By Ben Shapiro
Today, I sat in on the annual BRICS conference. BRICS, an intergovernmental organisation, comprises Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa and some more members. They are here conferring on crypto currency. They want to create an organization-wide currency, and some members want to start using a crypto currency as currency between them. Not the smartest choice given the fact that crypto can be hacked and is not secure enough for an entire organization to use.
As the conference started, it became clear that there were some key points of contention. Delegates are suggesting very different and surprising solutions to their dislike of the US Dollar. One of these Delegates is Iran. Iran is making an uncharacteristically smart move and trying to reject the crypto change, using El Salvador’s trial with crypto. Iran also is “appalled” that some countries still do business with the economic powerhouse of the USA.
During an unmoderated caucus, chaos erupts, every delegate starts talking at the same time. Trying to complete their plans, gain followers, and beat the others in a shouting match. It seems Iran is having trouble finishing their resolution, because they’re “talking about other blocs.” An inadequate excuse. China is trying to get BRICS to adopt their economy and infrastructure, they also claim that they do not want to control, but that they want to help and donate. Does anyone believe this?
It seems many of the delegates have joined the same bloc, but there are some that are rather alone in their ideas. Kazakhstan says “we can’t fully get rid of the US dollar”. Yep, big shocker, you can’t just vanish the cornerstone of the world economy. Meanwhile, China is still trying to show their power in the bloc.
Later in the conference, the groups started to solidify at risk of their ideas being exterminated. At the same time friendships were tested when the fine print of the resolutions were being written.
Now, it is time to present draft resolutions. First up is Russia’s paper. It seems that Russia’s solution does not involve crypto, which is smart, they want a digital currency and a fast currency interchange system, what they are calling of all things BREAD. This resolution is long, complex, and full of useless acronyms.
After that, China presents their resolution. It also includes a lot of acronyms, but uses a gold trade and physical currency, along with the digital currency. They are trying to sell the others on a digital currency task force focusing on the security of the digital currency. Same as the last resolution, it includes local currencies as BRICS wide currencies. That’s too many currencies to be usable safely. And as Iran’s delegate pointed out, the word ‘funding’ does not show up anywhere in the resolution, because there is no funding.
At last, it is time to vote on the draft resolution. Now is the time that they decide what they do about this ‘problem’. Votes are pouring in for China’s resolution and it fails. Now for Russia’s, and it also fails. BRICS has failed in making a decision, maybe they will come back to this ‘issue’ later. That is all for the first day of TIMEMUN.
