world with a decreasing number of media-stations where the stronger and richer companies by the smaller ones, it is very important to be critical towards what we are being told.

In order to come name some of the more materialistic things the IB has given me I can name that I have never been as structured and disciplined in my studies as I have the last months. IB is a perfect choice for those who are looking into further education, for instance through universities.

I can therefore sum up very shortly that this programme has been giving me the abilities of independent learning, critical thinking and reflection over my actions and thoughts. These are all values and abilities that will help me for the rest of my life.

I don’t think that any other course could have made me feel more ready for the future.

elgvin

Geirangerfjord with view over the "Seven Sisters" waterfall

I must say that this is not an advertisement of any sort, but simply an expression of my own feelings and thoughts after my visit last summer. Just take a look on this picture, and compare  the size of the mountain and the cruiseboat on the fjord…

However, if we now stop daydreaming we can take a look on some of the general facts about this municipality. Geiranger is a small town at the very end of the Geirangerfjord, and is placed near the city of Ålesund in the western part of Norway. It has been named the best travel destination in Scandinavia by the famous travel-show “Lonely Planet”, and was in 2005 listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the surroundings you have many short routes that go to pastures, waterfalls etc and three hotels are placed in the small town. Dalsnibba, a mountain that rises 1497 meters above sea level is placed just behind the town of Geiranger and is actually reachable by car and buses! All this makes Geiranger a natural destination for tourists from all over the world.

Geiranger town

Planning the vacation for next year already? Haha, joking.

elgvin