Sixteen is the birthday of hope and optimism. It marks the end of childhood and the beginning of that awkward part before adulthood. Time for dreams and objectives, for rebelling and rise.

But as a close friend of mine says, internet years are like dog years; you multiply them with seven …at least. So, Ovi sweet sixteen becomes …112 years-old and to be honest getting closer to the end of a literally brutal year, even I feel 112 years-old.

For sixteen years Ovi faced happy and sad moments. We often found ourselves in the first line of fighting racism and discrimination while we had to defend ideals and believes. We mainly practiced democracy. Not just as a voting and a representation system but as a way of life.

For sixteen years over 300 people contributed to Ovi magazine with articles, opinions, columns, humour, poems, narratives, cartoons, photographs, paintings and so many other ways in variety of languages and hundreds of thousands contributed with their daily readership and invisible support. Ovi magazine exists thanks to both.

Odd and I think I have mentioned it before in an anniversary editorial, contributors and readers gave life to Ovi in a way that Ovi has grown beyond all of us; it has become an individuality that includes parts from all of us. It might sound a bit metaphysic but that’s how I -at least- feel about Ovi sometimes.

Sixteen in a year we all wish to end fast and never have one like this again, ever. A year that often brought fear and desperation. A year with contemporary news sound like a dystopian novel with mad authoritarians and a pandemic that kills hundreds of thousands all around the world.

But, like I said in the beginning, sixteen is hope and optimism and coincidentally approaching the birthday vaccines with the cure started appearing all around the globe and the first ones have already taken it. Plus, Trump lost.

There are a lot of battles in front of us, democracy is not safe as we learned the last four years and humanity remains fragile in front of invisible enemies like covid-19 and we did prevail. Let’s just make sure that we will always prevail.

While there are many things, stories and anecdotes I can recall in these sixteen years the most important thing is to thank all of you who contribute and participate with your daily presence. A special reminder and thanks to members of the Ovi family and anonymous Ovi friends we lost.

Last and not least, keep safe. We live in strange times so please and sixteen times, keep safe