Saturday night. Jimmy taps the wrong PIN into the ATM three times and the SOB eats his card. So he grabs a BLT from TGI Friday and takes the DART to a friend's party. He had RSVPed in advance but forgot it was BYOB; there was a bit of Q&A at the door, it all got a bit OTT. Once inside he met a lovely VIP who gave him some welcome TLC, but he badly needed a little R&R next AM – so pour him some OJ, ASAP please, and stick on a chill-out CD, OK?
It's easy to get confused by acronyms, and surely I'm not the only guy who ever accidentally sat through a meeting of the Automobile Association. Take POS, for example. If you work in retail, you probably read this instinctively, unthinkingly, as Point of Sale. In logistics, it's Proof of Shipment. If you know the Caribbean, you'll see the airport code for Port of Spain , capital of Trinidad and Tobago
Supposedly standing for National Asset Management Agency, these four little letters are ripe with semiotic potential. RTE Radio 1 recently held a competition inviting alternative titles for NAMA, eliciting a huge number of responses. In fact, they practically write themselves. Never Admit Mistakes or Apologise. Needs of Affluent Minority Ascendant. Numbskulls Awarded Millions (Again). There's a few to be getting on with.
Yes, explanations for NAMA, the acronym, are easy. Explanations for NAMA itself, however, are rarer than bus tickets in the O’Donoghue laundry basket. Like GUBU, with which it shares that catchy consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel pattern, NAMA is poised to become another classic Irish bad-times buzzword. But unlike GUBU, and in common with POS, the Irish NAMA faces competition from a host of global alternatives. Turns out it’s a popular construct. Heck, maybe those who describe NAMA as “the only game in town” are actually referring to the National Alliance of Methadone Advocates (NAMA). Or the Native American Music Awards (NAMA). Maybe even the National Anger Management Association (NAMA).
It’s possible. But with our NAMA's supposed “Assets” devaluing by the second, perhaps the most accurate definition differs from the Government’s version by just one letter. Try changing the first “a” in “National” to an “o” and see what you get…