Yesterday I got my Pfizer booster shot, exactly six months to the day since my second AZ shot. Within a few months a huge majority of the population will be triple vaccinated, though a small but vocal rump will not.

I met a selection of these hold-outs on a train to the city last weekend. Piling into my carriage, mask-less, noisy and entitled, they were truly unpleasant travel companions until Strathfield, when suddenly, they all alighted. What gives, I wondered?

Later that night on the news my question was answered. They were attending a 'freedom march'. The footage had them assembled, looking somewhat non-plussed and leaderless, flags and placards drooping like afterthoughts. They were entirely white.

Something is afoot amongst a segment of the white urban populations of Western democracies. It is not rational, opposed to expertise and science and beholden to conspiracy. Perhaps the end of the post-war boom, the rise of economic rationalism and the global economy has proved too much. Many of the what were once traditional jobs have dried up or gone overseas, housing seems increasingly unaffordable and political leaders often outspend their capital, resorting to anodyne media-focussed statements.

That doesn't mean, however, that we should lose sight of what's real, nor distort long-held concepts and ideas. I doubt that anyone amongst that crowd in Strathfield has made any serious study of Western liberalism, nor the conditions under which freedoms and rights emerged. If they had, they would put their signs down, slap on a mask and get on with their lives in this lucky country. 

It is right to be vigilant. It is doubly right to hold our political representatives to account. But that requires diligence on our parts too - campaigning and advocating for real issues - not make-believe notions from some dark hole on the internet.

Imagine, if you will, being part of an ancient people who, for untold generations, had lived successfully as hunters and gatherers on a large continent. You have a fundamental relationship to the land, complex religious beliefs and a sufficient technology to thrive for over 40,000 years, unimpeded.

One day, a fleet of ships arrives at a harbour on your continent. It bears soldiers and prisoners from a distant land that you have never heard of and have no relationship with. That same foreign land had earlier proclaimed your territory as "terra nullius" - nobody's land (effectively uninhabited) and begins to establish colonies. Settlers spread inland, battles and massacres ensue and your people are decimated and subdued - colonised.

That day was January 26th, 1788. The same day is now a national day of celebration, Australia Day. It does not take a genius to work out that this is likely to be a point of contention. How can one strive for a day of unity, when the First Peoples are necessarily, if unintentionally, excluded.

There are 365 days in the year and some, like Easter, Christmas and Anzac Day, are already taken. Even so, there are several hundred others that might be reasonably settled on as a national day. I am not a black-armbander - I see plenty of good in Australia, but this one is surely a no-brainer.

Congratulations to Mitakeumi for his convincing victory on the final day against Terunofuji, a win that sealed his conquest of January Emperors Cup. Overcoming his tendency to collapse in Week 2, he was consistent throughout the Basho. I have often wondered at 'which Mitakeumi would turn up today', given his penchant for wrestling brilliantly one day and poorly the next. Hopefully this will seal his ascension to ozeki rank.

Yesterday I wended my way, quite a long way as it turned out, to Castle Hill. I was hopeful of scoring another Christmas Cake for my mother, a particular cake that I was lead to believe was still to be had. Alas, the shop assistant told me that they had passed the expiry date and all been thrown out. 

At least I had the chance to ride the new North West Metro, which, I confess, was wonderful. Its hard to get used to a driverless train, but otherwise the journey to and from Castle Hill was pleasant. This photo shows the train about to depart Tallewong Station, and remarkably uncrowded. You can thank a virus for that!

I am very happy to live and let live. I am not concerned what consenting adults get up to in private. I voted for gay marriage in Australia and in general, other people's personal relationships are none of my business. Nor do any of these matters in any way conflict with my religious views. God said 'do not judge' (actually, 'Judge not lest you be judged') and that is an end of it. 

But I do not understand how a modern progressive society can tolerate the unfettered proliferation of pornography on the internet, nor how porn is 'free speech.' The latter is a puzzle for the US Supreme Court to debate again one day - hopefully the 1997 Reno vs UCLA might be revisited.

Quite part from the people who are exploited in the production of online porn, there is the abiding and now well-documented evidence of its psychological harm. This is particularly the case with young users. To quote American psychologist John Mark Haney, unwanted effects can include,

"modelling and imitation of inappropriate behaviours; unhealthy interference with normal sexual development; emotional side-effects including nightmares and residual feelings of shame, guilt, anxiety and confusion", together with violent attitudes about sex and women.

When I raised these kinds of issues over 20 years ago I was looked at as if I was a freak. What real harm could there be? The chickens are now coming home to roost. The adults have been asleep at the wheel for too long.

When checking the weather the other night I was startled by a hazard event issued by the BOM. Quite apart from the storms which are common enough in summer, there was a tsunami warning.

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Thunderstorms I am quite used to, tsunamis, not so much. For the reader's benefit, I should note that I live in the mountains west of Sydney at about 650 metres. Of course I realised that this was a coastal alert, never mind the "for this location" banner at the top. 

I also knew that this warning was a result of an underwater volcano off Tonga, that exploded with a force, we are told, of a thousand Hiroshimas. Little wonder that many countries in the Pacific have issued similar cautions.

Tonga is cut off at the moment and needs our material support, which I trust that Canberra will be organising as I write.

The winter Grand Sumo Tournament has begun with a live broadcast from Tokyo last night. It came as no surprise that the mysterious lady in white, who is almost a fixture at every bashou, was sitting in full view of the TV cameras in the zone that is her habitue. It is puzzling why she always chooses the seating that is directly in the line of the cameras, knowing full well that she would be on TV. Then again, I guess that that might be the reason. A perfect alibi if one were predisposed to have a crime committed elsewhere. Or perhaps a jealous husband demanding proof that she really is at the sumo?

Here she is on the first day, with Mitakeumi in the foreground, having just won his bout. This was an exciting first day of a tourney that promises much. I think that she is very lucky to have such a spot.

My old Dell laptop has finally been laid to rest after 8 years of hard labour. I was especially fond of this machine, which was not only very good, but performed one critical task after another. 

It was with me as I completed long and tedious visa applications for both Ann and JJ, spanning years and literally hundreds of documents, including scans, photos and pdf's. It was there when I did the citizenship applications. It was there to host RSVP, the vehicle by which I met my wife. It was the site of countless searches, downloads and research. I was a very demanding user.

Well done. Take a well-earned rest my friend.

My son Tom had his first "formal" occasion last night - his school's Year 10 Formal. Organized as a private function due to the coronavirus, we had spent a couple of weeks thinking about what he could wear and whether, as the night approached, the event might be cancelled. 

As it turned out it went ahead (at Penrith Panthers) and the kids looked stunning, scrubbed beyond their usual grubby selves into semblances of smart young men and women. Apparently everyone enjoyed themselves and all were accounted for.

These rites of passage are all that we have left for young people to pass through. Of course they fall well short of what might be, but modern liberal societies don't have much offer anymore in that respect. For that, we have to look to elsewhere, to places where tradition has yet to be superseded by the love of money.

Anyway, here's a parting shot of Tom with his friend Keanu about to embark on their big adventure.

I don't have much of an opinion on cryptocurrency one way or the other. I find it baffling though that the price of cryptos like Bitcoin have values that are not tied to any real assets of any sort. You can't measure them against the performance of a company( such as in shares), they don't equate to any value-adding activity (such as manufacturing), they have no inventory behind them, they have no rental return and so forth.

They rely on sentiment only. People invest hoping that the price will rise allowing them to sell at a profit. What happens after that is of no concern to them as long as the offload has been financially successful. If this sounds a little bit like a Ponzi scheme then you would be right - it has some of the elements. Sure, there are the actual crypto coins, which are laboriously mined on computers, which exist as digital entities. But the lack of an underlying mechanism to price them means that prices fluctuate at the whim of a government announcement or the endorsement of a celebrity. And the fact that investors rely on the next tranche of investors after them to garner a profit, if they are lucky, sounds somewhat pyramidic.

Younger people are particularly vulnerable to such high-risk investing. Priced out of the property market and with interest rates historically low, they must be sorely tempted to buy Bitcoin in the hope of making enough to buy a house or at least get a deposit. They might or they might not. And in the end, someone, surely, will be holding the much devalued baby.

I guess that I do have an opinion, after all.

While the New Year's period is often seen as a time of recovering from the excesses of the previous week, in Japan is is an auspicious period. Business is usually shut for the first three days of January and families come together to eat New Year foods such as ozoni or visit a local shrine or temple. It's a kind of gathering of strength before the grind begins.

We were often invited to participate in traditional festivals and ceremonies. Adult students or the parents of younger students would have us over to their house for a spot of mochigome (sticky rice) bashing in a  wooden bowl (usu), to make kagami mochi. It's is quite an art form and a skill.

On another occasion a friend took us to her favourite temple in Kyoto for the traditional January 1st visit. This largely involved prayers and the lighting of incense, ritualized clapping and bowing and much camera work. Such are the ways that a sophisticated culture creates meaning in the lives of its citizens.

The West lost all claim to such sophistication when Christmas was commodified, Easter became a chocolate marathon, and NYE a time of obligatory drunkenness. 

Meaning is important. Do I have to keep saying it?