But were too afraid to ask:
Some “Non-Scientific” thoughts.
Read the other day, it is “east” against “west” … as the European Nations did not “care that much” about the “rest”, specifically today’s BRICS list. Not to mention other smaller countries probably want to also join. Are joining.
The way I read it, West has one “set of problems”, and goals, the rest a “different set” … and goals. BRICS countries are not their “focus” per se, bar “tokens”. Global Warming enters that fray too.
So this was inevitable. Western nations are “losing power”, literally and figuratively, over the world … hence the inevitable “reshuffling of global political power brokers” the result.
Be very careful whom you want to “bed down” with … China and Russia really don’t have such a “sterling record” themselves.
The War in Ukraine … yeah, I THINK it may have a BIG potential effect on the “success” of BRICS overall … if Russia “collapses”, the picture changes a lot.
??
Depending on how ya may want to calculator this 
BRICS currently have about 40% of global population, about 25% of the GDP, most of certain minerals andAfrica alone about 60% of the Worlds arable land. Smoke that!
ArmgatGroetnis
Yeah, not so sure how “comfortable” the West is “feeling” about that either.
Don’t see them being easily “held over a barrel” by anyone. Monroe doctrine and all that.
Regarding the arable land … Global Warming will dictate where the arable land will be in the end. That is IF they can make that into “bread baskets” again … Ukraine is showing the risk involved with relying on external food supply, of “not having full control”.
So between Ukraine and lessons learned from the “Covid supply chain woes” … tensions may escalate a wee bit.
Will see.
We are saved … thank the stars …
… now to just "pull up our socks … SA has “sooo much” to offer …
And in other news … from The Guardian news feed
Although the group consists of minions, besides India China is driving the agenda.
Here is the rational: “The club serves several functions. One is to provide a platform for members to criticise, often with justification, the way institutions such as the World Bank, IMF and UN Security Council sideline the “global south”, a modish term for developing countries”
Personally I think a grouping of countries focused on emerging market issues makes sense, but not sure mixing with China and Russia is the way to go. The Afrikaans saying “meng jou met die semels…” springs to mind.
Both China and Russia have significant expansionist agendas and human rights issues internally. They are also both not democracies. They can’t really have the best interests of India, Brazil and SA at heart. I mean China and India are kind of at war.
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Interesting view this …
And then this …
I just hope the new idea of the parties collaborating with each other, excl EFF and ANC, will stop this … “meng jou met die semels”.
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Russia hasn’t got the power it had and it needs BRICS more than the other way round.
But yes, these aren’t the finest examples of representative government…
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“Throw a Bric” Converence … jinne I like that nickname!
Putin has ran smack into the African diplomacy of saying no … 
EDIT: Also shows the West something, don’t know what. Yet.
We live in interesting times… waiting to see how the G7 nations play this one…
Very general, big picture…
Iran, Saudis, UAE, and the future question mark in and around oil … ok.
With the West moving towards EV’s.
Then China wants in on electricity in SA, a potential EV market in Africa, having the parts, factories, expertise, and manpower, just needs raw resources and a new market …
Interesting times ahead.
@mmaritz … interesting thing about Universities …
This Bricks thing, the dollar question, potentially HUGE impact on the world order.
Ps. India landed on the moon days after the Russian attempt slammed into the moon … not so sure about their “education” system in Russia, or the quality of their factories.
With BRICs as a trading/market block bloc Ethiopia seems curious? Iran’s inclusion definitely going to upset the US.
Maybe WW3 will be set off trying to come up with the new acronym…
No man… it landed in a crater. That’s all.
Or worse, extended Proxi Wars … no one wants to get their “hands” dirty, generally speaking.
Then I wonder about the Ukraine war. What triggered WWII? Seems we are lucky because of the restraint of NATO … but they all did enhance their capabilities … so there is that.
After the Covid fiasco, the masses are not that keen anymore with their governments anymore, the LD’s etc as a cause … with the AC (After Covid) frustrations and economic challenges worldwide … the similarities to WWII causes?
WWI and II started in ways no one saw coming.
WWI:
The event that sparked the conflagration was the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in 1914. But historians say that World War I actually was the culmination of a long series of events, stretching back to the late 1800s.
WWII (Then Germany, today Russia?)
During the interwar period, deep anger arose in the Weimar Republic on the conditions of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, which punished Germany for its role in World War I with heavy financial reparations and severe limitations on its military that were intended to prevent it from becoming a military power again. The demilitarisation of the Rhineland, the prohibition of German unification with Austria, the loss of its overseas colonies and of some 12% of its pre-war land area and population provoked strong currents of revanchism in German politics.
Argh, I don’t know. People are unpredictable.
While you cannot rule it out, and it is hard to predict, I think there is one big difference. Poland. In WW2, Britain gave Poland a guarantee. It was a very definite line in the sand, and when the schoolyard bully crossed it, there was no return. Even though Britain could ill afford a war, and was basically f**ked financially by the time America arrived.
I don’t see a similar line in the sand at the present time. There’d have to be a deliberate attack on a NATO-state for that to happen.
That line today is Ukraine … for Russia.
Adding to that … if BRICS were to have supported Russia fully, that line “could” be crossed by Russia.
THAT will lead to WW3, with NATO entering the fray directly.