The Lucky Cabin

The term “coat of arms” comes from the french cotte d’armes, which was a tunic-like garment worn over armor to identify a knight in battle or tournament. The set of symbols thereon was then called an armorial achievement. Later, the armorial achievement was displayed on a knight’s shield. Over the centuries, the use of armorial achievements spread throughout the classes and became less regulated. In common parlance, the term coat of arms, or just arms, came to mean any heraldic emblem belonging to a person, family, or organization.

Theoretically, arms may be as simple as an undivided shield with a single shape or straight line. However, since each is to be unique, complexity has increased exponentially over the centuries. A modern coat of arms search may consist of various bearings on a complex divided shield, a helmet, a crest, a motto on a ribbon, a mantle, supporters, and a compartment.

The shield serves as a field for various symbolic elements. The divisions often represent the joining of families by marriage. Multiple divisions represent ancestry. The elements within each division have meaning according to color and form. For instance, red represents a warrior or military service, blue represents truth or fidelity, and purple represents royalty. Likewise, a bear represents strength and ferocity, a goat represents the art of persuasion or politics, and a deer may be used to represent peace and harmony.

The motto also serves to represent the person, family, or organization bearing the arms. Examples of mottos include, “A Deo et rege,” meaning for God and king, and “Arte non vi,” by skill, not force.

Other parts of the arms may be symbolic or stylistic.

Even if a coat of arms is unregistered, as is often the case, a close examination of the elements reveals much about the bearer.

Rubber. Michael Jordan certainly would have not captured six NBA championships without the rubber in his shoes. Supercars like the Ferrari and the Vanquish wouldn’t stain the highway with skid marks if it weren’t for the rubber in their tires. Question is: how did rubber come to be?

Long before European explorers and navigators discovered the Americas, the ancient natives of the continent, the Mayans, were already playing with elastic balls made of latex since 1600 BCE. Although these latex balls were the size of beach balls and weighed over 15 pounds, these were used by the Mayans in a sacred ritual game known as the Tlachtlic.

The Mayans were the ones who created the first crude form of rubber when they combined latex with the sap of morning glory vines. The morning glory was a very important plant for the Mayans, as it is used as a healing herb and as a hallucinogen. When the two substances were mixed, a black substance with roughly the texture of a gum eraser was formed.

Although the first recorded encounter with rubber was in 1525 when Padre d’Anghieria observed that Mexican tribesmen were playing with latex balls, the first scientific study on rubber was in 1735 by Charles dela Condamine. In 1736, rolled sheets of rubber were sent to France. The Europeans immediately put the new substance to various uses. From there, rubber became an important material in several industries: clothing, transportation, education, and construction.

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After seizing power in a bloody CIA-backed coup, General Augusto Pinochet ruled Chile with a rod of iron for two decades, during which human rights violations became the norm of Chilean life.

Hailing from an upper-middle class background, Pinochet entered the military academy in Santiago at the age of 18, graduating three years later as a second lieutenant. By 1968 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general.

In 1970, Salvador Allende, a Marxist, became president of Chile with the backing of the Christian Democrats, and began restructuring Chilean society along socialist lines. In the process he expropriated the US-owned copper-mining companies, alienating the US government and foreign investors. He further annoyed Washington by establishing relations with Cuba and Communist China, which the United States did not recognise at that time. As a result, America imposed tough economic sanctions and the CIA spent millions of dollars destabilising the Allende regime, much of it going into Pinochet’s pockets.

By 1972, the Chilean economy had collapsed. With no foreign investment, production had come to a standstill. There were widespread strikes, inflation, food shortages and civil unrest. With the backing of armed forces, Pinochet staged a military coup on 11 September 1973. It was bloody even by Latin American standards. The navy seized the key port of Valparaiso, while the army surrounded the presidential palace in Santiago. Allende refused to step down. When the palace was overrun a few hours later, he was found dead. It appears that he shot himself rather than face inevitable torture and execution.

A junta took over and declared marital law. Those who violated the curfew were shot on sight. Pinochet was named president two days later. He broke off relations with Cuba - Nixon had staged his famous rapprochement with China by then - and moved against Allende’s supporters. Some 14 000 would be tried and executed or expelled from the country, while Pinochet claimed he was only trying to ‘restore institutional normality’ of Chile.

In June 1974 Pinochet assumed sole power, with the rest of the junta relegated to an advisory role. Under Pinochet’s tyrannical rule, it is estimated that 20 000 people were killed and torture was widespread.
While Pinochet continued to maintain tight control over the political opposition, he was rejected by a plebiscite in 1988. He eventually stepped down in 1990 after immunity from prosecution in Chile. He stayed on as army chief of staff. However, during a shopping trip to London in October 1998, he was arrested on a Spanish warrant charging him with murder. He was later accused of torture and human rights violations. For 16 months, he fought his extradition through the British courts, and then in January 2000, Home Secretary Jack Straw decided that he was too ill to stand trial and sent him back to Chile.

More info about Augusto Pinochet

Written by Vassil Dimitroff