Every year IID makes a wish and we make sure that it doesn’t just stay as a wish. The wish not only gets reflected in its New Year’s greetings with IID doodle, it also defines IID’s work focus for the coming year. For 2017, IID is wishing the revival of pluralist society.
IID chooses a particular issue which has been frequently discussed in the public forums. Contemporary global discourse has been focused on racism, discrimination, and attack on people of different faith and gender choices, and violent extremism. Thus, pluralism is IID’s focus for 2017.
IID’s New Year card doodle portrays equality and peace, and coexistence of different belief and faith groups. This year’s quote was taken from the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam—
“Of equity I sing –
Where dissolve all fences, distances,
Where unite Hindu-Buddhist-
Muslim-Christian.
Of equity, I sing!”
While pluralism is part of IID’s core vision and work area, IID has taken new initiatives to promote pluralism in 2017.
In 2016, IID’s theme was freedom of speech, following the killing of writers and gaging of press. This particular quote by Thomas Jefferson was chosen – “The only security of all is in a free press”. Our works also promoted this theme. IID’s activism and policy discussion thus also had particular focus on this.
In 2015, the quote of the New Year greetings card was, “Maybe stories are just data with a soul” by Brene Brown. This focuses on the significance of articulation and positive communication through data. This positive communication is possible only when there are stories attached and understood by mass. Our works in 2015 had especial focus on data visualization and understanding people’s data need.
So at IID, a wish is not just a wish, rather a goal to achieve.