In 2003, UK electro artist M.I.A. initiated an international tsunami whose waves of crossover global music are currently hitting Finnish dance floors. However, the roots of these rhythms lay deep in the society they emerged from and bear political meaning beyond mere entertainment value.

Whether it’s Eastern European Balkan beat, Brazilian baile funk or Tanzanian bongo flava, a refreshing wave of beats from beyond the usual bastions of club music is gaining momentum. It is world music armed with 808 drum machines and booming bass lines, fit for a block party from Manila to Mexico City. Although these styles are mainly known to Western audiences for their wild beats and crazy lyrics, most of them harbour a deeper social or political dimension.

Culture jamming activist duo Yes Men have been pulling off anti-corporate hoaxes and making the world of big money look ridiculous for ten years. They want to take the fight against heartless free-market rule off the screen and onto the streets.

In the newly Obama-fied America, the work of the multifaceted anti-globalisation movement is far from over. While the world economy tailspins, corporate excess shows no sign of abating, companies are rewarded for bad behaviour by the markets and governments stand idly by as greed and negligence ravage our planet and destroy the climate. Someone ought to teach the powers that be a lesson.

Can Finland utilise all the immigrant talent at its disposal? In many businesses the question is a matter of economic necessity, but in sports it’s also about national pride.

These attitudes towards black players had been common in Britain up until the 1990s. The stereotypes present in Noades’ diatribe were widespread, with the result that many teams harmed their own chances of winning by not hiring black players.

The Advertising Ethics Council gets hundreds of complaints a year about advertising, but only a few are deemed out of bounds.

The mobile phone ring tone advertisement promotes a puppet yelling “Silence. I kill you!” It derives from comedian Jeff Dunham’s popular act involving Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Is the ad funny? Insensitive and unethical? This is just one of the cases the Advertising Ethics Council had to deal with recently.

The largest Finnish student paper Ylioppilaslehti has a columnist who does not write in Finnish but has a lot to say. The column, named “Subulica” after its writer, aims to bring together Finnish and international students.

Irina Subulica, 23, defines herself as a “Romanian degree student who loves reading politics as much as she loves reading Harry Potter.”

David Brown runs Word Of Mouth Ltd, a language consultancy working with politicians and the media. He also works as a journalist, recently covering stories in Azerbaijan and Georgia. He has lived in Finland for seven years.

There are two groups of quitters: those who are trying to quit and those who have succeeded. There are also many who generously offer their skills to end this odorous addiction.