I may not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier but I just heard for the first time the phrase "Chindia" during a radio interview with a sociologist. The interviewee went on to explain "Chindia" as representing the emerging middle classes of India and China. (Thank god - he felt the need to explain it or I would've felt like a real dolt having to google it later.) So ummm I was ok with Bennifer and Brangelina because those phrases germinated from celeb mags and you gotta hook that audience with cute phrases - the literary equivalent of shiny, bright things. And - the phrases each only represented 2 people. But when clever people, referring to more that 1 billion people, start imitating the writing styles of gossip columnists - specifically the Indian economist, Jairam Ramesh (yes - I googled after all) who is credited with coining the phrase - I start to sweat ... and I'm actually more bothered by the fact that I don't know exactly why this upsets me so much. *sigh* I have no answer.
