As this is being written a series of summits have been taking place in Brazil which may have a lasting effect on the way in which the Caribbean and other small indebted nations come to address their future.
The first and perhaps most significant of these meeting s took place between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (the BRICS) on July 16 in La Fortaleza. The atmospherics surrounding the meeting, which brought together the Presidents of the five countries concerned, suggested that much of what was discussed and announced was intended to confirm the gradual emergence of a new world economic and possibly political order.
The message was that here were five relatively new world economic powers – there are of course others – that are beginning to put in place institutions that