The old Victory Hotel had seen better days. In fact, at that time, some 40 years ago, it was an abandoned building, shuttered and boarded up, though it was only a stone’s throw from the main railway station in the city. Passenger trains were no longer in vogue, and this area had become a pocket of decay in the city.

“The European Commission has said preventive action is needed to stop what it sees as spreading radicalism across the EU. ‘We see that extremism, xenophobia and nationalism keeps growing in Europe [and] we see worrying signals that these groups act as breeding grounds of ideology motivated by violence and extremist views,’ EU commissioner for home affairs Cecilia Malmstrom told reporters” (EU Observer, January 15, 2014).

Since January 2013, “201 terrorist attacks have been staged worldwide. In the Middle East, there are now eight countries officially at war, involving 163 different militias, separatist and anarchic groups. In the Congo, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, and the Sudan—there are now 24 countries and 141 different groups involved in wars.

A large portion (86 percent) of America’s seafood is imported, and about half comes from fish farms that raise shrimp, tilapia, Atlantic salmon, and shellfish (YahooNews.com, October 24, 2012).  “In China, many fish farms reportedly use pig manure as feed, which contains salmonella and makes tilapia more susceptible to disease.  In addition, ‘shrimp farms in South and Southeast Asia are essentially factory farms, with all that implies—including antibiotic overuse’” (

“Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan signed a bill on Monday that criminalises same-sex relationships... The bill, which contains penalties of up to 14 years in prison and bans gay marriage, same-sex ‘amorous relationships’ and membership of gay rights groups, was passed by the national assembly last May but Jonathan had delayed signing it into law” (The Guardian, January 13, 2014).  This action drew harsh criticism from the U.S.