Guyanese writer offers a poetic gem, like no other.Dr Glenville AshbySmith’s work is richly packaged and designed, a design befitting its glowing content.In this gem of a work,wholesale jerseys, Smith, an accomplished author and poet,Cheap NFL Jerseys, covers ground, lots of it. From her ecstatic tribute to America’s first black president to her forays into the immutable world of the spiritual,Cheap Authentic Jerseys, she is unmistakably definitive. In Keep Us, she is prayerful,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, invoking, supplicating God in the vein of the Psalmic tradition.“Keep us healthy,NFL Jerseys Supply, Keep us safe. Keep us always, in your grace. Help us not to be dismayed, for your love is always there!”Smith is equally comfortable on social and political issues…tapping into the frustration of the hopeful, sorely beguiled by elected officials in A Blatant Waste of Time: “In two shakes of a tune, I would have Healthcare, Educational Laws Flying off The Stool… No more waste of citizen’s precious time. I would say, ‘Here are your laws, just waiting to unwind,’ while reprimanding them, for a blatant waste of time.”Her transition is effortless, indiscernible. It is an incomparable fluidity…faultless.Smith proves her salt as profoundly mystical, detailing the virtues of simplicity and gratitude – elements missing in a world collapsing under the weight of entitlement and covetousness. In Thank You God, she intones, “Thank you for strength. Thank you for filling us with your grace and mercy…Thank you for time to sleep, thank you for food to eat…”To Smile Again, reinforces that message of gratitude.Hers is an anthem that centres on the power to choose. We create our own reality. We are the architects of our heaven, our hell, she is convinced.In I Choose, she asserts: “I choose tolerance, not impatience…Contentment, not greed. It is my right to make good choices. I choose…To choose.”But for those who have succumbed, she cautions others, asking for empathy. “So remember compassion. And grace to all. For you can never tell when it will be…your call!”“Freedom to Change” is a poetic masterpiece, penned by a tested soul. This is not the musings of the uninitiated, the unbaptised. Smith has been in the belly of the beast, wrestling with adversarial scenarios – physical and mental – emerging bruised but not battered and crestfallen. The past and the pain pour from her in Still Standing, To Smile Again, and On Being Homeless. In For My Brother, the nostalgia, her lamentations over her fallen sibling are poignantly raw.? But like the proverbial phoenix, she soars. A veritable testament to the invariable power of faith and the human will.Her experience invokes biblical images of Jacob’s Ladder – a painstaking ascension from an existence once mired in hopelessness. In When God Sends Angels, she basks in the innate goodness of humankind. We are all capable of being God’s messengers. Smith deftly marries deism and humanism. Why quibble over nuances, she suggests. Do we not come from the same source?“…They were Sarah and family, Coworkers and Neighbours too…,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale,” she writes. These are every day individuals who radiate empathy and kindness…God’s love.The eponymous, Freedom to Change transcends the personal journey of Obama, her words recapturing tribulations and redemption, so soothing to the oppressed: “Torn by race, Debarred by hatred, Soured by Indifference, Blessed by a sacred gift, Struggles for Acceptance, Mindless Rejection, Sense of Belonging, Of Giving, Of Sharing.”Smith touches a social nerve, ably grappling with a wide spectrum of human emotions. Pride, hubris, despair, selfishness, grace, and veneration for the sublime, all form a compelling poetic montage. Her work reflects the power of literalism, avoiding the abstraction and the complexities of multilayered interpretations. She opts for Occam’s razor – sometimes, the right choice. This explains her markedly emotive appeal. “My Poetry Book: Freedom to Change” is an existential triumph in the philosophical vein of Victor Frankl and Rollo May – two notable pioneers of this genre. Unquestionably, an accolade richly deserved.[email protected] Follow me on [email protected]My Poetry Book: Freedom to Choose by J.E. Trotman Smith Dat-Nef-E-Cnt Illumination Production New York, New York Photographer: Lenny Wang ISBN 978-0-615-39174-8

By Sharmain CornetteMore than $2.1B in rates and taxes is owed to the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown (M&CC) and according to Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the Finance Committee, Robert Williams, efforts will be made this year to garner as much outstanding funds as possible.And in order to recover the funds, Williams disclosed that the municipality will be looking to have its records reviewed and verified this year.It was the expectation that a new valuation which was proposed by the Inter-American Development Bank would have already been in effect, however, this mechanism is still not available, according to Williams.The Deputy Mayor had previously revealed that the municipality is being starved of several million dollars which it should have garnered from commercial operations in the city over the past three years. He said that this state of affairs is likely to continue until the new valuation is put into place.Williams revealed that following a survey carried out by the municipality in the areas bordered by Vlissengen Road,Wholesale Jerseys, Water Street, North Road and D’Urban Street,Cheap Jerseys Store, it was discovered that a number of properties have been transformed to commercial operations.“These properties are recorded in our database as residences but are now being used as businesses… be it auto dealers, restaurants, salons, all sorts of things. So they are recorded by us as having to pay 40 percent of their assessed value, but are in fact businesses that should be paying 250 percent, and this has been happening over four to five years,” Williams divulged.According to the Deputy Mayor, in such areas, the municipality should have been collecting some $18M per year but is only in receipt, if it is paid at all, of a mere $5M per year.“When you assess on average going back three to four years, it is over $66M we should have garnered for commercial operations in these areas but we are only getting $24M under the base document we have,China Jerseys Cheap, which is residential,” Williams explained.He stressed that this situation has been allowed to abound as the municipality has not been able to obtain the Valuation Roll under the Urban Development Programme, which he disclosed has been reportedly completed since 2003.The Valuation Roll, Williams said, is a complete assessment of all the properties in Georgetown and done in a scientific way by means of a capital mode as against rental mode, with digitised accommodation of information. Through this valuation,cheap nfl jerseys, properties are identified both in terms of picture and statistics on what they are for the purpose of assessment, which the municipality has not been able to engage.“You may ask the question, ‘how is it that we are able to survive?’, but we have been able to maximise our collections operation on existing properties in the city. Our collection rate as a result has gone up to 84 percent in the past couple of years which has helped. But how much can we carry on when all the roads still need to be repaired, canals need to be re-dug, buildings, including City Hall and the Kitty Market need to be repaired? We cannot pursue these things because the revenue has not changed.”Williams further stated that the municipality has been increasing its rates collection by battling to unearth the millions that have been escaping its grasp over the years.But, in the absence of the new valuation the municipality, according to Williams,NFL Jerseys Cheap, has commenced physical checks around the city,China NFL Jerseys, a process which has revealed that some residences are now schools and even businesses. “Some are recorded and registered as businesses….Some are schools such as the Georgetown Technical Institute and the Richard Ishmael School, that are not of a taxable nature, but we are doing some verification with a view to approaching the government to discuss the cost on the occupancy of those properties..” At the moment, the estimated value of the outstanding rates and taxes has amounted to a sum surpassing $2.1B.And in order to boost the municipality’s effort, Williams said that the introduction of the new Valuation Roll will be brought up for discussion with Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Kellawan Lall, when he meets with municipal officials this week.And this move, the Deputy Mayor said, is crucial as even the revenue generated by the municipal markets cannot be utilised to fund the municipal operation.He disclosed that the revenue from the markets have to be utilised in part to finance their maintenance. And this, Williams added, is particularly important for the Stabroek Market