Is that voice “united”? Should it be? What does that voice say? Can their common (or unique) experience(s) usher in a different approach for the international economy, for global security, for social change? Are the BRICs merely trying to join the ranks of the rich, capitalist, “first world” economies? Would that objective require the acquisition of a stronger diplomatic and, perhaps, military voi
ce as well? Or are they, perhaps, proposing a radically different development path to forge their own futures, away from the one set by the G7 grouping of industrialised nations? These concerns have been analysed, written about and concluded on at length by experts of all types. The questions are by no means irrelevant and, therefore, neither is the search for answers. More important to us, however, as we set to criscross South Africa, Brazil, India, China and Russia between August 2016 and July 2017, are the following set of questions: What do the kids in these countries aspire to be? What is their imaginary made of? What eyes do they cast on the world? What place in it do they seek? How do they relate to it? Is “the West” an important ideological, social, political and cultural model for kids growing up in the BRICS? What is their awareness and perception of other members of BRICS? Do they provide alternative models? Guy and Max are merely opening their eyes to the vast world around them but they are, by birth, already “global”. At the tender ages of 6 and 4, they have lived in two countries and visited seven. Their parents not only hold different passports. We also leaped across languages and opposed cultural and social backgrounds. We don’t even have the same skin colour. Through us, Guy and Max intuitively felt their way through social privilege and lack thereof, racial exclusion and racial exception. With this journey, by allowing them to discover first-hand what BRICS countries look like, smell like, sound like and taste like and to perceive what their people say, dream, debate and aspire to, we want to offer Guy and Max (and ourselves) the chance to interpret our world better and to perhaps, one day, inspire them to find the tools that will also make it better for everyone. We want them to see and feel, first-hand, our common humanity and realise that most of our divisions are paper-thin, merely different modes of transport in the much bigger journey that constitutes life.
