Helsinki suburb Vuosaari is emerging as a dynamic and international centre in its own right.

“What makes Vuosaari interesting and special as an area is that it comes across as a fascinating, modern and urban city district that pulsates with life.” This is what Aku Louhimies, one of Finland’s front-line film directors, said in an interview about a year ago. His new film Vuosaari, a collection of contemporary love stories, is hitting cinemas on 3 February.

Just who will be elected as Finland’s next president?

The race for the presidency is heating up. Although there’s been a lot of talk about it since the summer, now that all the main parties have named their candidates, election campaigning has stepped up a gear.

At the moment, the National Coalition’s candidate, Sauli Niinistö, is way out ahead of the rest, consistently chalking up opinion poll ratings in excess of 40 per cent, and that’s with around a fifth of Finns still undecided as to whom to vote for. Niinistö’s closest rivals are the Centre’s Paavo Väyrynen, the Social Democrats’ Paavo Lipponen and Timo Soini of Perussuomalaiset (a.k.a. the Finns Party).

How the internet generation is changing the education landscape.

The race in technology advancement and our growing reliability on the internet has allowed pupils worldwide to expand their education base. Encouraging isolated learning and web exploration of this kind has become the norm in educational development, but websites such as khanacademy.org have taken this idea one gigantic step further.

Keeping up with a rapidly evolving musical landscape.

THE music industry is in transiton. The CD appears to be outdated. The vinyl record may be resurrected but is likely to remain the format of the avid collector. Music downloads are increasing but hardly sufficiently to compensate for the modest sales of physical formats – much less to eradicate illegal downloading. And streaming, admittedly with great potential, is only just discovering itself. Certainly, it appears, digital distribution is the inevitable future.

It’s not always easy being an outsider in a country as homogenous as Finland, but volunteering can help foreigners find the inside track in their new homeland.

Joseph Knowles Marmaris is a small but bustling port on the south-western coast of Turkey, known since the days of Herodotus for its ancient castle, in modern times as a convivial resort town thriving on local wines, hand-woven carpets, and hot, bright sunshine. It doesn’t have a whole lot in common with the snowy expanses of Oulu.

ONE of the most commonly voiced impressions of Finns made by foreigners is that of modesty. Tell a Finn that they look nice, and they will invariably insist that they don’t. Tell a Finn that their work was excellent, and they may suggest that it was really the other members of their team who did all the work.

For most of us, this is a very positive impression and a refreshing change from the culture of arrogance and self-aggrandisement regularly seen on our television screens.

It is certainly something my own culture could learn something from. Much like Americans, New Zealanders and Australians grow up in a culture which emphasises independence and Do It Yourself above all.

With an increasing amount of people becoming more aware of the environmental impact their purchasing habits have, the popularity of eco-products is growing.

“REDUCE, reuse, recycle”. This is one way of expressing, in an easily understandable manner, the things all of us can do if we want to live ecologically responsible lives. However, regardless of how much reducing, reusing and recycling we do, there are certain things that have to be bought.

The straight edge philosophy and the drug-free alternative it offers.

THE CONCEPT of straight edge, a musically inspired stand against drug use that originated in the US, has been around for almost 30 years. It rose to prominence in Finland in the ‘90s before quickly exiting the stage but continues to inspire numerous people both here and around the world.

The phrase “straight edge” is a relatively well-known one in Finland, at least among its youth. However, many people possess little more than a superficial awareness of it having something...

The hunting season is upon us yet again. With the convenience of modern farming distilling its necessity as a source of food, just why does this divisive practise continue to attract participants?

HUNTING is one of the most basic rules of survival, though nowadays to many of us the idea of catching your own food is a very distant thought. Having long played a significant role in Finnish society and culture, hunting remains a very common practise in our northern country to this day.

Getting smart amongst the current avalanche of apps.

AS THE iPhone 4 makes itself comfortable on store shelves around the world, and with the Apple Store celebrating the sale of its three millionth iPad back in June, smartphones and tablet computers are currently enjoying an unprecedented surge in popularity worldwide.

This activity sees consumers and developers alike submerged in a frenzy of applications designed to bring a multitude of different conveniences and distractions to the palm of your hand. Since opening a little more than two years ago, Apple’s online App Store has swiftly become the focal point of this activity, with over 250,000 applications currently on offer – boasting an astonishing 6.5 billion downloads.