For all the noise, jocularity and familiarity of the inn, the pregnant silence of the stable is the image treasured in countless hearts.

Western society undergoing an age-explosion.

On 14 August 1990 the Otis Bantum Correctional Center (OBCC) on Rikers Island, New York City, erupted in violence. Inmates turned on officers and on each other with handmade weapons. Correctional officers then blockaded the island's only access bridge for 36 hours to protest the administration's failure to hear their concerns.

Decadence means `falling away' from previously accepted norms and standards. But if the falling away takes place only in some areas, while there are new, creative developments in others, can we blanket the whole epoch as decadent?

`One day I packed my bags and disappeared.

I was expecting a baby. My health was not at all good: high blood pressure, nose bleeds, fainting fits, anaemia. My doctor's advice was categorical: I must have an abortion, there was no chance of childbirth.