Soccer aside, Brazil has made ample provision for a wake-up call. Whether it loses the World Cup or not is inconsequential. Composure in adversity is admirable. How much further can the development crisis in the debate about the emerging economies go? The contours of a grand bargain have been obvious for decades. The Bretton Woods institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have long been reduced to point-scoring over assisting the so-called “third world,” a pejorative and deregatory term that the five-nation BRICS Summit that met in Brazil from 14 to 16 July was determined to replace with a new system. Not only are these countries, now bankrolling the economic future of the emerging economies, launching a streamlined structure in which the BRICS have authority, but they are also catapulting their nations into a world that has become too beholden to a defunct “first world” riveted by economic woes. The BRICS launched a New Development Bank at the meeting this week and set aside an unprecedented US$100 billion joint currency reserve pool called the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), in order to provide emergency cash to BRICS countries faced with short-term currency crises. The leaders of the BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, met in the northeastern Brazilian Atlantic Ocean resort city of Fortaleza in order to give the BRICS nations a seat at the top table of the international league of nations. BRICS are no good Samaritans. And, the world must not expect them to be as such. They are determined to enhance their authority and raise economic growth across the bloc. The new BRICS institutions, including the Development Bank, are intended to provide developing countries with an alternative to the World Bank and the IMF. There was also talk of the need to boost transmission networks between the member states and cement coordination. The resilient Brazilian President Dilma Roussef seemed unperturbed as far as the dismal performance of her country in the World Cup tournament was concerned. Her task was not to win the cup, but to oversee the logistics as best as she can of the Hercullean task. It was ironic that Roussef's approval ratings plummeted just before the kick-off, only to soar after the humiliating defeats and the end of the tournament. Soccer is steeped in Brazilian culture, and the off-field impact of the cup was a barometer for the contemporary Brazilian political mood. “The cup became an allegory for the state's incompetence, inability to administrate, corruption,” a despondent Brazilian musician, composer and essayist and one of the country's iconic cultural figures, Jose Miguel Wisnik, was quoted as saying, much to the chagrin of his compatriots. Brazil witnessed large nationwide demonstrations in 2013 when it transpired that the cup would cost the country a small fortune. But “where is all the social unrest,” derisively asked FIFA President Sepp Blatter, concurring with Roussef that the cup had nevertheless been a success for Brazil. “The World Cup 2014 is a success,” he asserted. What really matters is Brazil's economic status in the international arena and not its performance on the pitch. “I'm going to be remembered probably because I lost 7-1, the worst defeat in Brazil's history, but that was a risk I knew I was running when I walked into this position,” scowled Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari who promptly resigned after the humiliating defeat of his country. An estimated US$11 billion was spent on preparing to host the World Cup, but to what avail? “We witnessed a collective implosion of Brazil. A total collapse of their team tonight. I don't know what the lads from Brazil were carrying on their shoulders. They weren't able to come to terms with that. In these pictures you keep seeing them crying, before the match or after the match. This team didn't have enough experience to come to terms with the pressure of a big tournament like this in their own country. They fell apart emotionally today, completely,” former German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn said. With presidential elections around the corner, the Brazilian team's on-field performance does not bode well for Roussef and her ruling Workers' Party. But she is still yearning to hit the campaign trail to seek a second term. Even so, the BRICS Summit is more consequential to the Brazilian general elections in October 2014 than winning, or losing, the World Cup. It is the economy and not the goals scored that constitute the sweet spot for prognosticators of dramatic reform in Brazil. Roussef's main political rivals in the forthcoming elections are Eduardo Campos of the Brazilian Socialist Party and Aecio Neves of the pro-business Brazilian Social Democracy Party. While soccer may be attention grabbing and relevant in certain instances to politics, economic breakthroughs would serve Roussef far more than victory on the pitch. The BRICS meeting is not exclusively about Brazil, however, and after paying a visit to Argentina and signing agreements with Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Russian President Vladimir Putin headed for Brazil. On 16 July, the BRICS leaders flew from Fortaleza to the Brazilian capital Brasilia where they met with the heads of state and government of Latin American countries. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his debut at an international engagement in Fortaleza. Indian Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman, National Security Adviser A K Doval, Foreign Secretary Sujatha Sing and Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram all accompanied Modi in a high-level delegation designed to boost economic and commercial ties with South America. Plans for a face-to-face meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel were shelved precisely because she had flown to Brazil to attend the final. Modi is scheduled to meet Merkel on his return journey to India via Frankfurt. The task now of the leaders of the emerging economies is to look beyond their home markets. The BRICS account for 40 per cent of the world's population and have a combined GDP of US$24 trillion. The BRICS leaders who congregated at Fortalexa are making the most of their sojourn in South America to boost ties with an economically promising continent. The Western perspective of a world that the West dominates economically and militarily is on the wane. Thanks to the beautiful Brazilian losers, BRICS is on the upswing.
