“We’re the restless-hearted, not the chained and bound.”

Sep 16, 2012 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Have you ever seen the 1985 movie, “Nine and a half weeks?” It is based on the 1978 publication of the memoirs of a woman whose identity to this day has never been revealed. It tells the true story of a middle class public relations woman who casually ran into a Wall Street financial agent and began a torrid two-month sexual relationship with him to the point where she helplessly drifted into sado-masochism and became a virtual sex slave to him.
Both man and woman lived a normal middle class, American life in the day but at nights morbidly journeyed into a surreal world of violent erotica. What “Nine and a Half Weeks” instructs us is that human beings are too complex to be understood.
We may never know her identity (her editor at Random House used the pseudonym, Elizabeth Mc Neil) because if she is happily married with kids and grand-children, she probably would not want that sordid aspect of her past to ever be revealed. The movie starred Mickey Rourke and Kim Bassinger and features one of the loveliest love songs ever composed, “Slave to Love.”
Written in 1985 by Brian Ferry, “Slave to Love” has become a classic and was featured in perhaps the darkest and most bizarre Roman Polanski film, “Bitter Moon.” Strange that such a fantastic song about love can be the musical centrepiece of two films that are about the decadent and depraved passions that dwell inside the human mind (I think “Bitter Moon” is the largest indication to date that the talented Roman Polanski is a deeply troubled artist.)
Mr. Ferry performed his song to rapturous applause at the 80th birthday gala of Mikhail Gorbachev at the Royal Albert Hall. The song first appeared in the mid-eighties in the television series “Miami Vice.” A most interesting version of the tune is done by the white American reggae singer, Elan Atias, whose voice is identical to Bob Marley. Atias had to deliberately copy Marley’s vocal cords.
There is something philosophically subtle about “Slave to Love,” It draws you into a compelling understanding of how people need to search for love and when found to possess it and share it. When you come to grips with the theme of “Nine and a Half Weeks” and “Bitter Moon” despite their macabre repudiation of the humane side of emotions, you can fully comprehend why the directors used that particular love tune.
In the case of Roman Polanski, he should know what he is talking about. I think the scene in “Bitter Moon” in which the two drunken woman danced to “Slave to Love,” remains for me one of the most memorable movie scenes.
I really do like that song, and since the birth of People’s Parliament on August 15, I have since thought often of that wonderful melody. The People’s Parliament reminds me of “Slave to Love” and when I listen to “Slave to Love” I think of what a stupendous idea the People’s Parliament is.
Initially shaped by Sherlina Najeeb and Charlene Wilkinson and a few Red Thread women, particularly Joy Marcus, acting in their individual capacities, the People’s Parliament is unique to Guyana.
Four names are worthy of mention, Fitz Ralph, Simon Duggin, Dennis Atwell and Tacuma Ogunseye. They have not missed even one night. The People’s Parliament is often visited by Nigel Hughes, Sharma Solomon, Vanessa Kissoon, Christopher Ram, Gerhard Ramsaroop, Malcolm Harripaul, Michael Carrington among others. Mayor Hamilton Green turned up three Saturday nights ago. Lurlene Nestor of APNU visited three weeks ago.
Last Friday night there was drumming by the Buxton group.
As you can see from the names mentioned there, the contributors cut across political lines. Since the attack on me while leaving the site on the stroke of midnight on August 16, my presence is only in the days now.
The People’s Parliament occupies the public park on High Street that directly faces the National Assembly. It goes for twenty-four hours each day and there is no plan to bring it to an end.
The People’s Parliament originally started as an act of solidarity with the people of Linden, particularly those women who lost loved ones and had their children injured from police action.
Since then it has moved on to other issues of denial of justice, human rights violations, the cancer of poverty, the abuse of power by those in authorities, among other venalities.
There are placards highlighting the grievous wrongs done to the Guyanese people that demand the attention of all Guyanese.
A list of demands or desires (however you want to put it) including constitutional reform have been drawn up and will be taken to the Guyanese people.
The object of the People’s Parliament is for the ordinary folks to interact with each other, to tell each other how they feel about Guyana and what changes they dream their country will have.