Brazil: Snafu

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PTB DEMANDS CTI ON CL IN GBA, announced the headlines in Rio news papers. Too much bottled cheer in the composing room? Not at all. As savvy Brazilians saw at a glance, it was the perfectly normal way of saying that President Joao Goulart's Brazilian Labor Party demanded a parliamentary investigation into the actions of Governor Carlos Lacerda of Guanabara state. In their casual conversations, Brazilians can be just as cryptic, leaving the befuddled stranger convinced that, letter for letter, Brazil is the world's most overalphabetized nation.

BAP, BAM, BUM. Not even F.D.R.'s New Deal (WPA, PWA, NRA, etc., etc.) managed to cook up such a rich alphabet soup. Government agencies, politicians, labor unions, all 22 states and 13 political parties are known by their initials. BAA, BLA, BAP, BAM and BUM are prominent banks. MIC is the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, while MEC is the Ministry of Education and Culture, and MAC is a political action group called the Movimento Anticomunista. For slum clearance there is nothing quite so efficient as MUD (Democratic Urbanization Movement). And tax evaders must constantly watch out for the dread SFPRICFN, which is the Federal Service for Prevention and Repression of Infractions against the National Treasury.

Brazilians take to initials at least partly out of necessity. They are a people with notoriously long, complicated names. Initials and short, catchy nicknames are supposed to simplify it all. Two of Rio's top soccer teams, Flamengo and Fluminense, are known merely as Fla and Flu.

ADAM & EVE. There are those who think the whole letter scramble—like so much else in Brazil—is SNAFU. Except for ADAM and EVE (Amazonas Association of Dentists; Army Veterinary School), few combinations are pronounceable. Besides, Brazilians are running out of initials; MG stands for the states of Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso as well as the Ministry of War. Coming to the rescue of its readers, Rio's morning JB (Jornal do Brasil) recently published an article entitled "Introduction to the Small Dictionary of Initials (Without Which It Is Somewhat Difficult to Read a Newspaper in Brazil)." The list ran nearly a full page and was by no means complete. Some initials stretch out longer than many Brazilian words—for instance, FNOMMCFETMF, for the National Federation of Officers, Machinists, Motormen, Drivers, Firemen and Electricians in Sea and River Transportation.

To avoid undue capitals punishment, Brazilians have now started a trend toward spelling out the letters. Thus a member of the UDN party becomes a Udenist. For other parties, it takes sharp eyesight, not to mention keen political insight, to determine whether a politician is a Pecebist, Pedecist, Pessebist, Pessedist, Pessepist, Pessetist, Petebist or Petenist. And that, son, is not much FUN. †