Welcome to Global Thoughts, now in its 29th year, an advertising-free website offering Musings and Useful Advice on Current Affairs and Travel, with a very personal and somewhat humorous touch. Articles on this site are regularly visited by and circulated among a regular audience of several thousand English-speaking elites in over 50 countries.
I am your host, Ivan Sean Ciment of the United States of America, although to a greater degree, a citizen of the world. Ciment is a 58 year old attorney residing in New York City who was born and raised in Miami Beach, Florida. A graduate of Yeshiva College (B.A. political science), New York University (M.A. journalism) and University of Pennsylvania (J.D. law), your host helped found a telecommunications company in Miami and served as corporate counsel and roving business developer for that company and has served for over 3 years as a legal associate at the law firm of Jacobson, Mermelstein & Squire, LLP of New York City practicing tax, corporate finance and international law. He is now currently a partner in the Morningside Group of Companies that provide legal consulting services (such as credential evaluations, expert opinion letters and translations) to attorneys and companies, particularly in the fields of business immigration and university transfers. He married Karen Heilig, an international human rights attorney from Sydney, Australia. It turned out she lived 2 blocks away from him on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and yet they met via the Internet. Now married over 20 years, the couple is raising 2 children, Elizabeth Regina and Jeremy Robert. They are very cute and the best pictures of the month often accompany monthly postings of Global Thoughts.
Quite unique for a New York business owner, your host also happens to have a life. He travels a lot and has visited over 65 countries, monitors world media with strong emphasis on the Middle East region, keeps in touch with colleagues in over 50 countries including next-generation professionals, analysts and future leaders, and enjoys good food and clothing. In this increasingly small world, the exchange of opinions and information is of the greatest imperative and your host has built this web site with the intention of spreading his knowledge bank with those of you that care to log in and to assist those that have received these files via e-mail and have forgotten where they stored them. You are kindly invited to respond and contribute your own global thoughts.
This site contains travel diaries to various places with recommendations and honest uncensored impressions which are not usually found in the normal domain. There are also photographs that try to tell a story and give an insight many tourists don’t get. Ivan’s Packing List and other Travel-Oriented Checklists have been real popular. Also available are recent opinion articles on such subjects as U.S. and global politics, economic markets and whatever else is on your host’s mind. Please stay tuned and drop in once in a while; postings are roughly quarterly or when conditions warrant. The idea is to go beyond the day to day to the more profound. The site is arranged so that you can see what’s new without having to navigate through archival material.
