Liza Chantelle Aono: Legend of Optimism
Season Two Episode Six
This week we hear the incredible story of Liza, originally from London in England and with her roots in Jamaica, Liza is a Japan TV star for NHK’s Cool Japan, A Rotary Member, Former Miss Jamaica UK finalist, has worked for the Conservative party as one of David Cameron’s emerging leaders, Worked for Arsenal Football Club, lived in Shanghai and is parent to identical twin 4-year-old boys. In this episode we cover a whole range of fascinating topics from her parent’s tales of Jamaica to life in England and the miracle of her boys.
What might upset you - we talk at length about racism and we touch on infertility and endometriosis. I am clumsy on all counts, but Liza is brilliant.
- UK, Jamaican and American background and the benefits of having a Dad in Miami to escape the rainy English weather
- Where she gets her optimistic attitude from and the 1957 Jamaican train crash, where 171 people lost their lives. RIP.
- Her Mum Merlin and how affectionate she was - life was great and she instilled a sense of appreciation in she and her siblings.
- The recruitment of people from Jamaica to come over the England ‘The Motherland’ to help with the war efforts and rebuild ‘the country’
- ‘No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs’ the signs that Jamaicans faced on arrival
- One of her twins makes an appearance so there’s some editing
- Liza goes into some detail about the Windrush Generation and how her Grandmother made parachutes during the war
- How different the education system was in Jamaica to England - a rigorous education system
- Being an outsider even though you are many generations in England the experience of not being
- Why white privilege isn’t the right descriptor in Liza’s opinion as it often gets mixed up with wealth, when actually it is the privilege is that of being an individual - not ‘they’
- She explains the Windrush scandal and the alleged missteps made there
- How she got into politics and the Conservative party - having a seat the table and representing could have avoided something like the alleged Windrush scandal;
- How she ended up speaking at the Conservative party conference (Challenge Anneka anyone!?)
- Liza loves having access to spaces and places she can learn about - she grabs opportunities with both hands! She’s worked with some pretty famous conservatives
- Her incredible networking skills - and how that got her onto the masthead of the Financial Times and interviewed in the Observer
- The assumptions made about black kids in her school and about her cousins that landed them in the special ed class and on foundation classes at school. Her cousin now works for Goldman Bloody Sachs!
- How she took control of her body and overcame her infertility with the help of her <very blunt> karate teacher
- Everything in our lives we co-write “Imagine how a thought and an action can create something real; a baby or me living by the beach”
- We get into Liverpool, racism, slavery, the Beatles and the Slavery Museum in Liverpool
- We keep trying to close the call, but more and more richness kept coming out into the conversation so we are going to do a part 2 in 2021!
Connect with Liza:
Liza on Instagram @2posh2push
Recent article about the Windrush compensation scheme here.
