In 2010, Nigeria will complete 50 years since it first started exporting crude oil from Oloibiri in Rivers State. The present state of its economy shows that the financial windfall obtained from oil exports have not boosted the economic growth of the country. In fact, it has lead to environmental degradation, corruption, wide spread poverty and conflict.

Sundeep Waslekar examines the deeper social malaise behind the triple crises faced by the world financial meltdown, environmental degradation and climate change, and the spread of terror and weapons of mass destruction.

Soon after the workshop on Climate Change and Water Stress in the Eastern Himalayan River Basins in Kathmandu, I left on a family holiday to Kenya. This was the African Safari we had been dreaming about. seeing the Big Five, apart from giraffes, zebras, hippos. Little did I think that climate change and water stress would continue to occupy my thoughts.

Former President Pervez Musharraf's admission that Pakistan has been using US military aid intended for the war on terror to strengthen defences against India, is a candid reinforcement by a Pakistani leader of a fact which should come as no surprise to the Indian establishment.

The first few weeks of September were host to a series of mudslinging events between Syria and Iraq. The Iraqi administration accused Syria of housing Ba'athists suspected of perpetrating the August truck-blasts in Baghdad; the Syrians challenged them for concrete evidence. Iraq then demanded that Syria hand over the suspects and Syria responded with a flat refusal. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki went so far as to request for an international tribunal to settle the dispute but the Syrians insisted that they would not betray those who took sanctuary within their territory, as Maliki himself had done during Saddam's reign.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has promised the people of China a politically and socially stable society. The government is working towards its goal of hexie shehui meaning a harmonious society through sustainable development and people's welfare programs. These days China is witnessing an unprecedented number of public protests, demonstrations and violence. These displays of social friction seem to be multiplying every year. Will this brewing unrest culminate in another violent spectacle like the Tiananmen Square tragedy? That seems unlikely at this time; however these displays of public frustration do represent a fundamental threat to a harmonious Chinese society - today and in the years to come, if the issues behind them are not addressed.