And the diversity is evident at the International Media Room too — set up at 100 Princes Boulevard in downtown, Toronto — to cater to the needs of the hordes of descending media men and women who have assembled here to cover the G8 & G20.

The blonde, young lady, who is getting her piece recorded standing in front, was speaking at a bullet speed, in a language that was truly Roman to me. Virtually all the languages on earth are represented here — and Arabic was out in force too. From Spanish, French and Russian to indeed Urdu and Hindi, all are present in one form or the other at the huge media center. It is global in real sense.

As soon as one landed at the Lester B. Pearson International airport in Toronto on Thursday afternoon, after a tiring and exhausting 24 hours journey from Dammam, two things became fully evident — football and security. Friend Qaviul Aziz, an old time Jeddah resident, was especially there to pick me up, so that I could be taken to media accreditation center – in the heavily guarded town center. Indeed without that card, all this could not have been possible.

And Qavi was at pains to explain the logic behind the Brazilian flag on his car — he was a big fan of Brazil from the Pele days. And he was not alone — virtually every other car on the street appeared to favor one or the other — adding to the summer colors of this vibrant, colorful city. I am beginning to fall in love with this city.

Football fever is indeed everywhere. Some cars even had two different flags — one on each side — apparently supporting two teams simultaneously — issue of divided loyalties, it seems.

Yet the fever was not limited to one or the other section. Every one seemed bitten. Pressmen and indeed women were no exception too.  At the giant media center, at this very moment while this scribe is busy  preparing this report – and with Canada seven hours behind Saudi Arabia, the deadline is approaching fast, all of a sudden a roar of applause made one look at a certain section of the huge hall. For a moment, one felt as if the anti-globalization protesters have broken the security ring and have at least succeeded in making to the guarded media center. Yet the fact was that a goal was scored and the people in front of the TV screen couldn’t control their emotions. After all media men and women are humans too — one cannot hide any further.

And while Canada was gearing up to face a flood of tourists, visitors and protesters, some said the G20 also brought it bad luck in the form of earthquake and flash floods. Problems do not come one by one, they come in hordes —my mother says often and indeed how true! 

A magnitude 5.0-earthquake with an epicenter near Canada's Ontario-Quebec border struck at 1:41 p.m. last Wednesday, an event that is certainly not as rare as many people believe but even not business as usual. People were taken by surprise.

And this was just two day prior to the summit.  Senators had to flee a committee meeting in Parliament, high school students had to abandon exams and office workers filled downtown streets after the quake shook parts of the country. Although the damage was minimal, some kept insisting the summit was a bad omen — for the country and the world.

And then a state of emergency had to be declared in parts of the country following heavy rains that led to floods in Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, forcing evacuation of hundreds of homes and causing a sinkhole on the Trans-Canada Highway.

As much as 150 millimeters of rain fell in several regions of the Prairies over the weekend on June 19, extending into the early next week. The system moved further into Alberta, flooding areas around Medicine Hat and Lethbridge.

In the morning of June 20, about five kilometers of the Trans-Canada Highway at the Alberta-Saskatchewan border were closed due to flooding. A culvert along the stretch of highway collapsed, causing a giant sinkhole just outside of Maple Creek, Saskatchewan.

And last evening as I endeavored to walk around, one could definitely notice the "no go" areas — despite the press accreditation card. Indeed there are limits to the miracle the "wasta" could produce. The downtown core is under lockdown, fenced in with ugly barbed wire; the streets and sidewalks are eerily empty but for the hundreds of uniformed police milling about. This is Toronto – today!