GLOBAL CHANGE is happening every day but what is driving this change?

In order to understand how the world is changing a person pursing a Masters degree in this specialization area needs to know how the world has changed over the historical past. That is why after earning my Bachelor of |Arts, Law Degree and practicing law for many years I returned to the study of History in 2009 at the University of Calgary. My courses there in Diplomatic History, World War I, the American South and the Vietnam War assisted me in understanding the political and social forces that have shaped the world over the previous centuries. That is why I am seeking credit towards my MAIS program for those courses as well as Archaeology 553. The fact that my wife is a black Jamaican and our twins are mixed race has led me on a journey of academic exploration into the field of race and ethnicity which I expanded through MAIS 601. I am particularly interested in the problems of the Third World /South in the context of Global Change. My understanding of these issues was further enhanced by GOVN 540 and the expertise of Dr, Paul Kellogg.. My oldest daughter had worked for Air Transat which allowed me the opportunity to visit Cuba for the first time in 1998. Since then I have returned multiple times making friends as well as observing how Cuba, as a special case, is dealing with the global changes occurring throughout the world. My interest in the Caribbean was enriched by taking Archaeology 553 from Dr. Richard Callaghan at the University of Calgary. He is an expert in his field which is the archaeology of the Caribbean as it relates to the pre- Columbian peoples and their migration into the Caribbean. In the last two centuries the migration of peoples out from the Caribbean have played an important part in the changing social fabrics of North America, Europe and Africa. My research plans are to carry out research centering on how Cuba and its peoples including its visible minorities are adapting and can adapt their future policies to emerge from 50 years of

communist/socialist government and economic policy into the mainstream of global change. For that reason I travelled at my own expense to Cuba in the third week of April this year to study how the proposed changes to their economic system would lead to changes in the everyday lives of Cubans. While there I visited with Dr. Boris Pena, of the Cuban Ministry of Higher Education who invited me to attend the 8th International conference on Higher Education entitled The university for sustainable development which is to be held February 13 17th 2012 at the Havana , Cuba. While there I hope to meet other like minded academics interested in the effect of global changes on the countries of the south.