The BRICS block of nations (which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) is considering whether to admit other countries to its group. A ton of other countries want in, countries like Iran, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Egypt, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Argentina... the list goes on. Personally, I think Egypt and Kazakhstan should be let in, because it would preserve the acronym better than, say, Nigeria, would. With Kazakhstan it could be BRICKS. If they add Egypt on top of that, it could be BRICKES. I guess Belarus or Iran could double one of the letters ("BBRICS" or BRIICS") but that seems a little clunky to me.
If they let Nigeria in, I think they would have to scrap the entire "brick" idea and come up with an entirely different word. SNICKER? They would have to throw out existing member Brazil for that.
This post is a joke. And yet there is a real point in there. The "block" if you can even call it that, is really just an attempt to be non-Western. B ut the non-West is a diverse place with a lot of different interests. Other than a cool acronym, it's not clear if a large BRICS-ish group would have much else to hold them together.
