Island to islands

Human beings do not thrive when isolated from others. This is often referred to with respect to a quotation from John Donne (1572-1631). It appears in Devotions upon emergent occasions and seuerall steps in my sicknes - Meditation XVII, 1624:

" No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated.. No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

The idea is that people are not isolated from one another, but that mankind is interconnected. Donne was a Christian but this concept is shared by other religions, principally Buddhism. In the context of sustainable development the aim is to share creative lives and experiences. This sharing is set within a youth charter proposed by the International Sustainable Development Institute.