Lost Generation

BRIC BOOMS - WEST DECLINES - What next?

Brazil, Russia, India, China or BRIC are in the midst of a rising tide of economic performance and expectations. That is not the whole story of course, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are also doing well but that is normal in the age of oil. Australia is doing well as her raw materials feed the ravenous appetite of India and China. There are many books available now on the new economic situation in the world and the extreme impact of the downturn in the USA and Europe. Below I have posted two clips from documentaries but watch them critically, some viewers may think that their position on the crisis too subjective. At the very least, Michael Moore's film dramatizes the situation in a way that all of us can grasp, but understanding? You need to read some articles and books for that and go ask Mr Cox! Tell him I sent you too!

INSIDE JOB - new documentary - what caused the collapse of the economy in the west?

TRAILER: Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story' - Now On DVD

BBC Website India Edition news and Ethics

http://www.bbc.com/?ocid=asia_indiaedition_display_google_300x250&gclid=CP3TuOy0-awCFcEc6wodATc4Rw

ALSO A Special Page on Ethics on the BBC website      http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/guide/

Delusions in earlier eras

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

John Minihan's photographs of Irish painter Francis Bacon

Flash Mob Mumbai - CST Official Video

Thanks Gauri for sending me this link, It's a great celebration of the Mumbai spirit and of our common humanity, celebrated in dance. So here is my modest contribution a quote from the Irish poet Yeats, friend of the Indian poet Tagore,,,,,,,,,,,,

"O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?"

Nike founder, Phil Knight confronted by Michael Moore (globalisation, ethics, outsourcing, decline of the west)

TOK ESSAY DEADLINE FRIDAY DEC 9TH TURNITIN

Hi everyone - bring your essay drafts to TOK class on Wednesday and work on them with the rubric. You must submit your final draft on Friday Dec 9th on Turnitin. Please note this applies to my class only, other TOK students follow your teachers' instructions please and thank you. ps I am home and will see you all in a few days.

Goodbye Breach Candy Hospital - a big thank you from Mr Andrew C.

My sincere thanks to all the staff at Breach Candy Hospital for taking great care of me here.
A special word of appreciation to Dr. Tehemeton Udwadia, a great surgeon and caring physician. My thanks to all his team, who have been supportive and professional in every way. I am especially grateful to Ms Celina, who is a model of efficiency and professionalism. The other docitors, sisters and nurses were equally superb. The support staff were always anxious to help.
I can recommend Breach Candy Hospital to one and all as a great medical institution where patients are still treated as human beings, with care, warmth and compassion combined with the highest skills and modern technology. Even if you are not famous, the staff here treat everyone with great kindness. One more thing, the food is amazing. Those old jokes about hospital food do not apply in Breach Candy. I was very impressed by Ms Paarmi Vora who came to see me and check that I was eating all my boiled veggies. Indeed I was, they were delicious!                                                              
My thanks to Mr Gardner, Mr Bhavin, staff and colleagues and especially Grade X1 STUDENTS at BD Somani for your messages of support. Mumbai and BD SOMANI is now truly my second home.

BBC-Race to the Top of the World - China and India - comments welcome

Secret Pakistan BBC - recommended as educational viewing during vacation

Include Knowlledge Issues - claims and counterclaims in your essay/include your own knower's perspective too

http://lancastertheoryofknowledge.blogspot.com/search/label/Writing%20an%20essay

TOK WEBSITES

http://mrhoyestokwebsite.com/
A big thank you to Mr Hoye, who has one of the best TOK websites online.

other resources    http://amyscott.com/theory_of_knowledge.htm

Comparative Religion Scholar Karen Armstrong on the Roots of Religion

Dr. Karen Armstrong, a former Catholic nun, important academic and writer, presents an interesting perspective on the major religions of the world.She speaks eloquently on the importance of compassion.

Explaining the Amish Way of Life - VOA Story

Freud on God

These quotes from Freud are interesting. However, if one considers that the Nazi ideology was based on a warped version of Darwin's theories, the 'survival of the fittest' translated into 'might is right' without compassion or empathy, we see that the human race did not progress to maturity in the twentieth century. Is it possible to build a moral ethical society without a belief in God, or does that absence of a 'higher power' or 'creator' lead to Hitler and Stalin? Alternatively, a counter-claim might be that religious wars have produced some of the most barbaric episodes in world history. Interesting questions, no easy answers.

Religious Girl Has a Serious Question for Atheist- Think About it!

4592039 class id for TOK Essay for Mr C students only

Hi everyone, this is the new class code for the TOK essay,                                                                     This is only for my class, other TOK teachers will make their own arrangements.

Atheism destroyed with one question

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins INTERVIEW

Antony Flew's conversion to theism

Second Quarter Grade TOK ESSAY due Wed Dec 7th

1. Analyse the strengths and weaknesses of using faith as a basis for knowledge in religion and in one area of knowledge from the ToK diagram.                                                                    (1000-12000 words) from IB official list of essays for examination in May 2012.
2. Wednesday 30th you will revise the TOK ESSAY Rubric with your teachers. You will be graded using this rubric and teachers will moderate together to ensure standardised marking across the year group. Visit the Hoye website recommended in class.
3. Friday December 2nd Mr Gardner will give a special talk to the whole year group on the topic.
4. Students are recommended to complete the essay over the weekend of Dec 3rd/4th.
5. Final version due to teachers on Wednesday December 7th.

TOK FILM CLUB THE MATRIX - Please post brief comments

BD SOMANI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL celebrated Annual Day concert with traditional and modern Indian music and dance ......

and we celebrated with rock and roll.....

B D SOMANI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ANNUAL DAY CELEBRATION

BD SOMANI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL MUMBAI ANNUAL DAY

BD SOMANI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL ANNUAL DAY 2011 CELEBRATING INDIAN and INTERNATIONAL MUSIC AND DANCE

Il Postino TOK FILM CLUB

Hitler and Stalin the roots of evil (part 1 of 5)

Dubai Airports Flash Mob

Great video but ask the question -'why?'
Why would the UAE Airport Administrators commission and pay for this performance?
What messages are contained in the video and what is the cultural and commercial context of its timing now? Is there anything unusual about the racial mix of the dancers given the location of the event? Are there many members of the host population present from the evidence in the video? Do you think such an event could occur in a mall in the UAE? Does all this say anything about the delicate balancing act for countries which promote themselves as 'modern' but also have very conservative laws and practices? Can you estimate how much planning, time and money went into producing what is meant to look spontaneous?
It's still a great video but always 'look closer'.

Riz Khan - Corruption in cricket -Ethics, Emotion, Reason

Pakistan Cricket Scandal coverage vs Pakistan Flood coverage

Interesting post but does this speaker have a particular agenda? Is this an example of a text positioning a reader or viewer so as to 'manipulate' them?

Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil.

Thank you Gauri for sending me this youtube link.
Nietzche's books are worth reading too.
This is recommended for students who are interested in philosophy. It is also recommended for students who wish to broaden their knowledge in line with the IB learner profile. It is not compulsory viewing or a must see for everyone. I will explain in class which videos I think are most important for those who find it difficult to set priorities in reading and viewing.

The Matrix - Descartes - Sense Perception and what is real?

Steven Pinker: Chalking it up to the blank slate

Star-studded Jaipur Literature Festival

Roger Ebert - Best Films of the 1990s

Area of Knowledge - Future topic -Aesthetics - is there a universal standard of beauty?

                                               

There is more to ToK than politics, current affairs and the darker side of human behaviour. 

One of the Areas of Knowledge is Aesthetics, which will include topics on the nature of beauty. It will also offer a chance to discuss issues like fashion and advertising, models and role models and the controversies related to excessively thin models and the ethics of these industries. We will ask the question is beauty a universal value or is it a construct, dependent on cultural values and inculcated by society. Meanwhile,enjoy this video!                                                                                                                                                               

1984 - George Orwell

January 2012 TOK SPECIAL TOPIC George Orwell 1984

In his novel, "1984' Orwell imagined a society controlled by BIG BROTHER. He wrote the book in 1948 in part as a reaction to dictators like Stalin and Hitler. The novel is required reading for all Grade X1 students and will form part of our ToK study of language as a way of knowing.
I invite students to read the book and then volunteer to present their views at a special Saturday class. The book encourages us to reflect on the nature of absolute belief, be it political or religious, love, hate, blind obedience versus ethical questioning and critical thinking. It stands with Machiavelli's "The Prince" as an important book about power and control of others. Orwell was well aware of the power of propaganda in Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. Another theme is the use of torture to break the spirit of the individual 'resister' and force conformity. Many of these issues have been discussed by academics during the war on terror and some have claimed that even democratic societies have become 'totalitarian' in some respects since 911. This is not a pleasant book to read but it remains one of the most important books of the twentieth century. William Golding wrote his famous "Lord of the Flies" in the aftermath of WW2 also. It also examined leadership, power, morality, individuals and groups in a different way. Both books are highly recommended to all as explorations of the human condition in extremis. Our focus will be on Orwell's "1984", in particular the invention of a new language by the state media and the distortion of all language in that society.

The Lives of Others trailer

I have not seen this film yet but it may be a useful film to compare with Orwell's "1984".

Diwali - Festival of Lights

"The Genius of the Crowd" by Charles Bukowski (poetry reading)

Lorenzo's Oil Trailer-true stroy and uplifting film

When their young son is diagnosed with a rare incurable disease, his parents refuse to listen to the medical establishment and research a cure themselves. They meet with resistance but also find help and support from a few doctors and chemists. A sub-plot is the crisis of faith suffered by the mother who stops attending her church, blaming God for her family's suffering.
The film reminds us of that famous TOK question: "Why do bad things happen to good people?" I must stress that though it's not a comedy, it's not depressing either. It's a tale of the triumph of the human spirit, intelligence and critical thinking and is graced by excellent acting.
Areas of Knowledge: Medicine, Ethics, Ways of Knowing: Emotion, Reason, Sense Perception and Language.

The 9/11 Hotel - Part 1 of 5

Watch the documentary and you decide

Easter 1916 By William Butler Yeats - A Reading

Hikikomori in Japan [Part 1]

THE TRUMAN SHOW - Trailer ( 1998 )

How do we know what we know?

Enron's whistleblower -Lynn Brewer webssite

http://vimeo.com/29928329

Hotel Taj President -TOK Public Speaking Forum March 25th 2012

Plans are underway for an inter-school ToK Forum at the Vivanta Taj President.
It will be hosted by BD Somani in March 2012.
Ask me for details in class. A small number of top student speakers will be selected to represent our school in front of an audience of students, parents and teachers. There will also be a guest VIP speaker.
I will survey the class to get your views on whether it's better to hold it on a weekend or an evening after school. Please ask me about this in English or TOK class and I will explain our options.

Mr. C.'s IB English Blog: How to create an Awesome PowerPoint presentation

Mr. C.'s IB English Blog: How to create an Awesome PowerPoint presentation: B.D. SOMANI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

MLK Jr. in Gandhi’s Footsteps

MLK Jr. in Gandhi’s Footsteps

Pirates of Silicon Valley trailer

APPLE Steve Jobs (r.i.p.) Stanford commencement speech 2005

B.D. SOMANI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

Chomsky dispels 9/11 conspiracies with sheer logic

Lynn Brewer- Enron Whistleblower

Corporate ethics and whistleblowers?

The beauty of ToK is that there are so many interesting areas for us to explore. On this blog, I will point you in several directions, you do not have to read or study in depth everything that is here, but you should at least make a brief note of the topic in your notebook. If do look into the topic, feel free to post a comment or question here or raise it during our weekly review of the blog in school. This article from "Time Magazine" is recommended for ToK students. In the aftermath of the attacks on New York (911), Coleen Rowley, herself an FBI agent, exposed inefficiencies in the intelligence community. Her story is an important for students searching for the truth about the failures of intelligence in 2001. There are stories here of two women blowing the whistle on corporate malpractice in WorldCom and Enron. "In a year when our trust in American institutions was tested, Sherron Watkins of Enron, Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom found the strength to stand for what's right." Just google 'Time Magazine Person of the Year 2002' and you can read the article.

Grade X1 ToK students visit Grade X11 Mock Art Exhibition

Ms Zeba, IB Art Teacher explores the links between ToK and the Visual Arts at the exhibition.

Wednesday October 12th Emotion/Reason/Ethics

Hello Knowers and Enquirers - on Wednesday we enjoyed a visit to the Grade X11 Mock Art Exhibition. Ms Zeba gave a most interesting talk on the links between ToK and Art and held our group spellbound with her challenging observations on the topic and the work of the Grade X11 students. In class this week, we will continue with emotion and reason and we will start to probe the issue of Ethics, so put your thinking caps on and consider if there is a link between academic honesty and honesty within the worlds of business and politics. We have touched on this with Saket's presentation on the Bhopal tragedy and if this area of ethics interests you, then consider a documentary on Enron - "The Smartest Guys in the Room". This is available on youtube but it's quite long but worth the effort as there is material there that is quite informative and shocking. The alternative is to research the career of Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay on the internet. Both men were arrested when Enron collapsed and charged with fraud. Enron was the third largest corporate collapse in the history of America in 2002. It left thousands of employees jobless and they later discovered that the company shares they purchased for their pensions were worthless. http://www.youtube.com/user/GandhiandKing

Conspiracy Theories - using emotion and reason to search for the truth....

Hi everyone - some great essays coming in on Igatpuri through a TOK lens. Well done students! Congrats to Anmol who read his essay in several different classes to inspire his classmates. Great work too by Saket who presented a very interesting ppt on the Bhopal tragedy and gave us a lead into 'Ethics' and how it links to emotion and reason. Just a reminder that students must read the chapters on "Reason" and "Emotion" in detail at home, using the class quiz notes to identify key points and technical language to provide a basic literacy in the subject. However, students are encouraged to read beyond the text book and watch documentaries subject to other academic demands on their time. You can search 'Conspiracy Files BBC' on the BBC website and on YouTube to find excellent topics with knowledge claims and counter-claims. There was a great buzz in class this week when we discussed how "Ethics" will open up our first Area of Knowledge, as we dig deeper with our first two WOKs. Students are encouraged to investigate the 'Stanley Milgram Experiment' on the web and I am looking for two volunteers to make a short presentation on this topic on Wednesday 12th October. Although Ethics is the key area here, it also falls under the category of Human Sciences, psychology, human behaviour and students are encouraged to question Milgram's motives for the original experiment. Print a copy of the IB Learner Profile and keep it in your work space at home. Read books, try Amartya Sen's "The Argumentative Indian" and find other great books reviewed on "The Guardian" website. This is one of the best UK newspapers and should be visited weekly or at least fortnightly. http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/ Two favourite books of mine penned by 'Guardian' journalist Jon Ronson are "Them: Adventures with Extremists" and "The men who stare at goats". Serious stuff but also very funny in an ironic sort of way. Here is the author's website. www.jonronson.com

Essay on WOK and Igatpuri due Wed 28th September

Essay on Igatpuri as experienced through the 4 Ways of Knowing - Deadline for final version Wednesday 28th - Hardcopy to all Grade X1 TOK teachers. Thank you. Friday 23rd special lesson with distinguished guest speakers from Oxford University. Topics for October Lessons and study beyond the classroom - Emotion as a Way of Knowing. Ongoing student projects - The Moon Landing, JFK, September 11th 2001, Princess Diana, Roswell, Hitler's death. Contrasting Reason and Emotion as Ways of Knowing.

Bonding old and new students in Igatpuri

B.D. SOMANI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL MONSOON TREK IN IGATPURI

My Youtube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/GandhiandKing?feature=mhee