According to the Mayan calendar, our world goes through cycles called B'ak'tun. Each cycle takes 144,000 days or 5125.25 years. We are now coming to the end of the 13th B'ak'tun, which will end on 21st of December 2012. There is no mention of the 14th B'ak'tun in the Mayan long count calendar, so some people have taken this as an indication of the end of the world.

The date is 17 September 2011, just six days after the tenth anniversary of September 11. The place is Helsinki, Finland. Five men in black suits and serious faces are sitting side by side. These are not just any men, they are top-ranking officers of the Finnish criminal and security police.

The pace of events is fast in our times. Tsunamis, wars, revolutions, the bursting of financial bubbles, far right terrorism and riots surprise us one after another. Nations are in debt, economies are in difficulties and nature is stretched to its limits. Economists can't forecast the financial front, and sociologists can't predict the turmoil of crowds. Even the accuracy of weather forecasts is down....

They call it the "City of Minarets", but it could just as well be called the city of hatred, blood, rape and sorrow. Even 16 years after the bloody civil war, the air is heavy with contempt, and faces are long with grief. Bullet-ridden buildings on every block are reminders of a harsh time not long left behind. Right here in this city neighbours killed one another, women were raped en mass and civilians...

This January, a 25-year-old snow-dropper from Espoo decided to sell all of his belongings and move to Thailand. He put an advert on huuto.net (a Finnish version of the ebay), which caught the attention of a journalist. "Ville fulfils his dream of which many share but don't dare to carry out," wrote Helsingin Sanomat. The snow dropper soon became a celebrity and his story became the most read online...