On acronyms
Mr. Derek C. Seagrove's frustration in keeping up with the flood of Indonesian acronyms is understandable (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 13, 1999).
Next to the United Nations, Indonesia must rank high in giving birth to a multitude of acronyms. We are quite familiar with krismon for monetary crisis and kristal for total crisis. There is a new acronym in circulation now: Klinmon. You know what it stands for? It refers to the crisis in U.S., arising out of the "Clinton-Monica" affair.
The newest acronym is Y2K -- the Year 2000 and the unsolved millennium bug. I believe is a nightmare for bankers.
Y108 is nothing to do with any year. It is 108 Yen to a U.S. dollar. Unless you follow the context, you just can't decipher what such acronyms mean.
The World Health Organization, a wing of the UN, is intended to promote the health of the world's citizens. With an acronym like WHO, unfortunately it lacks identity itself.
A few acronyms are indeed humorous. Forum Indonesia Nederland's is FINED. COW and CAMEL are not necessarily animals. They could be Contract of Work, and Capital, Assets, Management, Earnings and Liquidity respectively.
Medical science has contributed to the arts too. The acronym for Assisted Reproduction Technology is ART. Even MICE has industries. It is Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions.
When the Indian cricket teams frequently lost their tests, the selectors -- BCCI (Board of Cricket Control India) was rechristened by an enterprising columnist as Bored of Choosing Cricketers for India.
I guess the first acronym must have been coined by a VIP (very important person), of course, followed by SOS (Save Our Souls).
Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation -- say this to a layperson and he will surely blink. Tell him it's nothing but LASER and he'll instantly beam.
Only in Indonesia have I had the privilege of learning of a different meaning for NATO -- No Action Talks Only.
We know DONUTS. For Bridgestone, Indonesia, it is an acronym for its Driver Oriented New Ultimate Tire Science.
A Hindu zealot once claimed that the word GOD emanated from the Trinity of Hindu Gods viz. Generator (Brahma), Operator (Vishnu) and Destroyer (Shiva).
Do you know what is an IDEA? It is Imagination, Data, Evaluation and Action. Isn't it a unique idea? The meaning is similar to PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Action), often taught in workers training courses in Indonesia.
Of course, the best acronym I like is TEAM -- Together Everyone Achieves More. It's indeed a beautiful definition for a team.
A few years ago, while writing for this column, I raised a question if, by chance, the word ACRONYM was itself an acronym. A correspondent promptly confirmed my suspicion -- it was indeed an acronym for Association for Citizens' Rights for Oppressed New York Minorities.
D. CHANDRAMOULI
Jakarta