A New Age of Anger Awaits India and Brazil
As in South Africa, the pandemic is exposing years of social division, rising inequality and incompetent governance.
Brazilians have already protested Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic.
Photographer: Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty Images
Two decades ago, a Goldman Sachs executive coined the label BRICs to describe four big emerging nations: Brazil, Russia, India and China. Rapid growth and expansion of the ranks of the wealthy in these countries vindicated the faith of investors. Their leaders started to hold annual summit meetings and even established their own development bank. They invited South Africa to become a member in 2011, conveniently completing the catchy acronym.
But conceits devised by Western boosters of globalization had become obsolete well before the pandemic dramatically altered global realities this past year. China, for instance, long ago graduated from “emerging” status. With its hydrocarbon-dependent and isolationist economy, Russia never belonged in the group.