TORONTO, Aug 14, 2006 (AFP) - Emotions ran high at opening ceremonies of the world AIDS conference, marked by mourning for 25 million lost lives over the last quarter century, bile for political foot-dragging and appeals to stamp out the disease by 2031.
In a curious mix of activism, political campaigning, grief over absent friends and celebrity glamour, the biggest-ever conference on the disease got under way, and will run until Friday.
An almost impossible dream that AIDS, which has spent 25 years marching across the globe, will one day be history, was reflected by a dreamy mock television advertisement shown to conference delegates.
The short film -- showing things as we might wish them to be in 2031, showed a man filling the gas tank of his car, which floated on air and had no wheels, with water, the polar ice cap being restored and a man removing a sticker from a hospital door reading "cancer ward."
Gravestones of AIDS victims were shown weathered and ancient -- like an old wartime cemetery, and an Israeli border guard was shown reading a paper as Palestinians and Israelis passed unnoticed back and forwards past his post.
The video's final message, implored delegates : "Don't let there be a 50th anniversary of AIDS."
The political bile that has long underpinned the AIDS fight was also in evidence -- the main target was Canada's Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper who declined an invitation to a meet that can be tough on politicians.
"Mr Harper, the role of prime minister includes the responsibility to show leadership on the world stage," conference co-chair Mark Wainberg told cheering delegates.
"Your absence sends a message that you do not regard HIV/AIDS as a critical priority, and clearly all of us here tonight disagree with you," he said, drawing a standing ovation.
More cheers greeted Bill and Melinda Gates ahead of their keynote speech as they walked into the vast cement bowl of the Rogers Centre -- normally home to the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.
But even Gates, stirred some boos -- after crediting US President George Bush for provide cheap drugs and funding as part of Washington's 15 billion dollar global AIDS plan.
A few hecklers even demanded yet more money from the software mogul and world's richest man, whose foundation recently announced a 500 million US dollar donation to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
Hollywood hearthrob, Richard Gere, looking like a vacationing professor in his white beard, recalled the emergence of the disease some 25 years ago and Elizabeth Taylor's famous words: "We can beat this."
Gere talked of former US President Ronald Reagan who at first refused to recognize the health and social tragedy unfolding and later was "deeply apologetic", warning that Harper, who turned down an invitation to the conference, would someday feel the same.
Soul singer Alicia Keys delivered a sombre message: "Aids is 25. I'm 25," a fact that provoked "anger and sadness" in her, she confided, but also motivated her to work to help eradicate the disease.
Later, a fashion show amid the glitter of lights and opera, followed by DJs, dancers, singers Amanda Marshall, Chantal Kreviazuk and Canadian rockers Barenaked Ladies, as well as percussionists Blue Man Group, wowed some 30,000 people, who turned the stadium into a sea of waving arms.
A sea of arms waved to the beats pulsing through the crowd.
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