For sustainable socio-economic development, rich culture, literature, technology, tolerance, or ethics can support and no doubt about it. But, corruption and black money has to be eradicated. Agricultural development, industrial development, value based education and employment opportunities has to be concentrated for sustainable development of a country.

Long term planning with especial attention to educacional programs for children.

Corruption and connection should be out of the country. Justice should prevail. Go back to basic agriculture. Go back to values and ethics. 

Long term and reflective planning, HRD, social welfare, honesty, National character, optimum utilization of national resources, technology, and strong moral values are essential to achieve a sustainable socio-economic development.

Wealth inequality is the biggest single problem. I think the Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman, helps explain that rather well here:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/opinion/krugman-wealth-over-work.html?referrer=&_r=0

Sustainable economy is achieved with economic development. The "status quo" measure and use the term growth. First, the world has to change the current paradigma that measure the growth of a country. Thus we need to achieve the social development and not the economic growth. The success of a family or country should not be measure by the number of expensive cars in the garage, but the character of its members. One segment with more responsability in inducing the misunderstanding of a good life is the midia that compare day by day the growth of different countries. In Brazil, we have a proverb: the tail of a "donkey" grow down until to touch the ground.

A nation is larger and more difficult to manage and to lead than an organization.  But in terms  of requirements far a sustainable socio-economic development, it must go back to practicing justice and ethics, so that competition is fair and healthy, so that the best will be acknowledged.  Corruption and cronyism must be removed.

'What do favoritism, cronyism, and nepotism have to do with ethics?  One of the most basic themes in ethics is fairness, stated this way by Artistotle: "Equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally." Favoritism, cronyism, and nepotism all interfere with fairness because they give undue advantage to someone who does not necessarily merit this treatment.

In the public sphere, favoritism, cronyism, and nepotism also undermine the common good. When someone is granted a position because of connections rather than because he or she has the best credentials and experience, the service that person renders to the public may be inferior.'

- See more at: http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/government_ethics/introduction/cronyism.html#sthash.c3EJNZ3t.dpuf

By means of socio-economic research and having its priorities set! 

 The general idea is to find ways to improve the standard of living within the area while also making sure the local economy is healthy and capable of sustaining the population present in the area. Socio-economic development occurs in neighborhoods in metropolitan areas, sections of smaller cities and towns, and even in rural settings.

There are a number of factors that must be considered as part of any socio-economic development effort. Understanding the current circumstances that prevail in the area is the first step toward regional development. By assessing the potential of human capital in the area, allowing for the current unemployment rate and when laws and regulations are currently in place that may be impeding the introduction of new industry into the area, it is possible to begin developing a plan that will ultimately mean more jobs, stable employment for more households, and more money flowing through the local economy.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-socio-economic-development.htm#didyouknowout

First of all, there is need for a brave leadership that has free will & full confidence in the nation that it leads. This leadership will mobilize all the available resources towards a sustainable socio-economic development. We (the led people) will find ,at the top, those who will encourage us to use our maximum energy & potential, to remove obstacles from our path, and to give us fair appreciation for our effort. Look through history & you will find heroic leaders who made the difference in advancing their nations.

I also would like to add loyalty and faith of individual to hi/er country. Working for both personal and others make things collectively better.

Must have a from of democracy to get ordinary people involved.

Must have a fair tax system to get the rich/more fortunate to look after the poor/less fortunate to a certain degree.

1. Education 2. Education 3. Education.

I guess the most important factor is geopolitical situation. Probably this idea I have first seen in Plutarch’s Lives.

Dear All,

Conditions of sustainable socio-economic development can be designed and implemented thorough working democracy. All the characteristics you listed can be achieved only in democracy and freedom. Obstacles of progression and every good thing deserving divine and common human interests are injustice, greed, falsification of the truth = antidemocratic circumstances.

While taking into account a geopolitics as suggested by @Kazaros, Powerful synergies Gender Equality, Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability are key issues for Achieving Sustainable Development! Long term goals and long term strategies!

http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/docs/pdfs/fina_08-45773.pdf

http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/gender/Gender%20and%20Environment/Powerful-Synergies.pdf

Dear András,

you point it.

Regards

The case study of NATIONAL SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY for SERBIA is attached!

http://www.un.org/esa/agenda21/natlinfo/countr/serbia/nsds_serbia.pdf

I think that first of all a nation should continue to exist, so it is necessary to exist strong relations among citizens, based on some common characteristics.

After the existence, a nation has to be feed without external debts.

Finally it has to extend the abilities of its members in order ot sell to other countries products with a high additive value.

Dear Hanno,

We live in a highly manipulated world where political and economic conditions are the main participants. One should look at and recognise the main paradigm of an era.

Dear Demetris,

I think you are too specific which can often be an advantage.

The euro gave advantage to some countries and disadvantage to others.  That should be considered.  I heard Helmut Schmidt comment on that not long ago, saying nations should help each other. 

• Promotion of the conservation approach was led by local farmers who had already adopted contour hedgerows, experimented with alternative annual and perennial crops, and learned the benefits of working in small groups.
• Facilitator had considerable locally-validated technical expertise, as well as credibility in the farming community.
• Promoting natural vegetative strips (NVS) as a simpler, lower-cost alternative to legume hedgerows.
• The formation of community landcare groups.
• The landcare approach had more potential as a more effective way for achieving adoption of sustainable farming practices than using government regulation and enforcement or a top-down transfer of technology.

http://globalrangelands.org/case-studies-involving-community-engagement

Dear Demetris,

you and we all know that an in reality not existing society without strong and sufficiently reliable rules cannot exist for a longer time. It´s only the bussiness and interest of small "economic" groups. We all are not free from such conflicts in our homes. But I´m happy to to live in a state under the rule of law, the first condition to develop and preserve stable conditions for a longer aera. 

  The question is related to the sustainable socio-economic development of a nation. To make this possible it is necessary that the citizen feels the responsibility and they get the opportunity to achieve the same. The responsibility should come from  nationalism and  opportunity from democracy. Therefore these are the two very important factors that will bring the desired development. 

Sustainable development, although a widely used phrase and idea, has many different meanings and therefore provokes many different responses. In broad terms, the concept of sustainable development is an attempt to combine growing concerns

about a range of environmental issues with socio-economic issues. So, I think the article below is important to this discussion.

Sustainable Development: Mapping Different Approaches

Bill Hopwood*, Mary Mellor and Geoff O’Brien - Research Institute, University of Northumbria, Newcastle on Tyne, UK

http://202.202.111.134/jpk/data/gjzrzygl/web%20prepare20110608/paper/Sustainability%20approaches%20244_ftp.pdf

Dear Anup,

What do you mean under nationalism? What is the healthy rate of nationalism? Who decide(s) on implementation of nationalism? For whom is good nationalism?

Dar Pahlaj,

If one looks in deep what is neoliberalism, you would understand that with neoliberalism around one can never rich  a sustainable socio-economic development!

Thus in order to achieve something like that we should get rid of neoliberalism!

"Neoliberalism represents a set of ideas that caught on from the mid to late 1970s, and are famously associated with the economic policies introduced by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in the United States following their elections in 1979 and 1981. The 'neo' part of neoliberalism indicates that there is something new about it, suggesting that it is an updated version of older ideas about 'liberal economics' which has long argued that markets should be free from intervention by the state. In its simplest version, it reads: markets good, government bad."

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

Attention have to be given to various socio-economic indicators such as cultural values, education, employment, health, transportation, trade (both regional and international trade), energy, industrial growth and the general welfare of the general public. However, preservation of the natural environmental and other related environmental matters should not be left out since most socio-economic activities depends on the natural environment.

Just to avoid confusion, let me note that in the USA, "free market" is called "conservative," and "pro-regulation," is "liberal." Seems the words are reversed by different users. Reagan was a conservative (but not so much by today's 'standards').  

Dear András ,

What I mean by  nationalism is that the citizen must feel for their motherland. Unless they do so, no effort for development will work, forget about sustainable development. This feeling in turn will bring the sense of responsibility that is necessary for any such endeavor. Without such feelings no theory will work.

Unfortunately most of the intellectuals of a developing nation suffers from superiority (inferiority) complex that the only way to bring development is to import technology from THE DEVELOPED COUNTRY. However to achieve true development we should develop our own method – we have to be self sufficient. For that if necessary we need to be to some extent restrictive about import. I would like to remind all that even for toothpaste we depend on some multi national company. This scenario has to be changed.

It seems to me that the answer does depend on certain factors wich, at once, depend on the particular conditions of each country. A general answer cannot be given. The question presupposes that such a country is out of the mentioned kind of development, i. e., it is a third world country. One of the main factors to keep a country in a state of underdevelopment is the permanent dependence upon a powerful country and its organisms. The example I know best is Colombia. In the first instance, the subduing, along a century almost, since the end of the first world war, up to the present times, of the economical policies, to the interest of the United States. This subjection has been permitted, for so a long time, on the one hand, by cultural factors of the dominant class derived from its own origin: they are basically descendants from landowners aspiring to the reproduction of the aristocratic system of the imperial Spain of the colonial regime. On the other hand, once the independence from Spain was got (by the beginning of the XIX century), the landowning regime, inherited from the Colony period, has continued alive up to nowadays. The landowning has been the fundamental of the Colombian economy, and there are physical factors that help: most of the surface of the country is tropical forest and across the centre of the country, from south to north, three long and high mountain chains climb up; under these conditions, by the XIX century, the communications between the cities was difficult. The main cities of the country are located on the top of some plateaus in the cordillera; thus, it was difficult, at the beginning of the republic period, to create a common market; besides, the physical properties of the space of the land help the creation of isolated centres of power that along the XIX century did produce permanent civil wars among the landowners of the dominant classes.

In the XX century, certain technical progress came because the foreing investment, and although it made blossom a little of modernity in the main cities, nevertheless the force of the economy lied on landowning becuase the oligarchy propped its system of power on it: the landowner that in the XIX century got his incomes from tobacco exportations, began now to cultivate coffee and to acquire land by whatever means; added to this hunger of land, the inner confrontations into the oligarchy bosom  burst, because the posession of the control of the State; these bloody confrontations help expel little farmers from their lands and quench the thirst for land. The expulsion of the little farmer out of his land transformed him either into a simple peasant with no more than his own work force, at the service of the landowner, or into a poor urban worker in the cities. Since then, a bloody conflict by the possession of rural land has been, up to the present, a constant of the Colombian history. 

Since the end of the second world war,  the influence of the United States interests on the governing oligarchy has been complete. Few high landowner class families hang the power down between themselves, through a system of popular elections sustained on the control of mass media and a powerful army forces equipped and trained by the US forces. Now, the interest of the US is not properly the development of Colombia, but insofar as such a development does not clash US. For instance, Colombia has lost the industry almost completely and has begun to develop a system of free trade. Besides, based on the motto that Colombian land is a rich fountain of raw materials, goverments, one afther the other, foster the mineral explotation by means of consessions to multinational companies, as well as the agricultural processes in the wide extensions of land of the landowning system.

This brief summary is intended to illustrate  the strong facts against which a policy of economical development can stumble. That clumsy portrait is almost the one of the most Latin American countries, although some of them (Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, even Argentina) have tried changes, clashing the US interests and fostering the fulfillment of their own.  

With interesting and willingful cooperation cum participation of general public, corruption and crime free environment / culture, rich people thinking about nation / country also apart from filling their own bags,  implementation of development and public programmes to ground level, minimizing mediators involvements, awareness of mass public, and mobilizing resources in all terms and of all kinds to the best -- will definitely improve socio-economic  status  

Dear Paul,

I am not a Dean, I am an Associate Dean. Well, it is your judgement. I am just trying to play my part humbly. 

Thanks for your nice comments.

Sometimes an initiative seems expensive on paper, but turns out to be cheapest in the long run. Sometimes it is the other way around. Calculating the societal costs and benefits of a project is a tricky task with an unpredictable outcome. 

Cost-benefit analysis

More for less. Value for money. The popular terms exist for a reason. It is difficult to ignore the fact that our limited resources force us to create more value for less money. Whether you are stretching the public welfare budgets or streamlining business processes, a cost-benefit analysis comes in handy.

http://www.ramboll.com/services/management-consulting/policy-advice-and-evaluation/cost-benefit-analysis

Multiplier effects need to be taken into consideration wherever so-called cost-benefit analysis has its sway.  The unknowns and therefore un-calculated can change everything in the medium and long term.  

However, understanding the multipliers is insufficient in of itself for planning. This is where ethics, equality, social education and growth need to be emphasized while emphasizing any societal-political-economic push-backs along the way must be encountered and negotiated. 

Stewardship and other contexts of values must be added into the formulas and practices.

A nation is a mix of cultural and historical code of behavior, sharing and depending from same resources (natural and/or industrial). A sustainable socioeconomic development should be think according to the needs and the incomes; good education should be the matrix for human development, competency and ethics should be the vector of management, liberty should be the key factor for cultural, artistic and intellectual creativity for human emancipation. New air from fair political competition agendas should be the row of novelty in human competencies, ideas and methods renewal for the nation state running. Same political and management people for long periods couldn't adapt to a different  generation and its mentality, to technological, industrial, cultural, scientific progress and change, and couldn't be factor of development to a society that they do not and couldn't adapt with.

Dear Fairouz,

Your determination seems to me a bit strange: „A nation is a mix of cultural and historical code of behaviour, sharing and depending from same resources (natural and/or industrial).”

This is rather a determination of humanity.

A nation – as I think it – is a population of people sharing the same or similar cultural and historical but generally not always genetic backgrounds. I do not think that the only common issue among members of a nation is pure geographic and economic relationship.

It is a matter of strategy...for each nation and country, a strategy of sustainable socio-economic development must identify the main specific factors and priorities (of health, culture, education, social inclusion, economic growth etc.). A sustainable development is balanced and equitable, so there must be implemented sound policies to foster the key factors and alleviate the distorsions or threats...

As many others pointed yet, "sustainable" and "development" are polysemous words, hence it is difficult to answer your question in a comprehensive way. Only, each of us can tell you which is the point according to our peculiar point of view.

Mine is "developement" refers to achieve conditions which are desirable from the subjective point of view of the community involved. "Sustainable" is same than Brundtland's : actual developement not conflicting with future development.

Under these conditions, development is a question of positive freedom (cf Berlin 1958) for, in your case, a Nation to: a) be a Nation; b) define its own desired condition; c) achieve it. These items imply enlarging positive freedom at individual level. And, as sometimes you cannot make someone's freedom rise without restricting someone's else one, the freedom of the "greatest number" have to be followed.

Any public decision both makes freedom grow and decrease. If I collect a tax, I reduce individual positive freedom. But if with that income I build a health system which allows people to live more and enjoy good health, I give back freedom.

So, you want sustaible development oriented policies ? Mind at the "added freedom criteria".

ps : if you find this interesting, contact me for an assessing method

Dear Paul,

I wrote in April

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_most_evil_spiritual_inventions

“I guess the money and lending money at interest are the most evil human inventions. Their use is the bottom initiator of human and environmental misery.”

Dear down-voter,

Please, argue and try to understand the point of others!

By implication both words sustainable socio(1) economic development(2) are exactly the same thing; more so these concepts are best explained in OLD German "nachhaltiger Ertrag" (meaning "sustained yield"), therefore the concept of sustainable development integrates its economics in terms of its value within an environment.

I recommend King, FH (Franklin Hiram) Farmers of Forty Centuries: Or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan (1911). King practically captured and encapsulated these definition and integration: through the study and documentations of traditional fertilization, tillage and general farming practices as an extension of "nachhaltiger Ertrag".

Dear Friends

Sustainable social development normally starts need to be backed by the thinking of thinking non traditional means of development. Change of population policy, desire for non materialism, happy society are the basic  issues need to be addressed at all levels. Discrimination is major hindrance in case of sustainable development. I support the view of sustained yield for social development.  I also find the great connection of corruption and black money with social development. No doubt the agricultural development, industrial development, value based education and employment opportunities  are basic foundation stone for sustainable development.. 

Overcoming the poverty and social exclusion challenges are important in the development of an equitable society and influence a diversity of other elements, from the environment and economy to health and safety. Finally, with high concentrations of economic activity, urban regions serve as economic and innovation drivers in the Nordic countries. A balance between these three central elements is essential to the development of high quality, environmentally sustainable, equitable and economically successful cities.

http://www.nordregio.se/en/Metameny/About-Nordregio/Research--Development/Themes-of-our-expertise/Sustainable-development-urban-and-rural-planning-/

A nation can achieve a sustainable socio-economic development where development happens without causing loss to natural resources, society, ethos, values, morals, and ultimately without causing loss to future generations. Real development must benefits the future generations.

The MDG is being moved to the SDG because a new timeframe is required to achieve its unattained goals. A major achievement within the timeframe of the MDG is the reduction of poverty by half. The reduction must be credited to steady economic development, mostly in East and South Asia. But these regions are becoming vulnerable again as a result of economic slowdown. India is an example - it aspired to became a superpower a few years ago just when its economy was growing even when millions of its citizens went hungry. Now it's economy has been in problem, if not in crisis, for the last couple of years, and the first likely victim of it would be those who just had crossesd the poverty line. So, one practical as well as visionary goal of sustainablity would be to focus on protecting what has already been achieved.  

Sure @Andras, that a nation is not based only on geographical and economical (from natural resources) relationships. The history of the people migration and their mix with local population is its cultural background. There are nations whose populations are genetically close to many other worldwide nations.And others from pure local population not mixed with others, or not been attraction for migrations and/or invasions. The mixed cultural background is a richness factor for the nation's intelligence and creativity when well cultivated and educated. However the genetics behavior is not a factor for a successful development without a cleaver strategy of development. The cultural diversity or its mix could be  enhanced to an economic/ industrial product

A nation can achieve a sustainable socioeconomic development by transforming its economic and political institutions and policies that focus on the local context.

Canada is a nice multicultural country that i wish to visit dear @Brenda. Yes the organization of the energy industry and its close relationships with the money fluctuation could be a good or worst factor of development. Hope that things could change for a better constancy and economic steadiness for a continuous development for Canada, my country Algeria whose economy is focused on oil industry and all countries of the world.  See my contribution in the following thread https://www.researchgate.net/post/In_your_view_do_we_face_a_new_global_crisis_or_global_economy_growth_due_to_fall_of_oil_prices#54abfbd9d4c118ab7a8b45ae

UN Rio+20 acknowledges the need to further mainstream sustainable development at all levels, integrating economic, social and environmental aspects and recognizing their inter-linkages, so as to achieve sustainable development in all its dimensions.

The Strategy is divided into three objectives (previously in 4 pillars) which represent the three key challenges of the Strategy: saving the sea, connecting the region and increasing prosperity. Each objective relates to a wide range of policies and has an impact on the other objectives.

http://www.cbss.org/strategies/eusbsr-ha-sustainable/

Dear All,

Thanks for expressing your valuable views and providing references/literature, suggesting factors or conditions for a nation to achieve a sustainable socio-economic development. 

Given that this topic is very important (so far 24 among you or followers of this discussion have already up-voted this question), may I request you for a bit further discussion! How the factors or conditions you suggest can help a nation / country to sustain socio-economic development? Some of you have already touched this angle of the discussion, and want to add further to elaborate discussion are most welcome. 

The definition for sustainable development is that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Dear Fairuz,

Migration is a natural process. My country has been a frequented passing area of various groups of people and armies. I myself had not only Hungarian but also Czech, Slovak, Croat, Italian etc. ancestors but culturally I am Hungarian. I feel there is still a Hungarian nation – with a genetically very mixed population - which can be culturally distinguished from others and whose elements had a lot of common features.

The mixed cultural background is really a richness if it is an organic part of a nation. However, if there is no necessary agreement among members of a population, there is no nation.

I personally – with my mixed culture - do not want to be either economic or industrial product.

As to genetic behaviour, I do not know what it is?

Dear Ruchi,

How is a proud history? I would prefer rather a great (?) history with modest citizens.

Dear All,

I hope, diversity can increase integration but if it does not do it, disintegration cannot be an option because the system will not work.

The following schema of development would be interesting: a good justice system, including legislation, is installed from outside. In 20 - 30 years the new system changes mentalities and assures a well done democratic decision procedure about the direction of develpment and about priorities in spending public money. Normally, in about 50 years the country must be much more developed as at the beginning.

Well, I don't know if it really does work. EU is trying now this procedure with Romania, my country, and it works, but more difficult as expected. It could be, however, a way to development.

Dear Mihai,

Romania, being outside the Eurozore, might be OK. But in eurozone, capital is free to fly and so there is no economic stability! Do not forget, that everything made from outside is for the good of the outsiders! Not for Romania. To see this  enough time is needed. Look what is happening to Greece! 

Yes @Andras, a population should be in common agreement with her nation and should believe that she has same destiny on same territory. The cultural diversity or its mix is a plus may be a gift for the cultural richness of the nation and its intelligence. Many countries were passing areas of various groups of people and armies, the same for my country Algeria. In that case no people or groups could affirm that are genetically from same pattern, only the human one.

I agree with you that no one could accepts to be a product (industrial or economic), but the cultural and/or intellectual richness of the nation could be a product for education, tourism, manufactures, culinary....etc...

Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs (2016-2030) are directed towards ending poverty and hunger in all its forms everywhere, achieving food security and improved nutrition, promoting sustainable agriculture, ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages, ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all, achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all, promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for al, building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation, reducing inequality within and among countries, making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts and Conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. The overall three major dimensions to sustainable development; economic, social and environmental give rise to the need for the planning system in nations across the world to perform a number of roles which should not be undertaken in isolation, because they are mutually dependent.

I suggest studying the U.S. Constitution and more importantly Lincoln's Gettysburg address on what is meant by becoming a new country. 

"Resources are sufficient to meet need of everyone, not the greed of everyone". Mahatma Gandhi. Optimum use of natural resources is essential for sustainable socio-economic development. For getting it, both Government and society have to understand and make consciously use of natural resources.

"There are three dimensions to sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. These dimensions give rise to the need for the planning system to perform a number of roles:

• an economic role – contributing to building a strong, responsive and competitive economy, by ensuring that sufficient land of the right type is available in the right places and at the right time to support growth and innovation; and by identifying and coordinating development requirements, including the provision of infrastructure;

• a social role – supporting strong, vibrant and healthy communities, by providing the supply of housing required to meet the needs of present and future generations; and by creating a high quality built environment, with accessible local services that reflect the community’s needs and support its health, social and cultural well-being; and

• an environmental role – contributing to protecting and enhancing our natural, built and historic environment; and, as part of this, helping to improve biodiversity, use natural resources prudently, minimise waste and pollution, and mitigate and adapt to climate change including moving to a low carbon economy."

There is a song that our son loved to hear, repeatedly, when he was little, that we might all need/like to hear: "The Picnic of the World." It has a chorus that says we are "All sitting on the same big blanket...."

The lyrics can be found at the link below.   (The music is the CanCan by Offenbach.) 

http://www.tomchapin.com/docs/lpow.html

Strengthen support for the development and growth of

Special emphasis on

• women
• Poor 
• other socially deprived communities to benefit

Dear James,

I think the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVrKPaiTtmk

is needed!

Dear Costas - I did not know Tom Chapin had that out there!  -  He did miss some countries, but I guess he just had to work in the ones he could squeeze into the song as representative of the idea. It's really for everyone. 

Dear Fairuz,

Dear All,

I would like to ask French citizens on some aspects of the cultural diversity with special regard to the present situation in Paris. Has been this event a fact strengthening the common interests and unity of the French nation? Where are the limits of stressing the importance of cultural diversity? Are there elements of diversity hampering the union of people with very different cultural backgrounds? These are simple questions to be answered before not wanted events happen.

More tolerance on everyone's part - Everyone! - would be very helpful.

Of course, however, violence cannot be condoned. But violent reactions to violence have historically only made things worse, as one should expect. 

Dear @Costas, two minute song Picnic of the World could not cover all of the countries..., some new countries in a meantime  were born also, but this songs still raise good memories on my childhood!

"Sustainable development—the satisfaction of current human needs without depleting the natural resource base for future generations —is perhaps the greatest challenge facing humanity today.Much thought and debate have gone into elaborating this vital concept. But how do we actually get there? What practical steps can governments and civil society take to translate the concept of sustainable development into reality? Many of the practical tools and actions for promoting sustainable development are available through the three Rio Conventions: the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change." Resource for reading follow!

http://www.un.org/events/wssd/exhibit/RioConventions.pdf

Thank you dear Ljubomir for uploading another useful resource for this discussion.