International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada: August 13 -18, 2006

[kwanfan]

Here's a link to a list of bios of speakers at the conference. http://www.aids2006.org/admin/images/upload/1052.pdf Both Haakon and Mette-Marit are listed. I wonder if the two of them have arrived in Toronto yet? You would think that they would arrive a day early to deal with jet lag.

 

[Oppie]

CBC Newsworld has live coverage now (10am EST)

There is a special event for grandmothers who have been taking care of AIDS orphans. So far they have mentioned that Alicia Keys and Stephan Lewis (UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa) will be there.

If you have a chance make sure to watch or listen some of what Stephen Lewis has to say. He came to my university to give a very prestigious lecture. Many students had trouble getting in and most of the seats were taken by professors and members of the community. So he showed up at the University bar and just began talking to whoever was there. It was such a passion filled addressed I have thought about it often ever since.

Edited to Add - Here is my recap of today ceremonies

The ceremony was for the Grandmother's Gathering (Run by the Stephen Lewis Foundation http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/ ) it brought together Grandmothers who lost there children to AIDS and are now raising there grandchildren some of who are HIV+ with Grandmothers from Canada that have been supporting them.

It started off with the grandmothers dancing (and they danced up a strom) CBC interviewed Alicia Keys who is the patron of a foundation called Keep A Child Alive http://www.keepachildalive.org/ She was very knowlegable and very political I was highly impressed by the way she spoke.

Stephen Lewis was also interviewed and he spoke as well. Then he danced. I love Stephen Lewis and think the world of him...but he made Alicia Keys laugh a lot.

There was the story of one grandmother, who lost her children and in laws and is raising two grandchildren (one is HIV+) and they also interviewed the Canadian Health Minister (and in respect of board rules that is all I'm saying).

It was very powerful, very moving presentation. CBC (I think it might just be Newsworld) will be showing opening ceremonies at 7pm EST tonight.

 

[Larzen]

Thanks for you recap Oppie
Here is Alicia Keys and Stephen Lewis

American singer Alicia Keys addresses a crowd as UN AIDS envoy Stephen Lewis looks on at an event for the International AIDS conference in Toronto, Sunday, Aug.13, 2006. HIV/AIDS scientists, activists and journalists, numbering roughly 27,000 in total, have descended upon Toronto for the once-every-two-years International AIDS Conference. (AP Photo/Stuart Nimmo, CP)

Here is the first picture of Mette-Marit in Toronto

Edit to add
The real first picture, Mette-Marit at a meeting where she gave a speech during a meeting about women and the international AIDS conference.
Foto: Kallestad-Aftenposten

 

[venus_samotracia]

Princess Mette-Marit is fantastic

 

[kwanfan]

Mette-Marit looks really nice. Hopefully the conference website will put a transcript of her speech up. I'd love to read it.

 

[Alexandria]

Thanks for you recap Oppie
Here is Alicia Keys and Stephen Lewis

Here is the first picture of Mette-Marit in Toronto

That comes from the biggest local paper, The Toronto Star, the site can be found at www.thestar.com.

Here are profiles of the individuals involved (also previously posted in another manner in this thread): http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...560&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154.

This one doesn't mention Haakon but mentions Harry of Britain.

 

[Maxie]

Mette-Marit really looks lovely. That's a very beautiful jacket, it seems to be made of a very interesting fabric.

 

[kwanfan]

The opening session is starting. You can watch it at this link http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=1791

 

[Larzen]

Its funny the cameraman seems to think their advisor Vibeke Hollekim (pic from nettavisen in Geneva) and Haakons aide de Campe (in uniform) are the royals, they have showed close ups of them three times, and not once of H and MM They are sitting on the front row though. The organisors and crowd are really not happy with the Prime minsters absense it seems

The governor General Michaëlle Jean did give a wonderful speech

VG has an articlecalls her World Profile in the fight against AIDS" (which is a huge overstatement in my oppinion) Its based on the front page posted above
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=126476

aftenposten has some pieces of her speech
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/kongelige/article1420315.ece
scanpix via nettavisen

 

[sylla]

VG has an articlecalls her World Profile in the fight against AIDS" (which is a huge overstatement in my oppinion) Its based on the front page posted above
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=126476

I agree. The title of "World Leader" should only be bestowed on scientists who are trying to find a cure; doctors and nurses, who are doing hands-on work trying to save AIDS patients; and all others, who are doing actual work in the field trying to ease the suffering.

Celebrities and royalty who are merely bringing attention to the subject (as if we all don't know about AIDS by now) can be commended for their involvement but it should be kept in perspective.

 

[purple_platinum]

Larzen, thanks for the nice pictures of Mette-Marit. I agree, she really does looks beautiful at there. Perfect hair-do, and outfit. I'm pleased to see that on the 1st day of the conference, she already make a speech and participate actively. Is it know what was the subject of her speech, or what session of the conference she attended?

Its funny the cameraman seems to think their advisor Vibeke Hollekim (pic from nettavisen in Geneva) and Haakons aide de Campe (in uniform) are the royals, they have showed close ups of them three times, and not once of H and MM They are sitting on the front row though. The organisors and crowd are really not happy with the Prime minsters absense it seems

I hope within the next days, the media would realised their mistakes, and well... capture haakon & mette-marit instead of their advisor & aide-de-camp!

 

[kwanfan]

Here's a press release that mentions Mette-Marit http://www.aids2006.org/admin/images/upload/1061.pdf
If you go to page 2 it mentions that the session she attended and spoke at was called Time to Deliver for Women and Girls.

 

[Larzen]

With some imagination you can see them during the opening session
from AIDS 2006

some other pics from yesterday
http://www.aids2006.org/subpage.aspx?PageId=472

Bill Gates (L) and former U.S. President Bill Clinton share a laugh during a panel discussion at the Sixteenth International AIDS conference in Toronto, August 14, 2006. REUTERS/J.P. Moczulski (CANADA)

Haakon and Mette-Marit was present during the Q&A session with President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates (Kallestad, G)
​

 

[Princess Luna]

I`m really proud of Princess Mette Marit

 

[unlikeanygirl]

I too agree. MM is really brave.

Any videos of her speech? Larzen and Kwanfan - help

 

[Larzen]

Press on the link in the "lyd og video" box and there is a summary of yesterday and a small snippet of her speech
http://nrk.no/nyheter/innenriks/kongehuset/1.842008

Today Mette-Marit attended several lectures and debates on the fight of HIV and AIDS before she and Haakon together with several thousands of people was at the Gates-Clinton session. Mette-Marit also attended a lunch for HIV positive women arranged by UNAIDS.

Kallestad-scanpix via NRK

 

[unlikeanygirl]

THANK YOU
I admire people who can stand up and talk in public as I would be deathly afraid. But now let us hope her speaking is going to help those who are affected by this terrible disease.

 

[kwanfan]

You can now see Mette-Marit's entire speech online. Here is the link http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=1856

 

[Cathérine Bergeyck]

A good speech! Thanks for posting the video link.

 

[Amber26]

Beautiful pictures; thanks

 

[pollyemma]

thanks for posting the video. i've never seen a video of her speaking english before. she has next to no accent.

 

[Larzen]

You can now see Mette-Marit's entire speech online. Here is the link http://www.kaisernetwork.org/health_cast/hcast_index.cfm?display=detail&hc=1856

Thank you for the link, Its part 2 and starts at min 23.
I think her english is good and the speech is quite good as well, but she can still be better at presentation IMO, it is a little monotonous (as are most of her speeches), but Im sure she must have been a little nervous infront of all those ministers and what not.

Event for her today, from the UNAIDS webiste:

Tuesday will also see UNAIDS Special Representative, Her Royal Highness Crown Princes Mette-Marit of Norway launching the World YWCA book “If I kept it to myself”. The launch will take place at the Women’s Networking Zone in the Global Village at 11:00 EST.

http://www.unaids.org/en/Conferences/AIDS2006/20060815-focus.asp

the whole book can be downloaded here
http://www.worldywca.info/index.php/ywca/world_ywca/ywca_news/world_ywca_news__1/myself_book

Nettavisen has the above picture from the Clinton/Gates event even bigger
http://www.side2.no/kjendis/article710240.ece

 

[monica]

Thank you very much the photos and the articles, good work larzen by..

 

[Alexandria]

I think her english is good and the speech is quite good as well, but she can still be better at presentation IMO, it is a little monotonous (as are most of her speeches), but Im sure she must have been a little nervous infront of all those ministers and what not.

Like pollyemma, I was really surprised by the lack of accent, too. I also didn't realize that Mette-Marit's English was so good. It's practically flawless considering that English isn't her first langauge.

I also thought her speech was monotonous and lacking in intonation. The fact that she also read directly from her papers probably didn't help the montonity.

She isn't a very good public speaker for those reasons but also she hardly ever looked up from the podium or made eye contact with the audience.

But she did seem quite nervous and didn't seem to like all the eyes in the room being on her. When she sat down after her speech she picked up pens right away and finally looked nervously at the woman seated next to her and gave a nervous smile after the woman said something to her, probably something affirmative.

That being said however, I think the content of her speech was very good. It wasn't too preachy or didn't act like she knew everything about the subject. She called for action (like everyone else who has spoken at this convention) and outlined key issues and key mandates for a solution.

She also did one thing that most speech writers will tell you was very effective: She repeated key words and phrases like "It is unacceptable that ...."

On the whole I am impressed with Mette-Marit's appearance on the world stage.

 

[kwanfan]

I agree with what others have said that Mette-Marit appeared nervous during her speech. But who could blame her, when speaking in her second language at a major conference away from her home country? Her English is very good. I think it's great that she seems to have been very busy so far, attending various sessions and debates.

 

[Larzen]

Mette-Marit during the launching the World YWCA book “If I kept it to myself" the man in the last picture is the Norwegian ambassador. She also visited the Uganda Pavillion on a tour of the Convention Centre



Later she attended the opening of the exhibition "Letters to the world"

Pictures from Nettavisen, AP and scanpix​

Tomorrow there is a gala dinner where the redribbon award which is co sponsored by the Norwegian Ministry of Forreign Affairs will be handed out, I guess she atleast will be there.
http://www.redribbonaward.org/php/content.php?page=events

Wonder what Haakon is up to, nothing picture worthy it seems

 

[sylla]

I agree, she speaks English almost flawlessly and the content of her speech was of good substance. As for her nerves, I would have thought she had them under control a little better, afterall she has been on the World Stage for five years now.

 

[kwanfan]

There are some photos of Mette-Marit on getty images. They show her touring the Uganda pavillion. In one picture, it looks like she got a bunch of stuff to take home from some of the women at the booth.

 

[akina21]

I went to school for 13 years and I wasn't able to read my homework to the class without starting to cry the year I had to take my final exam . I think she is doing a very good job

 

[HRH Mims]

some pics from profimedia: