The Hindu Business Line : IPO isn't just IP plus oh!

Count yourself among the blissful majority if you don't know how EBIT is different from BIT, or vaguely wonder if IPO is simply IP plus oh! A recent article of interest for those suffering from abbreviation-itis or jargon-o-phobia is `Acronyms erect wall between APEC and the world', dated November 15, written by Jim Gomez of the Associated Press.

APEC, as you may know (?), stands for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. "A cooperative, multilateral economic and trade forum," as the site www.apec.org describes. "Formed in 1989 as a huge trading club," writes Gomez.

"Rapidly expanded its agenda in recent years to cover political, security and even environmental, health and cultural issues," he'd add.

The latest post on the trade body's site is datelined `Ha Noi, Viet Nam, November 19'. It announces, "The 14th APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting concluded successfully with the second retreat today."

The theme of the meeting was "Towards One Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity". Or, TODCSDP, shall we say?

You may be lost in the strange acronym-speak that runs amok in APEC, and so is the rest of the world, rues Gomez.

He cites critical comments, such as that APEC is "allies perpetually engaged in conversation" and that the forum is `four adjectives in search of a noun'.

A few of the abbreviations that find mention in his article are: FEEEP, for Food, Energy, the Environment, Economic Growth and Population; HLPDAB, for High Level Policy Dialogue on Agricultural Biotechnology; MANPADS, for man-portable air defence system; and STAR, for Secure Trade in the APEC Region.

Look around and you will find many an acronym pothole.

For example, a port crosses `10,000 TEUs', even as `KG Basin' gets ready for a plant. `FMC for automatic nod', you may nod at, and extension of `TUF' may extend your anxiety.

"I've tried abbreviations: P for price; C for cotton, L for legislation, but abbreviations create problems of their own," confesses Forrest Laws, in a report dated November 15 on http://westernfarmpress.com. "I've sometimes written BW for boll weevil. But, when I sat down to write, I couldn't remember if the BW stood for boll weevil or bollworm," he writes in an article titled `Is that P for pigweed or P for production?'

Well, this is just in! "TJI (this just in): Acrimony over acronyms," reads a headline in Charlotte Observer, `3 hours ago', at the time of writing. `BOA declares AED,' writes John McBride, as a news story `from the future' in a column called `Help Desk'. He begins thus: "The federal Bureau of Acronyms declared an Acronym Emergency Day Saturday - the first crisis since Congress created the agency to rein in runaway abbreviations."

Take cover because CTL (Confusion Threat Level) has been elevated to Code Red, or Severe, as reporters have been told at a HCNC (Hastily-Called News Conference). Also a new law seems to require "FAPEs (Full Acronymonic Parenthetical Explanations) for all TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) and above". Watch out!

E&OE@TheHindu.co.in

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