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| Checking-in at Vancouver International Airport |
We are at Vancouver International Airport now. It's 0125. We have checked-in and will fly in about one hour time (at 0210, February 23rd), InshaAllah. While waiting, here are some brief contemplations.
1. The conference organizer publishes 24 international journals. One of them is the International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society which relates to this conference. Unlike other normal journals, the articles for the Journal are chosen from the working papers at this conference, not from the call for papers. The papers are adequate for their quarterly issues. They do not accept articles from outside this conference.
2. Vancouver is a nice place. However, there are beggars and homeless sleeping on the pavements. According to the Indian taxi driver who ferried us to the airport just now, these beggars and homeless are drug addicts. They refuse to work.
3. There are also a lot of Chinese. All around the city, we could really feel their presence. There is even a Chinese town here in Vancouver, like in many other cities in the world. Some of these Chinese are already citizens of Canada, and some others, are students and workers. Like one of the presenters at the conference had explained, Canada is now a multicultural city, not a secular city anymore. They are a lot of other ethnics in the city beside the Chinese, such as Phillipinos, Arabs, Indians, Pakistanis, etc. So is I think in the US. Secularism has gone. They are talking about multiculturalism now, not secularism anymore.
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| At the airport |
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| Dr Fadzila Azni and Dr Zahri working while waiting to fly |
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