This week, I continue my trip down memory lane. I focus on a formation – economic or political, depending on your preference – that, in 2001, was referenced as BRIC by then chairperson of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O’Neill, in his publication, Building Better Global Economic BRICs.

The ‘s’ was used merely to depict it as plural, but, fortuitously, it identified the fourth member, which joined on December 24, 2010 – South Africa. Contrary to popular belief, Bric came into existence in 2008. A lot has been written about Brics, or ‘the four Brics and a briquette’, which was the headline of the instalment of this column published on August 10, 2018.

Brics is like one of those movies on a Friday evening that you so desperately want to be good, but they just aren’t, even if you look past all their faults. Consider its members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. For one, the membership covers all the continents of the world and, at the time of its formation, the bloc represented the emerging economies. But, alas, there is very little sentiment in the cold hard world, where there is also no queue where each country gets a turn to achieve economic growth. I am afraid Brics has never risen, and will never rise, economically or politically beyond its catchy acronym. The reason is obvious – in a word: self-interest. What element unites the Brics members? If you want to be technical, think of one that is economic and one that is political. For the life of me, I simply cannot think of any – past, present or future.

In my view, the Brics countries’ individual efforts and energy would return more favourable results if they were focused elsewhere. The problem with a catchy acronym is that it provides visibility, which, when the chips are down, is not what the associated countries want. One cannot but recall the PIIGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) when these countries were identified as the problematic European Union countries in terms of their lack of economic performance.

So, what made me think of Brics? You may or may not be familiar with the name Yuval Noah Harari. Well, if you are not familiar with the name, you might be familiar with one or two of the international bestselling books that he authored: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. If you have not read these books, I encourage you to do so.

Brics, though not explicitly mentioned, is referred to in his latest book, the soon-to-be-international-bestseller 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. The reference appears in a chapter titled ‘Equality’, where Harari writes: “In countries such as France and New Zealand, with a long tradition of liberal beliefs and welfare-State practices, perhaps the elite will go on taking care of the masses, even when it doesn’t need them. “In the more capitalist US, however, the elite might use the first opportunity to dismantle what’s left of the American welfare State. An even bigger problem looms large in developing countries like India, China, South Africa and Brazil. There, once common people lose their economic value, inequality might skyrocket.”

To be technically correct, Russia is not mentioned. Concerning inequality, in South Africa, in the words of that memorable Vodacom advertisement of days gone by, ‘We’ve been having it’.

Of great concern to me is that South Africa’s steadily increasing inequality is by no means a revelation. What is devastating is that it is not being addressed at speed and with conviction. That’s the failure.