The Meaning of the Surname Pierce

The Meaning of the Surname Pierce The Pierce family name was adjusted from the given name Piers,â a deduction of Peter, which means rock, from the Old French pierre (Latin petra), which means stone or rock. The name most regularly determined as a surnameâ meaning child or relative of Piers or Peter. Be that as it may, it might likewise have been presented or picked as a topographic name for somebody who lived in a rough zone, or as a word related name for a quarryman or stone mason.â Popular People with the Pierce Surname Franklin Pierceâ -fourteenth leader of the United StatesWendell Pierce -  American grant winning actorBarbara Pierce Bushâ - wife of George H.W. Shrubbery, 41st leader of the United StatesGeorge Washington Pierce - Harvard educator of physics; inventorNat Pierceâ -American jazz pianistMarvin Pierce - American distributer; leader of McCall Corporation Where the Pierce Surname Is Most Common As indicated by family name dissemination from Forebears, the Pierce last name is generally regular in the United States, where it positions among the best 200 last names in the nation. It is likewise to some degree basic in Wales (positions 350th) and Ireland (581st). Inside Ireland, Pierce is most usually found in Wexford, Carlow and Kerry. WorldNames PublicProfiler demonstrates a comparable dispersion, with the best level of people named Pierce found all through the United States. The name is particularly regular in the southeast, including Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia. Family history Resources for the Surname Pierce Pierce Family Crest - Its Not What You Think: Contrary to what you may hear, there is nothing of the sort as a Pierceâ family peak or emblem for the Pierce surname. Coats of arms are allowed to people, not families, and may legitimately be utilized distinctly by the continuous male line relatives of the individual to whom the escutcheon was initially conceded. The Pierce DNA Project - Southern US: Individuals with the Pierceâ surname, and variations, for example, Pearce, Peirce, Pearse, Pierse, and Percy, with progenitors from southern U.S. statesâ are welcomed to take an interest in this gathering DNA venture trying to become familiar with southern Pierce family roots. The site remembers data for the undertaking, the examination done to date, and directions on the best way to take part. PIERCE Family Genealogy Forum: This free message board is centered around relatives of Pierceâ ancestors around the globe. FamilySearch - Pierce Genealogy: Explore over 4â million outcomes from digitizedâ historical records and ancestry connected family trees identified with the Pierce last name on this free site facilitated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Pierce Surname Mailing List: Free mailing list for analysts of the Pierceâ surname and its varieties incorporates membership subtleties and an accessible files of past messages. DistantCousin.com - Pierce Genealogy Family History: Explore free databases and parentage joins for the last name Pierce. GeneaNet - Pierce Records: GeneaNet incorporates authentic records, family trees, and different assets for people with the Pierceâ surname, with a fixation on records and families from France and other European nations. The Pierce Genealogy and Family Tree Page: Browse ancestry records and connections to genealogical and authentic records for people with the Pierceâ surname from the site of Genealogy Today. References: Surname Meanings Origins Cottle, Basil. Penguin Dictionary of Surnames. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1967. Dorward, David. Scottish Surnames. Collins Celtic (Pocket release), 1998. Fucilla, Joseph. Our Italian Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003. Hanks, Patrick and Flavia Hodges. A Dictionary of Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1989. Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003. Reaney, P.H. A Dictionary of English Surnames. Oxford University Press, 1997. Smith, Elsdon C. American Surnames. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1997.

Anthropology-African Religions Free Essays

The underlying foundations of cutting edge Islam were planted several centuries back when the once glad Muslim realm started to be overpowered by expansionist developments overwhelmed by European colonialists. This has prompted a social strife in Muslim world who once used to live at the apex of magnificence saw its quiet internment with the resigned oppression of the Islamic Caliphate on account of relentless British armed force in mid twentieth century. While a sizable area of the Muslims decided to follow the way appeared by incredible legislator like Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, many kept on being rotted by the injuries of embarrassment. We will compose a custom exposition test on Humanities African Religions or then again any comparative theme just for you Request Now Presently Muslims in numerous nations are hoping to reassert themselves after a significant stretch of mortification and persecution, now and again on account of outsiders and once in a while on account of their own pioneers. In opposition to mainstream thinking, Muslims are not a solid gathering, nor there is any unified authority inside Islam. The Islamic development from its introduction to the world has experienced discussions and counter discussions. Aside from the Shahadah (God is one and Mohammad is his flag-bearer) and the five obligatory obligations (Hajj, Zakat, Roza, Namaz and Shahadah) everything else in Islam has been exposed to profound investigation and examination with the outcome that numerous schools of contemplations continued showing up and vanishing. That is the reason logical inconsistencies are clear to individuals both inside and outside the Muslim people group. The orientalists, the traditional experts on Islam, have been blamed for being essentialist and uncaring toward the change, exchange, advancement, and decent variety that portrays lived Islam. A few researchers, basically anthropologists, have reacted to the inclination to essentialize by surrendering conceptualizing one â€Å"Islam† and rather have concentrated their request on what they call different â€Å"local Islams.† Others have concentrated on sociological or political-financial methodologies in clarifying the cutting edge types of political and social activism among Muslims to the rejection of â€Å"scriptural† Islam from their examination. (Anjum O., 2007) Islam was brought to Sub-Saharan Africa in any case by means of the exchange courses from the Arab nations and North Africa. The African Muslims have constantly kept up very close connections with the Arab world, from which various reformers came. Be that as it may, Islamisation was basically done by Africans themselves, who had a similar life, communicated in a similar language, lived in the equivalent social world totally. There is no uncertainty that, for African Muslims,  «Africanicity » and Islam are not the slightest bit restricted. For them Islam isn't an imported religion. For some, relinquishing the Muslim religion is proportionate to the dismissal of all their family and ancestral customs, so intermixed are the two socio-strict universes. One must infer that Islam, in its customary African structure, is totally a piece of the African social legacy and hence an African reality. The long dwelling together of Islam with customary African religion has additionally had an impact at the social level. The African dialects are all in all dialects with a solid jargon, somewhat constrained in the declaration of progressively dynamic real factors or increasingly created reflections. With the Arabic language Islam has had the option to fill a hole. Numerous African people groups, some hardly contacted by Islam, have acquired a total dynamic, and particularly strict, jargon from Arabic, without any than the progressions appropriate to the structure of every language. The general accomplishment of Islam might be identified with its similarity with numerous parts of African cultureâ€for model, plural marriage for men, which was restricted by Christian preachers. In any case, Islam was additionally grasped in light of the fact that it gave emblematic distinguishing proof fruitful dealers and voyagers all through the world, and it was viewed as an option in contrast to European religion. Its specialists were dark, and it lectured for the benefit of the individuals who did not have the trappings of Western human advancement. These adjustments of nearby practices by the Islamists isn't just one of a kind in Cã'te d’Ivoire, it has happened world over and assumes a significant job in molding the contemplations and brain procedures of the Muslims. Step by step instructions to refer to Anthropology-African Religions, Papers

Imbibing the Nostalgia Punch

Imbibing the Nostalgia Punch College is generally held to be the last enchanted shore of youth. My decrepit 24-year-old body agrees, its ailing joints creaking their own dirge. I havent revisited these blogs in some time; the public ramblings of some-years-past Rachel are an unintentional time capsule fired naively into the present and, lest MIT spontaneously implode, many more strange and distant future presents. Her energy is unfamiliar (if I got only four hours of sleep tonight Id be out of it for days), her idealism tinged with a deceptive dearth of day to day drudgery (how do you get a washing machine up stairs? why doesnt my apartment have a pot rack?), her undergraduate priorities misaligned with their evolutionary derivatives (improving the resume improving the self). Occasionally, then-me punches now-me in the heart with a blast of nostalgia or inspiration that stings strangely true. Going even further back, posts by bloggers of yore recall prefroshly days, when I shuddered with anxiety over freshman apps or subsequently danced a jig while waiting to be swept away to MIT, then envisioned as a magical rainbow wonderland where all dreams come true, which as I now know could not be more wrong, yet somehow its also heartbreakingly true. Other blog posts recanting the more mundane remind me that in many measurable ways, life is largely the same, just with 10pm-6am work inexplicably relocated to 10am-6pm and careening in the direction of hand-wavy. The day I started writing this post, I wrangled Elasticsearch at work and made dinner with pikan and 5w alums, one of whom sent me this paper on why bubbles sink in a pint glass of Guinness and rise in an anti-pint glass. Its incredible how serendipitously we miniscule wayward dots of humanity stumble across chance Institvte connections across the surface of this planet, incomprehensibly massive on a personal scale yet in turn cosmologically insignificant. (I blame it on Yan and on ultra-dense social subnetworks encouraged by the genius of allowing freshmen to pick their own living groups.) MIT kind of means a lot to me. Not necessarily the literal institution; the four years I personally experienced there occupy a portion of spacetime that is no longer accessible. When I think of this place in space and time, I first think of the long and cramped East Campus hallway that was my home for four years. But thats just a hallway covered in sharpie and ancient murals, with years of dirt and paint and who knows what virulent microbiomes compacted into the carpet. My 5W is not this hallway but the people who moved through it, who are best friends years later; not the murals themselves but the stories and process of painting them; the meals we shared in our wonderful, warm kitchen whose piles of dishes and layers of grime makes even the least fastidious of parents gnash their teeth. Its sneaking into peoples rooms to hide presents in them, and telling ghost stories with only a conflagration of apple cider for light after the first snow of the year, and making each other tea and cookies, and running as fast as possible down the hallway while screaming at the top of our lungs at the stroke of midnight to keep ourselves awake for pset parties. Most freshmen matriculate trailing a glitter cloud of optimism and self-confidence which is slowly reduced to dust over the course of MIT. I was in a pretty dark place before freshman year, and the warm social mold upon which I happened to take root resulted in me growing hilariously more chipper throughout MIT even as my GPA plummeted, such that I was frequently mistaken for a senior as a freshman, and as a freshman while a senior. It was there in Cambridge, Massachusetts beginning August 2008 that I genuinely learned how to be a person. Where I learned how to fail spectacularly (bless you, Pass/No Record), and take it as a learning experience rather than a defeat. Where I discovered it was possible to change myself for the better and take initiative. Where I met people from all different cultures and walks of life and grew into an open mind and a sense of community that discards the superficial, community based on values. Where I met friends who didnt just share interests and humor , but taught me the meaning of the word love with chicken noodle soup and shoulders to cry on and openness and trust. It is all these things, rather than more tangible classics like 8.012 or sleep deprivation, which symbolize MIT to me, and (modulo dementia) they will always be with me.  Luck is a learnable skill  [tldr: be flexible/openminded regarding opportunities], and one I have in that sense, but I also feel really cosmically and/or statistically lucky. This, here, is me now because I stumbled across some blog posts by  Jess,  Mitra, and Sam, and said yes when I got a tube in the mail. Because Chris, TK, Qiaochu, and so many others crossed paths with me in Freshman Arts Program. There are a billion other things I am thankful for, but due to the occasion, it has been especially wonderful to be a part of these blogs. At first I thought keeping a blog would be a silly little narcissistic thing, but being an MIT blogger has been about a hell of a lot more than the stories and cat pictures you post on the internet. Ive worked with Petey on ways to improve admissions or for the most part Petey has told me about ways admissions could be improved. Ive  filmed all of the bloggers getting hit in the face with pies  on a shoestring budget and  shared burritos with Emad and Elizabeth. Slices of memory are preserved here in overwhelming clarity. A warm fuzzy feeling wells up in my heart every time a freshman says my blog helped them choose MIT. These blogs work because the people behind them arent afraid, or at least have overcome their fears, to just pour their hearts out on the internet (rip your heart out with Meltdown  or Its More Than A Job if you havent already). But its the ingenuous frivolities, the little silly life things, that really got me as a prefrosh like in a Redwall book where you guiltily pore over the feast descriptions and then are totally blasé about good triumphing over evil at the end. I grew up in part reading this particular collective of blogs, and since joining it, have often been told it serves as a reminder that every single person you meet, no matter how you may instinctively stereotype them, how nerdy or weird or cool they may seem in brief, is underneath it all a disgustingly, wonderfully, kinda-normal human being a creature of heartbreak, little triumphs, laundry, and camaraderie behind their purple hair and curriculum vitae. Happy blogaversary, dear (nerdy, weird, cool, kinda-normal) humans! Thank you for being here.

Kings And Sovereign Rulers The Dynastic Queen Of The...

Unlike modern monarchs and sovereign rulers, like the dynastic Queen of the United Kingdom, rulers in the ancient Near East rarely served as mere figureheads of governments, consulted solely for ceremonial roles and diplomacy. Though some kings in the ancient Near East inherited their positions, no kings could retain such power in a continuously unstable area without a strong military to protect their holdings and an effective method of ruling the peoples within them. Many kings in the ancient Near East obtained and thereafter maintained their positions of power based on several principal factors: military standing and ability, the scope of their external conquests, and their ability to control their citizens by use of military or monetary force. Some such examples of ancient Near Eastern monarchs include Gilgamesh, Hammurabi, Shalmaneser II, Sennacherib, and King Nebuchadnezzar, men whose rules spanned thousands of years but who all had the aforementioned factors in common. The most common trait amongst these kings is that they were primarily warrior kings, in that they either served personally in the battlefield or sent men into battle with great regularity. The people of Uruk under Gilgamesh lamented at his tendency to defeat their sons in battle, going so far as to say that â€Å"no son was left to his father.†1 Furthermore, all throughout the text of the black obelisk of Shalmaneser, he claimed to capture, conquer, and attack copious locations, then to slay—as with theShow MoreRelatedMonarchy Is The Oldest Form Of Government1657 Words   |  7 PagesMonarchy is the oldest form of government in the United Kingdom. In a monarchy, the king or queen is Head of State (or Sovereign), but the ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected Parliament. Although the British Sovereign no longer has a political or executive role, he or she continues to play an important part in the life of the nation. The Monarch also has constitut ional and representational duties which have developed over the past one thousand years. In addition to the StateRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 PagesAssociation. D421.E77 2010 909.82—dc22 2009052961 The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 Printed in the United States of America 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 C ONTENTS Introduction Michael Adas 1 1 World Migration in the Long Twentieth Century †¢ Jose C. Moya and Adam McKeown 9 †¢ 2 Twentieth-Century Urbanization: In Search of an Urban Paradigm

Meztisos People of Idigenous and European Blood Essay

The late 15th century marked the beginnings of a period of discovery and expansion for Europeans. During these years of discovery, great forces behind drive for expansion existed. The Spanish and Portugueses main forces included: the lust for the wealth of gold and silver, the acquisition of new lands which brought nobility, and the spread of their Christian based religion. The Spanish and Portuguese conquest of Latin America provides us with insight of these drives in the ultimate search for power. Unfortunately, these motives caused a European-Indigenous syncretism that virtually changed the native peoples way of life. Ultimately, syncretism meant survival for Native Americans in a world where their way of life did not suit the life†¦show more content†¦103) Ambitious conquistadores, along with there kings, could not pass up taking advantage of a society so rich and plentiful. Thus the conquest began, resulting in the death of over 1 million indigenous peoples lives by war or by plague. This conquest then opened the door for massive European immigration and colonization in the Americas, which then resulted in a racial syncretism of European and Native blood. Although European were procreating with native blood, they continually sought out the fairest skinned indigenous woman, for in their culture the whiter the skin, the higher class ranking you appeared to come from. These offspring came to be known as mestizos. Because these people were part meztiso, and were aware of indigenous views, these people would eventually fight for independence from their transatlantic predecessors. This type of syncretism was almost a necessity for the survival of native peoples. Up until this point, thousands of natives were being wiped out by the plagues brought by the Europeans. However, with the appearance of the meztiso, better immune systems were being developed among the indigenous populations, which diminished the indigenous death rate due to disease. Furthermore, this cla ss of people contributed largely to the initial independence movements against

Are Youths Self Centered Free Essays

Consider the criticism leveled at young people that their only values are self centered ones. There has been a biggest drop in empathy in recent history. â€Å"College kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago. We will write a custom essay sample on Are Youths Self Centered? or any similar topic only for you Order Now † Self-centeredness is caring only about oneself and one’s own needs. Having a large proportion of self-centered young people would have a great impact on the society as the young people would be the future of the nation. That would mean a generation of self centered individuals all over the country. Not to mention the values these individuals would impart to their offspring. But is this criticism valid? I do not agree that the criticism is valid. In this essay, I will be touching on two key points. Firstly, young people are just trying to find their own paths. Secondly, young people are still transitioning from children to adulthood. Young people are still in the process of finding their own paths. Young people are taught to trust their own judgment, make their own decisions, fight for their belief, be themselves and persevere. However, in the process of that, young people are stopped and questioned of their actions. While defending for their actions that they have trusted and believed in, they get misunderstood for being self-centered and self- absorbed. Young people seem self-centered but in actual fact, they cannot find out about themselves unless they pay attention to themselves and do things for themselves. That is how they learn their preferences, dreams, goals and passions. For example, young people have faced criticisms that they are self-centered and friend-centered. However, they are closer with their friends, as they understand better their needs, preferences and dreams as they are in the same age group. They aid each other in finding out about themselves. There are many things that have changed since parent’s time of teen-hood and they may not understand the challenges posed to young people now. Therefore, young people seem like they are acting self-centered as they are just in the process of finding their own paths. Secondly, young people are still transitioning from children to adulthood. Young adults are facing many different emotions, needs, hormones, excitement and anxiety. In order to face these new feelings, they need energy and attention. This may result in the misconception of self-centeredness when the individual is trying to sate their own feelings. The teen period is a time of transition from the security of the small child to the adult world. For example, physical changes in the body like menstruation and voice deepening is a very frightening and confusing change, and in process of dealing with these changes, physically and mentally, suddenly, what is to be understood and secure has changed. New rules have been set. All these new details start to form mountains and it leads the individual to think, â€Å"So what exactly am I suppose to do? † As a result, they turn their attention to themselves and get misunderstood as being self-centered. Therefore, young people seem like they are acting self-centered as they are still transitioning from children to adulthood. How to cite Are Youths Self Centered?, Papers

The Ancient Mariner Essay Example

The Ancient Mariner Essay The idea that we could run out of water here on Earth, the blue planet, where 71% of the surface is covered by the oceans (Lomberg, 2001) may seem to some to be a ridiculous notion. However, this omnipresent resource, omnipotent over humans and all life forms, is not always fit for consumption as suggested in The Ancient Mariner. We must first understand that when we talk about humans and other life forms the key resource required is freshwater and this particular portion of the hydrosphere amounts to just 0.65% (excluding glaciers and the polar ice caps which amount to 2.15% (Strahler Strahler, 2000)) of which 0.62% is groundwater (Lomberg, 2001).Further, not all of this freshwater is accessible to us for use so in reality we are talking about the metaphoric drop in the ocean in terms of usable, accessible freshwater as a resource. This self-renewing resource that in total remains a fixed amount segregated into varying portions moving through the reservoirs of the closed system of the hydrological cycle can not in theory run out. But perhaps we can begin to understand how the small section that is important to us may be over exploited or made unusable by human intervention and the concerns this raises for all of us.Water as a resourceWhen 1.1 billion people (Wood, 2003) lack access to potable drinking water have we in fact already run out of water? Ask the same of someone from certain parts of Canada and you could be fairly certain the response would be different. Freshwater is a resource of strong temporal and geographical variations that does not always correlate well with the human population. Asia, for example, receives 36 percent of global runoff but is home to 60 percent of the worlds people; South America, on the other hand, supports 6 percent of the population yet has 26 percent of the worlds runoff. The Amazon River alone carries 15 percent of the earths runoff but is accessible to only 0.4 percent of the worlds population (Postel, 1997). However, As ia receives 80% of its runoff between May and October (Lomberg, 2001) sometimes creating floods such as in Bangladesh leading to pollution and the result of a resource turning into a disease manifesting problem. Diagram one indicates the variation in freshwater availability across the globe.Diagram one: Availability of Freshwater in 2000.Although humans only need around 2 litres of water a day to survive we require much more to water our crops, supply industry and help to create energy as shown in diagram two.Diagram two: Evolution of Global Water UseThe hydrologist Malin Falkenmark established an approximate minimum requirement of freshwater known as the water stress index based on the quantity required to maintain an adequate quality of life in a moderately developed country in an arid zone based on the total of household (municipal) use plus agricultural, industrial and energy generating usage(Lomberg, 2001). This level is 1,700 m3 per person per annum of renewable freshwater ava ilability, below that a population may be considered to be experiencing water stress, below 1,000 m3 per person, the population faces water scarcity (UNEP, 2002). Water stress is shown in diagram three as withdrawal relative to availability by country.Diagram three: Freshwater Stress 1995 ; 2025More People, Less WaterHumans and nature alike have learned to adapt to variations in freshwater availability. We have built water storage in the form of giant dams and developed different irrigation systems to suit local climate. Why then, as diagram three suggests is water stress forecast to increase? The answer is simple: population growth. World population increased 42% from 3.8 billion to 5.4 billion between the 1970s and 1990s whilst water usage increased 300% in the same time frame (Wood, 2003). No-one knows what the population will be in the future but the United Nations Population Division (2003) notes that a figure of 8.9 billion is the most likely with a low prediction figure of 7. 4 and a high of 12.8 by 2050 from our current position of 6.3 billion. Water resources, as previously noted, will remain the same.This leaves us with a position of less freshwater availability per capita. Whats more is that the greatest predicted growth is in the developing countries, those which have the least resources to tackle these issues and sometimes the least availability of freshwater resources.Another factor to consider here is that historically economic development has incurred huge increases in water use and so a combination of population growth and economic development could really change the water consumption patterns of many countries. Growing populations also need more food, industry and energy all of which require water. Globally, people now use about 35% of their accessible supply (Postel, 2001) and some predict by 2025 we could be appropriating 80% of the total accessible water in rivers and aquifers (in view of expected pollution loads and their dilution needs) ( Falkenmark, 1998). It is these increases in water withdrawal and usage that have led to speculation of up to 40% on the world population living in water stress or scarce situations come 2025 (Houlder, 2003).As shown in diagram three, many African countries appear not be suffering from water stress and yet we know many have suffered drought related famine in the past. How can this be? Water availability is not simply a matter of location. Economics and power relations also play a large role. Here in the UK we pay suppliers who deliver our water direct to our homes treated and safe to drink. In many countries, including those African nations, people have to collect their own water sometimes walking for hours a day to collect enough to supply their families. The poor are often those that suffer the most whether that be living the furthest away from a water source or having to work the driest land with little hope of raising the funds to buy the technology that could increase their fres hwater supply such as water stores or irrigation pipes. These are the people least likely to have property rights over water resources.DevelopmentFor all its increases in water use development can also bring water saving technology. Once a population has developed an ability to manufacture or trade for technology it may be in a position to exploit new resources and/or make significant reductions in usage of existing resources. Examples of these include Kuwait and Israel. Kuwait with its vast resources of oil and natural wealth has the power to buy technology to deal with its crippling natural water shortages. With only 30 litres available per capita per day (Lomberg, 2001) Kuwait really is a water poor nation but its economic wealth allows for the development and procurement of technology and as such more than half of all supplies come from desalination of sea water which is a costly process requiring large amounts of energy, just the thing Kuwait has (Lomberg, 2001).Israel manages its low water resources efficiently by both use of drip irrigation and recycling of household water for irrigation (Lomberg, 2001). However, Israel compliments this by importing large amounts of grain, 87% (Lomberg, 2001), as a way of indirectly importing water. One ton of grain requires 1,000 tones of water to grow, likewise the ratio of chicken to water by tons ratio is 1:3500 , beef 1:10,000 and perhaps most astonishingly cotton 1:17,000. (Wood, 2003). This trade of embedded water, if able, is a clever way of changing a populations water usage. Land use, trade ability and technology all then affect the efficient use of water and what use this resource is acquired for.Inability to trade for food and lack of technology could explain why the poorest countries use 90% of their water fro agriculture compared to the 37% of the richest countries (Lomberg, 1998). This further exemplifies the divide between the rich and the poor more as a factor of freshwater availability rather than geog raphical location. Christian Aid journalist Andrew Pendleton puts it, The only water that is available to many poor people free of charge lies in festering pools and contains killer diseases such as cholera. (Howard, 2003). Howard (2003) goes on to note diseases caused by unsanitary water kill 5 to 12 million people a year.Management and mismanagementAs early as the sixth century BC civilisations in Egypt and Mesopotamia have been managing water both for irrigation and flood control (Mather ; Chapman, 1995). Irrigation as part of the Green Revolution has allowed for 40% of the worlds harvest to be grown on only 17% of the cultivated land (Lydon, 1999) as thus in essence allowed world population to grow to the size it is today. However, with all our technology many irrigation systems waste between 60% and 80% of all water (Lomberg, 2001) and when agriculture accounts for 70% of all water diverted from rivers or pumped from underground (Ecologist, 2004) that amounts to a lot of water and an unsustainable loss in changing times.Diagram two displays the waste water associated with agriculture. Through trial and error we have also learned the many pitfalls of water diversion and storage. The most classic example must be that of the Aral sea, an enormous saline lake near Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which has decreased in volume by 66% over the last 30 years due to irrigation extraction upstream (Strahler Strahler, 2000). It is important to realise that this and other such events do not just amount to a loss of water but also to a loss of livelihoods, in this case that of the local fishermen, and a loss or change in the biodiversity (in the Aral Sea salinity increases killed many of the resident species).The Way ForwardThe issue of water security has been on the international agenda since the 70s with the UN water conference at Mar del Plata in 1977 being perhaps the first to seriously influence national policies calling for priority in the supply of safe drinking wa ter and sanitation services to all people and also for national water resource assessment (UNDP, 1998). This second point is most important as the effective management of water resources requires accurate data on those resources. When looking at country resources it is important to note a further complication that takes us back to the geography of water, river basins are not confined by international boundaries.In fact 214 of the worlds river or lake basins, accommodating 40% of the worlds population are shared by two or more countries (Mather Chapman). Thus any effective global water strategy must be holistic to be truly effective. The first World Water Development Report was published last year (2003) on the back on the 3rd World Water Forum held in Japan the same year, the International Year of Freshwater. It notes the complexity of managing this global resource and under the heading Challenge 11: Governing Water Wisely for Sustainable Development it states thatit is agreed that the basic principles of effective governance include: participation by all stakeholders, transparency, equity, accountability, coherence, responsiveness, integration and ethical issues.ConclusionThere are pessimists and optimists creating predictions for the future state of the worlds freshwater resources, in truth only time will tell. There are many hurdles to overcome along the way, not least of all climate change and the myriad of potential changes that may have on the hydrological cycle. Humankind will need to be dynamic, imaginative, holistic and committed to achieve the sustainable development of freshwater resources. And so perhaps the question should not be will we run out of water? but will we learn to manage this precious resource in an integrated and sustainable fashion allowing equitable access to all?