Burmese Jungler

Office anthropology™ →Go uptown The JC puts on his pith-helmet, grabs his butterfly net and a rucksack full of marmalade sandwiches, and heads into the concrete jungleIndex: Click ᐅ to expand: Work anthropology Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

Burmese Jungler
bɜːˈmiːz ˈʤʌŋɡləˈ/ (n.)

One so hardened in the ways of the Single Agreement, in whom the candle lit so soon after the Dawn of the Age of Swaps and in whose breast it yet burns so fiercely, that she still insists on using the 1987 ISDA.

Recently the label has begun to attach to those with a preference for the now-32-year-old 1992 ISDA.

So named for Hiroo Onoda, a second lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II who did not get the memo that Emperor Hirohito had surrendered in October 1945 — being deep in the Burmese Jungle — and who therefore continued fighting long after the war’s end in 1945 for almost 29 years.

Fun fact: ISDA thinks the whole market is in the Burmese Jungle because it still uses the 2002 ISDA Equity Derivatives Definitions. This is really just bitterness.

Onoda surrendered on 10 March 1974 to a hero’s welcome. He spent the remainder of his working life documenting repackagings for JPMorgan under a 1987 ISDA.

See also

• 1987 ISDA
• Age of Swaps
• ISDA ninja