Keyword: BASIC

BASICs, BRICs and PIGS: New Acronyms and the New World Order

Picture: SACSIS Leonard Gentle - Quietly, but inexorably, the world is changing. In the past three months a number of events have occurred, which, in and of themselves may go nowhere, but indicate the emergence of tectonic shifts that will change the world as we have known it for much of the 20th century.  These changes may not necessarily be for everyone’s good, they may even portend more frightening developments, but if we don’t know about them we’ll only experience their effects like the...

Rethinking the Idea of the South: A New Class Division and Rivalry Is in the Making

Picture: Engineering News Saliem Fakir - They go by different names: IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa), BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) and BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China). These formations all amount to more or less the same thing: the new “emerging economies” seeking to redefine relations between themselves and the rest of the world. They are widely seen as new symbols of power in the global arena. The shaping of the alliances between these powerful new emerging economies raises...