The African National Congress (ANC) created Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), also known in English as “Spear of the Nation”, because by 1961, the anti-apartheid movement was not gaining enough support. In order to inspire millions of people to join the political movement to end apartheid in South Africa, drastic action had to be taken. I believe that violence is never acceptable, but at the time in which MK was created, violence was the only option left for the ANC, as they could not oppose apartheid by changing government policy. The ANC had only a choice between the lesser of two evils: 1.) Allowing apartheid (itself violent) to continue or 2.) Ensure the termination of apartheid through the use of “terrorist” actions or guerillia violence by the ANC. The continuation would … Read entire article »

Climate is the pattern of weather that one can expect over a long duration of time, whereas weather is the actual variance of daily sunshine or cloud cover, precipitation, and temperature. In order to reconcile the idea that both weather and climate are highly variable, we must understand that both climate and weather will always be changing. A much as we, as humans, like to assume consistency and predictability, the very complex system that is climate cannot be perfectly calculated and predicted. As humans, we like to observe and record data, as well as presume patterns in phenomena. We also have a tendency to assume that the way the world has functioned in the fifty years or so as we know it, or the hundreds of years of recorded history … Read entire article »