Skydive for cancer

This is an article published in the last issue of the Ovi magazine - Ovi lehti - TheOviMagazine

Standing at the edge of an aeroplane’s door, looking down 10,000ft (3048m) at terra firma whipping past is probably a good time to start reflecting on life. Fortunately, I will have a parachute attached to my back and I am comforted by the secondary chute as well, plus an experienced professional guiding my path through the skies.

I am planning to make my charity Skydive on the October 7th, 2006, for the benefit of CancerBackup who are Europe's leading cancer information charity, with over 4,500 pages of up-to-date cancer information, practical advice and support for cancer patients, their families and carers.

My wife to be, Sukina, was diagnosed with Primary Bone Cancer in spring 2002 and, in that time, she has, like many other sufferers, completely altered her approach to life. Six months into chemotherapy treatment a wonderful surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in Stanmore, Middlesex, removed her right knee joint, from mid thigh down to mid shin, and replaced it with a titanium alloy joint. He is Mr T. Briggs and he is responsible for the love of my life still having two legs and not the planned amputation at the beginning of the cancer treatment.

After the operation, she had to learn to walk again and, with the same determination that Asa and Thanos will most certainly see in their young children, Sukina eventually managed to hang up the crutches and continue with the next six months of her chemotherapy treatment. Four years on and Sukina is cancer free, however, it is not a disease that allows itself to be forgotten.

Only days after my Charity Skydive she will be going back to Stanmore and Mr. Briggs to have another operation to coat her kneecap in plastic to prevent spur growths, which are seriously affecting her walking and causing severe pain. We are not sure whether she will again have to learn to walk again from scratch, but it is a possible scenario.

We are getting married next year and I cannot wait to see her walk down the aisle knowing how much she has gone through to be there. Sukina is in no way alone with her heroic efforts to beat cancer. Sadly, nearly everybody I know has had a family member or close friend diagnosed with cancer, but what upsets me even more is that many are not alive today.

Therefore, I am trying to return some of the help and support we received during Sukina’s treatment by raising money for a charity that helps fight the disease and help those whose lives have been affected.

Any support, help, donations or sponsorship you would be willing to give would go a long way to helping others in the future. On Ovi Magazine, a site which gives its opinions on so many of the world's problems and conflicts, offers you a chance to make a difference for good.

Please either click on the advert on the right-hand side of the Ovi pages or go to www.JustGiving/SupportTony and help as much as you can. Any words of support that you wish to add will help me know that I am not jumping out of the plane on my own. Thank you for your time.

By Tony Butcher
ovi magazine, ovi lehti, skydive, oviblog & theOviMagazine

Hating Bin Laden

This is an article published in the last issue of the Ovi magazine - Ovi lehti - TheOviMagazine

Over the past days and for a few more to come there are going to be a lot of articles commemorating the events of September 11th, 2001. The international answer to Bin Laden's attacks was an invasion of Afghanistan and the global result of those events is that nothing has ever been the same since that day five years ago.

That day nearly 4,000 innocent people died while the rest of us held our breath watching live on television. The terror had come to everybody’s house across Europe and America. Nobody could hit the almighty America and still it had just happened. The king was naked! Security, the word that accompanies our mighty western civilization, collapsed with the Twin Towers, nobody is secure anymore.

Still, I’m not going to talk about security because it saddens me that after a century of fighting to secure an individual’s freedom and independence of thought we are in danger of losing it. I’m not going to talk about the chance Bin Laden and his followers gave to the most conservative parts of society to rise up and become a state; that’s something all the magazines and newspapers will talk about anyway. What bothers me is that he made me hate him and that’s the worst thing he could do!

Usually we despise anybody who tries to force his will; we despise Hitler even though he’s been dead for nearly sixty years. We despise Stalin and Amin Dada. But Bin Laden made the difference by giving me a face to hate! I hate him because the man made me hate somebody! I hate him because of what he made me.

All my life I’ve been the person to be open to other's opinions and beliefs. For me, some words of Themistocles have been a personal philosophy: "You may hit me, but listen to me first." Respect other's opinion, even though you don’t agree and Bin Laden came and whipped everything away. He told me that I know what’s right and I’m forcing it to you by killing people.

What happened in Lebanon a few weeks ago was not the first dramatic event in the Middle East. On the contrary, it was a link in a chain of events that began half a century ago. The pictures of dead children were breathtaking and every time you heard on the news that another kid was dead you were felt as though it was your own. The big difference this time was September 11th.

Israel keeps striking defenseless Palestinians in the most unreasonable way over the last forty years and every single time the rest of the world was rising from the events. For forty years Israel has all the excuses for these strikes and the world is dismissing them. This time Israel’s excuses seemed so poor that even they could not believe them, but this time the whole world was numb. The ghost of Bin Laden had changed everything. And had changed me as well.

My constant reaction, till now, was to get angry; how can they let that happen? That would be my reaction when thinking of a UN that does nothing, an EU that is just watching as kids are getting killed and I would blame the President of the USA first. However, this time I understood why France was not in such a hurry to get involved. I wanted them to get involved and I was really glad when they did finally decide to move but I could understand what they were scared of.

Five years after 9-11, there is still fighting in Afghanistan. The Taliban are returning stronger than ever, Iran’s dictatorship is still there threatening us a nuclear plan and arrogant ignorance that only dictatorships have, and Iraq is in the middle of a civil war whether the Americans like it or not. Bin Laden is here using the system that created him against them. Bin Laden the former CIA operative in Afghanistan, the fighter against the evil Russian bear is here fighting with the same weapons and practicing the same methods they taught him to fight the Russians.

For the next few days we are all going to see the pictures and the videos of the burning towers. We are going to see families crying asking why and, probably somewhere in his cave, Bin Laden will be thinking that he took revenge for all the dead Palestinian kids. He missed the point, for generations Palestinian mothers will hate him because he made people like me hate him and understand when France becomes numb instead of running to help.

By Thanos Kalamidas


ovi magazine, ovi lehti, theovimagazine, Bin Laden & 911

Opinion sevenfold

We created the Ovi magazine as a live portfolio two years ago. During these two years many things have happened, some not so good and some really good. We dealt with them all with humour, or at least we tried. Today we launch the daily Ovi, an encompassment of our dreams, ambitions and determination to prove all their critics wrong. The cynics, the disbelievers, the copycats, even some evil media ‘godfathers’ have all tried to undermine our project, but there is no beating a resolute Greek and unwavering Englishman.

At first glance it may seem as though very little has changed, other than the layout and the addition of advertising, but an overwhelming sensation will strike you as you delve deeper into the belly of the new daily Ovi. You will begin to ask, "How much material is contained within this website?", "Does it have an end?" and "Will I get any work done today?"

A number of brand new sections have been added, other sections have received a facelift and our classic sections remain untouched, but bear in mind that some sections are not running at full capacity yet. We have held a great deal of material back, so nobody is frightened away by the avalanche of information and services available, although the implementation of RSS feeds and podcast technology should ease some of that pressure.

Ovi is now being run as a commercial site, complete with advertising, bookshop and merchandise, so please support us via one of these methods. The decision to go 'commercial' was driven by the desire to eventually reimburse our voluntary contributors for their time, energy and creativity - a goal that the Ovi team hopes to reach quickly. Going commercial was not so simple for us and that’s the reason we’ve been waiting for so long. We wanted to establish our presence as opinionated magazine and then stand firm on our principles; we will not compromise our beliefs to any degree in the name of any profit or self-centred ambitions.

The term 'Ovi team' describes the editorial team, but it actually encompasses everybody who has participated in the Ovi magazine, since its creation in December 2004. "There is no 'I' in Ovi!" Asa once quipped, but the new daily Ovi could not have become a reality if it hadn't been for one particular individual who helped "a resolute Greek and unwavering Englishman" realise their aspirations.

Tony Watts deserves a knighthood for the patience, understanding, technological genius and good humour at dealing with two individuals who would always have just one small change to make to every page, every day. In fact, they both still have lists that will take a few years to bring to fruition, namely items three and four on Thanos' list: world domination and a pint of Guinness.

There is a danger of changing this editorial into an Oscar acceptance speech, so we shall begin to close these thoughts. You can find pages explaining what is new, pages detailing how something-else works and there is always the contact, comments and forum to leave feedback and ask a real person for assistance.

We hope you will enjoy this new daily journey, join us, participate in debate and get your opinion into our pages.

We cover every issue…every day.

Asa and Thanos