Random Thoughts

Letter to BRICS leaders: Urgent response needed on Syria

Nineteen scholars, diplomats and veteran politicians from the BRICS nations – including Dr. Shashi Tharoor, former Indian Ambassador to Iran, K.C. Singh, Former Finance Minister in Brazil, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay – have written to BRICS leaders urging an end to the conflict in Syria.
They say that an urgent response is needed to continued violations of international humanitarian law in Syria
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An Open Letter to the BRICS Heads of State:

Fact file: Russia at a Glance

Russia’s economy is expected to bounce back in 2017 [PPIO]
Type of Government:
Federal [semi-presidential] Republic
Current Leader: Vladimir Putin
Population: 142,355,415 (July 2016 estimate)
Language(s): Russian
Ethnicities: Russian 77.7%, Tatar 3.7%, Ukrainian 1.4%, Bashkir 1.1%, Chuvash 1%, Chechen 1%, other 10.2%, unspecified 3.9%
Religions: Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, and other Christian 2%
Capital City: Moscow

Fact file: India at a Glance

India’s economy was the best performing in 2016 [Xinhua]
Type of Government: Federal parliamentary republic
Current Leader: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Pranab Mukherjee
Population: 1,266,883,598 (July 2016 estimate)
Language(s): Hindi 40%, Bengali 8%, Telugu 7% (see below)
Ethnicities: Hindi 41%, Bengali 8.1%, Telugu 7.2%, Marathi 7%, Tamil 5.9%, Urdu 5%, Gujarati 4.5%, Kannada 3.7%, Malayalam 3.2%, Oriya 3.2%, Punjabi 2.8%, Assamese 1.3%, Maithili 1.2%, other 5.9%

Fact file: China at a glance

China is moving from an export-based economy to one that is driven by domestic products and services [Xinhua]
Type of Government:
One-party Communist state
Current Leader: Xi Jin Ping
Population: 1,373,541,278 (July 2016 estimate)
Language(s): Mandarin, Cantonese
Ethnicities: Han Chinese 91.6%, Zhuang 1.3%, other (includes Hui, Manchu, Uighur, Miao, Yi, Tujia, Tibetan, Mongol, Dong, Buyei, Yao, Bai, Korean, Hani, Li, Kazakh, Dai and other nationalities) 7.1%

Fact file: Brazil at a glance

[Xinhua]Type of Government: Federal republic
Current Leader: Michel Temer, President
Population: 205,823,665 (July 2016 estimate)
Language(s): Portugese
Ethnicities: white 47.7%, mulatto (mixed white and black) 43.1%, black 7.6%, Asian 1.1%, indigenous 0.4% (2010 est.)
Religions: Christianity 90% (predominantly Roman Catholic) Spiritist 2.2%, other 1.4%, none 8%, unspecified 0.4%
Capital City: Brasilia