Full Version of Insight from Former Fair Trade Buyer Susan Yu

Thanks for coming to the full version of Susan Yu’s interview, which is filled with so much great insight like her explanation on what a distribution analyst is, her thoughts on having worked for Walmart.com, and much more. See it all below and then please be sure to return to the original post to comment:

Enjoy!

What is your educational background?

My educational background, I grew up in North Bay, Petaluma, went to high school there, and then went to UC Davis directly after high school, graduated in 2000.

What is fair trade?

In the simplest term, it’s just ethical sourcing, its knowing where your product comes from, who makes it, and that the people behind the product is being treated fairly.

And why did you go into that business?

You know I never grew up thinking I want to go into fair trade, its just, it kind of fell in my lap. I think it was just that constant curiosity in whatever job you have you question everyday about what interests you, and so I’ve always been in retail, I graduated from Davis in 2000, worked for Gap corporate downtown, so that was my first job out of college. So I did that for two years, I was a distribution analyst.

And what is a distribution analyst?

A distribution analyst is basically putting all the inventory into all their stores and analyzing it to see how the sales are doing based on inventory, if it’s turning fast enough, if you need to allocate more to certain areas because its popular, so you’re in charge of a category like say women’s pants or women’s tops, if its selling more in the East Coast you would analyze that and make sure they have enough inventory. So I did that for a couple years and then I tried a couple things after that. I studied in Taipei for a year and then came back and worked for WalMart.com, which is also in the Bay Area, so I just really liked retail I suppose, but you know I was always more interested in  merchandising and product development aspect of it so for me to cross over from distribution to product development it’s kind of a jump so you kind of have to work your way up or across so I started as a merchandise assistant at WalMart.com and then worked there for a little bit. Then endued up moving to Philadelphia with my husband for his graduate school, so I found another position with Anthropologie, another retail company, and they’re owned by Urban outfitters, so I was an assistant buyer there in their home department and Ten Thousand Villages just kind of fell into my lap like I said and they had a shop in Philadelphia and so I got to know the manager there and I just found the product really interesting and just dug deeper to know exactly what they were doing. And I didn’t really know the concept of fair trade I just thought the product was interesting and the story was interesting as well; it wasn’t all made in China you know hwo products are these days it actually came from Africa, form remote areas in southeast asia, in india, and that really peaked my interest. And so as I was looking att their website I noticed tthey were looking for a  buyer position and that’s sort of how it started and that’s how I got into fair trade.

And did you just apply online or did you know somebody?

No I just applied online and interestingly enough I was on vacation and I forgot how long it took them to get back to me, maybe it was two months before they got back to me, and it was odd I wasn’t ready for it I thought maybe my resume got lost or something and it was out of the blue I got a call on my voicemail and they were like can you come back for an interview…and I said I can’t get back right now but from that moment, I think like a month later, I started working.

Awesome. And what did you love most about working for Ten Thousand Villages?

Oh there’s a lot of things. It was really my dream job I think because not only did I get to utilize all the skills I had built up to that point, analytical skills, merchandising skills, buying skills, but it allowed me to travel and see where these things are made and actually talk to the people behind the product, so that was really awesome of that job I think just working with artisans one on one. And also the people in my office, you know, the people that were there were there because they wanted to be there and not because they needed a job, you know, they really had passion for this, for fair trade, and the people that made the product are the reason they went to work every day, so it’s a different kind of world than corporate.

And how did you choose what to buy?

Well we were split up by countries so we would always bring products that were exciting from our trip and part of that is looking at what was selling in that market and what people are excited about. There’s trade shows every year and so we go out to those to see what’s popular. And then we try to think about is there anything our artisans are making that would excite our customers so it’s a little bit of both, shopping here for our U.S. market and also coming up with interesting things that our artisans have created themselves.

Wow. And how did you ensure that fair trade was being upheld?

…it’s all based on relationships because we work with I don’t know how many artisan groups but there are four buyers and I think all buyers alone had close to fifty six groups that we were close with for product development and each of these groups had other smaller groups that they would work with in other smaller villages so the basis of fair trade is really trust and relationships. A lot of these relationships have been established for twenty years and they have their own fair trade organizations that work with these to certify them as fair trade, the fair trade artisan group. So it’s different in every country how they are certified but it all started with working with them and our relationship that goes back and we also visit and interview the artisans one on one without the manager just to see how their livelihood is, if their enjoying, if their being paid a living wage, so we document all these on our trips there as well along with doing product development as well so it actually turns out to be a long trip–when you go out there you have to interview a lot of people but a lot of it is just relationship building.

I’m going to go back and ask you a question, and I mean this with all due respect: do you find it ironic at all that you went from working with Wal-Mart that has a lot of controversy to working with Ten Thousand Villages that is fair trade?

Yeah, I think it was really eye opening. I think I was like everyone else, a consumer in the U.S. I’ll admit I was really ignorant with what fair trade was–to me fair trade was free trade; I was really ignorant and got those two confused. But when I worked at WalMart.com you know I was just like any consumer–didn’t really think about fair practices and the labor practices, but the longer I worked in retail I recognized that there was discrepancies in what fair trade is and isn’t. And I don’t want to bad mouth a company like Wal-Mart because they are doing legitimate as much as they can control, I know they have teams that do audits in some of their factories so it’s really hard for me to trump one over the other and say fair trade is so much better than Wal-Mart or the other, but I think the difference is that the people that we work with and the relationships we build does make a big difference in the artisans’ life. And I don’t’ want to say people in factories that are working for Wal-Mart aren’t changing their lives either, I don’t know that for a fact, I mean there could be families in villages in China that have benefited from a factory opening up for Wal-Mart as well… I hope I answered the question, does that make sense?
Yeah I get what you’re saying—it’s just a whole other environment.

Yeah and I know that Wal-Mart kind of has a bad PR image about them and I think they are trying their best to be better at what they do and from going from such a large organization to a small one that focuses on the grassroots organization of the artisan is different.

Yeah… What is your most touching experience working for Ten Thousand Villages?

Hmm… I think there are several. I think what is the most touching experience was really, I think what stuck out in my mind was the women in Ghana. In my second year I went to Ghana to visit a shea butter producing village in Northern Ghana and it just amazed me how hard working these women were, and they pretty much did everything for the family… these women who were pretty much the root of the family, you know they took care of the kids, they did all the work, they did all the housework, and the men were notoriously known for taking the money and gambling–I’m not saying it was all like that but it was very common for that culture to do that and it just kind of touched me that they were superwomen in a different setting and type of world that we are. And I think that was amazing and really touching to see that they can run a family, run a household, make the money, and still be happy at the end of the day. They were very happy, very joyful people and if that were me and I had to do everything not only housework and work but raising children I would be crabby so it was very touching to me to see those women in Ghana. And it wasn’t just Ghana I think it was a lot of places I just realized how strong women were across all kinds of countries that I visited, especially being a mom now I really appreciate the fact that raising a child is a full time job in itself.

And is Lauren the reason that you left Ten Thousand Villages

It is. It was a tough decision for me but I know it was the right one. My family lives in California and that job was in Pennsylvania and so it was really important to be here and raise her close to family.

How did you know it was time to leave Ten Thousand Villages?

I think it was… on a personal level my father was not feeling well, he had lung cancer, and so we know that the time was limited so it was really important to be back and be together with family. So it really came down to a decision of family and career and so I knew that was the right decision for me.

And what is it like being a stay at home mom after working so  extensively?

Wow. What’s the difference or what’s it like being a mom after working for so long? In terms of energy level and everything I think a full time mom is actually a lot more work. But you know the cliché is that it’s rewarding and it is. You know everything you give to them you see it come back to you and it’s amazing just to watch her grow and I know that this time–from the time she grows up until school–is so limited, and I just really appreciate my time with her. But the difference–I think both are work. I think it’s a hard adjustment at first–you know not going into work or having adult interaction on a daily basis so I think in terms of the mental exercises it’s different, it’s a different kind of stress and stuff but yeah I really enjoy it, but I do want to go back eventually.

What are your future plans with work?

If I could go back to Ten Thousand Villages I would, but they’re based in Pennsylvania so  I don’t think there’s a possibility of working for them, but I definitely want to stay within the fair trade industry, if not career wise then at least volunteering. But I think what’s a priority in the next few years is family, raising her, so I’d like to find something that can fit within my schedule with her. I might start my own fair trade organization or company out here—which is something I have been toying around with, or I might go back and work full time around here with an organization that is involved in fair trade.

That sounds exciting. So last question: what advice do you have for strivers of fair trade businesses?

For strivers of fair trade businesses, for people who are just starting out in a career, I would say learn as much as you can. There’s really great organizations in the Bay Area that you can get involved with. There’s TransFair, that’s in Oakland. I know there’s other ones in the Bay Area–I think one’s called Global Action through Fashion… but its fair trade eco clothing so there’s things like that that you can get involved with, interviewing people… and just talk to people and go to these events and learn more about it. There’s a lot of internet resources that you can read up on and go visit a country, if you have the resources, go visit these countries and try to seek out the artisans who make these wonderful products and learn about their life and you’ll probably learn more than just from reading–that personal experience.

Full Version of Insight from Tech Entrepreneur Mathieu Thouvenin

For those of you who are interested in more about Thouvenin and his insight on social media, here is the full version of his interview:

Where are you from?

Toulouse, which is a city in the South of France.

What brought you here to the states?

It’s been my dream to come here to work and live and I’ve always been interested in the tech industry, the internet. And if you want to work in the industry it’s the ideal place in the world, I hear, San Francisco and Silicon Valley, so I think it’s the main reason why I’m here.

So what else did you study besides computer science?

I did my two year degree in computer science and then I decided I didn’t really want to stay all day long in front of a computer just coding and so I wanted to work with a team and manage a team and so I went to a business school in Paris, it’s called ISC Paris, it’s a three year master’s degree. And then in the middle of that I did an exchange at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

And that’s where you learned English?

Yeah. I did an internship in Canada to finish my two year computer science degree and then that’s when I started to like being abroad, discovering new countries, cultures–and I liked it so much that I went for my second year.

You received a scholarship to attend one of Apple’s conferences, the Worldwide Developer Conference, three times—how did you do that?

I don’t know. When I was doing programming I subscribed to the program that Apple is doing, it’s basically a membership to get access to special resources to code for Apple and it’s cheaper because it’s for students and then that year I received an email they were like “oh you can apply, tell us why you are motivated and why we should invite you to go to the conference.” And I just filled out the form and explained why I was motivated and I guess it worked–I got invited the first year and then it was pretty easy to go the next years.

What was it like being there?

Oh it’s awesome. You’re in the middle of all those Apple engineers, all those great developers that are doing really cool stuff and you’re with them in the same room learning cool stuff, stuff that is going to come out in the future by Apple and that’s really cool. As a student you get access to all those resources–it’s really nice.

I bet you met a lot of great people too?

Yep. Actually, since we’re students there’s a mailing list for the students who are going there and I met a couple of people and we shared a hotel room in San Francisco so it’s cheaper and one of those people was my roommate in San Francisco when I moved here. So I met friends that I still know since like five years ago from WWDC so it was nice.

How many applications have you launched for the iPhone?

Two.

And can you tell us a little bit about them?

Yeah. The first one is called Voila and it allows you to share your location with your friends online so it seems pretty basic right now because all those apps like Four Square or Twitter allow you to share your location, but a year and a half ago there wasn’t much applications to share your location and that’s why I decided to create that. And it was a great opportunity for me to learn how to code for the iPhone, so that was the first application. And the second one, it’s called Serenade, it [launched] almost a year ago and it allows you to share on Twitter and Facebook the song you are listening to right now on your iPhone, from your iPod. And so it gives you a link to your friends so you can say “hey I’m listening to that song and I really like it” and your friends can click on that link and immediately listen to a preview of the song and buy it if they like it. And we give you the lyrics for the songs too, so you can sing on the bus, if you want.

And did you launch those by yourself or did you have some friends you launched them with?

Yeah I worked with some friends that did the design, the logo, and the website. I was focused more on the code of the application and I worked more with other people who were great designers.

How did you launch GSM? And would you say it was the foundation for all you’ve done?

Kind of. When I first got a computer with internet I started to play and see what was happening and quickly I really wanted to be part of that and create a website myself. And so at the time you could create a website with Microsoft Word and export it as a website and so I started with that and I thought it was limited and I learned how to code webpages and it’s kind of how I started. And so I created that website for mobile phones, like ringtones and stuff because I liked that at the time. I’m still really involved and passionate about everything that is mobile and that’s my job right now, so I guess it helps.

Tell us about Seesmic.

Seesmic is a company that does social software that allows you to manage, post, and receive feedback from all your social networks so if you have a Facebook account, a Twitter account, we aggregate all those social networks to one application whether it’s on your desktop, on your phone, so you can access all that information and talk with your friends from everywhere.

And how did you become a project manager there?

So that was my job when I started here as an intern and then I changed companies and then that was kind of like the natural evolution from my previous job.

How did you get the job at Seesmic?

I knew the CEO because I did an internship at his previous company when I was in Paris so it was like three years ago and so I knew him and in the meantime he left that company that he founded and created a new company here so when I arrived here for my internship I just talked to him and I pinged him and we stayed in contact. And when I said I wanted a change of job he proposed to me the job.

So what is it like being part of the tech field?

It’s awesome, especially here where there are all those great events [and] all the really important people in that field are pretty much here. And especially when you work at Seesmic we use Twitter, Facebook, Google, in our apps. And so if we want to talk with people in those companies it’s like an hour drive so it’s really easy to meet interesting people and share and do partnerships.

And how is the field changing? I mean, it’s constantly evolving.

Yeah. What’s really becoming more and more important right now is what people call the real time web. The information is almost live and pushed to you, you don’t have to go on a website to get the news you just look at your Twitter feed and you get all the information you are interested in. Another extra dimension around that real time information is geolocation, it’s really kind of exploding right now. [There are] a lot of services around geolocation, not only what info you are sharing but what info and where you are sharing, it adds an extra level, it’s really interesting. You can do really cool stuff [with it]. For example, when you search on Google, you search for doughnuts, you want a doughnut, it’s going to search for places that have doughnuts around you from your phone because it has GPS so it’s much better results than if it was from all over the world about doughnuts–you wouldn’t really care [about them around the world because] you want doughnuts that are from here right now.

Have you encountered any setbacks from the geolocation technology like of people being worried about privacy issues?

People are definitely worried about it, but most of the companies are aware of that and are doing it really well so you keep the control in your data. So I’m taking the example of Twitter, by default sharing of the location is disabled–you have to opt in if you want to share it. If you decide you don’t want to share it anymore you can just disable it or even delete all the location information from all your previous tweets in case you just don’t want to have your location on the web anymore. So a lot of companies are really careful about that and I think it’s helping people to adopt those technologies and use them.

So what is most challenging about being in your field?

It’s really interesting because lots of things are happening all the time and also in our field at Seesmic we have lots of applications and it’s really interesting because we all go really fast, we adopt ourselves into the market, and to what customers want, and so you don’t know what you’re really going to work on in a few months. You can’t really plan ahead because you have to adapt to that real time so it’s really interesting and really challenging.

And personally, for you, what is your biggest setback? What has been the hardest thing you’ve overcome?

I guess it’s to find a job here and to get a visa and to be able to work here and stay here legally… it’s not easy to get a visa, but lucky I got a chance and was able to get my working visa and now I have a green card so I can stay here.

So you were one of the few to get your visa from the lottery?

Yeah. They approximately allow 50,000 working visas per year. And so, the year I applied they got 150,000 applications in the first few days so they had to do a selection and a lottery. But last year, because of the economy, the application opened at the beginning of April and lasted until November. So, compared to a year before when it lasted like four days it lasted six months… so it depends, sometimes you have to go through that lottery process. It [getting a visa] is easy for some people and harder for others.

What is most rewarding about what you do?

Working in a startup is really cool because since you usually don’t have a lot of people working with you, you have a lot of responsibilities–you can work on pretty much anything you want–and that’s what I like the most because if I tell my boss I want to work on that project and there is benefits from that and it makes sense then I can get that project and work on it and take care of it. So, it’s not like you’re always focused on the same thing compared to I guess if you work in a big company–I have never worked in a big company but I hear that you do pretty much the same job all the time and that’s definitely not the case in the startup.

So what is your typical work day like?

So when I arrive in the office I catch up with the teams that are pretty much all over the world: we have engineers in Europe, in Singapore, all over the U.S., so in the morning everyone usually is up so it’s the end of the day for Europe, beginning of the day here, so we catch up on the work that has been done during the day, answer any questions they have, ask them questions, then I answer my email, have meetings, etcetera. And then in the afternoon everyone, all the engineers, are pretty much offline so I can work on planning, planning the resources, and specs and mockups for new features on products. So the morning is more social with the teams and the afternoon is more thinking.

You participated in a survey about jobs of the future. And im wondering if you can talk about “Jobs of the Future?”

The whole article was about jobs of the future but the second section I was in was about why brands should pay attention to what people are saying about them online and why it’s important, and that was the company I was working for before. They were doing online software. For example, if you’re Nike, you type your product name, your brand, and then we go search online on the blogs, Twitter, YouTube, [and we search] everything people are saying about your brand or product and we tell you if it’s positive, if it’s negative. We tell you what you should pay attention to because of course if you’re Nike you’ve got millions of people talking about your brand. So we we’re doing analysis on the content, on statistics, and based on that we were just showing the base for content so I think it’s really important for brands to pay attention because people are talking on the web a lot about brands and that is a really good opportunity for brands to learn what people think about their product, how people use it, what they would like to have on those products–it’s really precious information. And then if brands also can react and respond to the customer [then] that shows to people that the brand cares about them and to consumers it builds up the brand’s loyalty so at the same time it’s really interesting for the brand to know that but it’s helpful for them because it’s better for the image, etcetera.

With everything you’ve done, I’m wondering: who are your idols and why have you chosen these people as your idols?

I would say Steve Jobs is really [an] interesting and impressive man, what he did when he created Apple, and then he had to leave his own company, and then he came back, and he brought back Apple to life basically because when he came in ‘97 Apple it was in pretty bad shape, so it’s pretty impressive. And, the fact that he pays real attention to details and he really sees trends coming and creates products around them before other brands–I think that’s really interesting.

I’m going to segway and ask: what is the role of money in your definition of success?

The role of money, I don’t know… it’s just, I don’t think it’s that important. I mean, it’s a nice reward but I think it’s not as rewarding as liking your job and working on patience and being with your friends, your family, I think that’s the most rewarding. Money is nice to have, of course, but I think you can be really happy without having that money as a main reward for your job.

So what advice do you have for strivers?

I would say follow your passion, whatever you like, whatever is your passion, just work on it, do stuff  around it, create a blog, do videos about it, create a podcast, that kind of stuff–and show the world what is your passion. And ultimately, you will find people who have the same passion or that are interested in your passion and based on that you can maybe do a live-in or get a job or get hired by a company that is working that field–I think it’s really important. And feel free to just do it, whatever you like–just follow your passion, I think that’s really important.

Want more? Check out Thouvenin’s blog here, his Mac OS X dashboard widget Time Machine Launcher here, and his About Me here (which includes links to more of his work). To comment, please return to the Success Strivers post.

Road to Freedom

Inside the living room, the sun’s illumination mingles with the lavender aroma filtering through the air. Through the sliding glass double doors, past the rusty patio chair, and to the right of the matching off-white metal table, she sits, drinking her tea and looking onto a grassy field over the peaceful waves of Richardson Bay.

“It is a splendid view, isn’t it?” Her pearly teeth expand into a smile, “I feel very lucky to be here.” Luck, however, is only part of the equation that brought her out of legalized segregation and poverty in a colored suburb of Durban, South Africa. Now, she resides in California and consults her Ayurveda patients in her home.

At first Jean Fisher, now fifty-two, has trouble recalling her past. Spirituality in the form of meditation and yoga uplifts her 5’2″ frame to continue reaching her potential. “You have to work to believe things will get better,” she explains. “Then, by manifesting those thoughts into reality, you will accomplish your dreams.”

From her radiant nature, one may not grasp the destitute of her life under apartheid, or legalized segregation.

After a while, Fisher’s memories under the institutionalized degrading practices come to her. “Growing up everything was segregated, from the beaches to the schools to our neighborhoods.”

If she wanted to walk home past 9 p.m, even if from work, and no officer would issue a ‘Dompass,” (to limit nonwhite’s whereabouts and allow for what Fisher calls “a white man’s paradise”), then jail time was a common punishment.

Systemized in 1948, the hierarchy of apartness tarnished black, colored, and Indian families –who were ninety percent of South Africa’s population, through providing no ladder to earn higher statuses.

Despite having little money and being one of four children in a single mother colored household, with no access to proper education, the incurable optimist says she always felt unstoppable because of her twin brother, who was constantly at her side.

“It all started when we turned sixteen,” she says. “We were so excited because that is the age when you apply for your Book of Life (one’s own reference book that defines identities and therefore districts). So we went, identified ourselves as ‘Colored’ because we are half Indian, half Zulu, born February 11, 1957 and all that stuff, and turned it in… waited… and waited.”

Her voice deepening, she recalls the day when the reply arrived from Pretoria, the capital. “We tore it open and could not believe what we saw: ‘Jean Iyannon: Colored’ and ‘Johnny Iyannon: Indian.”

Those three words legally forced her twin brother out of his childhood familiarities and into separate Indian schools that enforced different from their formerly shared (colored) lessons and cultural values.

“I wanted to fight it,” Fisher says. “But my mother wouldn’t let me; she was too afraid to lose us both to the Indian districts.”

Living under apartheid legally outlawed nonwhites from dating whites, but as a twenty-one year jewelry salesperson of Durban’s Hyperama Mall, Fisher suddenly found herself in love.

“He was beautiful,” she says of the British butcher that passed her in the corridor on his way to the cantine. “And he would stop by the shop and ask a bit about the jewelry; that’s how we started to talk.”

As a high school graduate, Fisher understood that apartheid jeopardized her aspirations, but would not let it endanger romance. Instead, the pair was forced into secrecy.

“It was just too dangerous,” Fisher admits. When asked what would have happened if she was caught, her carefree tone hardens: “I really don’t even want to think about that. They would have put me in jail, thrown away the key, and let him go because he’s white. That was common practice, but I never let myself think that way.”

As others around them mysteriously vanished, the couple’s fears peaked. Fisher posed as a maid: in a cap, pinned hair, and cream smock, to keep others from suspecting her interracial relationship, but even that was risky. Escaping became survival.

One year passed before the lovers packed their belongings: clothes and passports. They then embarked on the six- hour drive, through two checkpoints, and across valleys plowed by black farmers until they reached their new home west of the Drakensburg Mountains in Maseru, Lesotho. Fisher worked with USAID there, and says that her life was great because institutionalized segregation did not exist and her relationship could have more autonomy, which led to marriage.

“It was so exciting,” she says of the fifty family and friends cramming the chapel and cheering upon her every step down the aisle.

Married and free, Fisher seemed to have gained all that apartheid stripped from her, she thought, as she fell asleep that night in her new Spanish style cottage.

As the sun is setting, there is a pause. Exuding the air between her lips, Fisher slashes the rare tranquility. “There is another thing,” she says, before confessing of her month later travesty.

“I’d wanted to see my family, that’s it,” she says of her attempt at renewing her South African passport. “But in South Africa the inaccurate generalization was that anyone living in Lesotho was part of the then oppositional party, African National Congress, since their headquarters were in Maseru too. So even though I wasn’t part of ANC, my residence, my skin color, and being South African around ANC activities and raids led the passport processors to hit me.”

Her cool and collective composure shakes as she recalls the moment the post arrived from South Africa that proved her secret fears were correct. “Nonexistent. There is no record of you as South African. You are not permitted to enter this country.”

“But I am South African,” the newlywed remembers pleading in her appeal, even detailing her family, hometown and schools –unsuccessfully.

“Even though it was an awful and common thing, I never let myself think that stuff is going to happen,” she says, “and so it was really a big blow”

Fisher turned to spirituality. “I became a born- again Christian,” she says, recalling the missionaries’ life-changing knock at her door. “My thoughts are still shaped by them.” Acquiring British citizenship through her British husband was her only option. She admits to having uneasiness about this–she was still attached to home, and because she could not hold dual citizenship, acquiring British citizenship would mean forfeiting South African citizenship.

“But I had no choice,” the pragmatist says. “I was stuck.”

Six months later, Fisher’s British passport arrived. “Then I could go in person to Bloomfonteine, the South African passport processing headquarters, and straighten out the mess,” she says, her voice gaining excitement. “And I did, and so it worked out for the best because I was able to hold two passports, which is extremely rare as a South African.”

London is not only the city of life, but a place that nonwhite South Africans under apartheid seldom were freed into; for the ambitious thirty five year old, it became her next venture. “It was a new beginning,” recalls Fisher, who had been divorced over the course of those years. “A friend even arranged my living arrangement in London in exchange for house sitting until I got on my feet.” This was where the opportunist says she gained formerly inaccessible academics and financial security. “Working on Fleet Street where you have all the business men and women in their three- piece suits and fancy hats and briefcases, you really feel like you are on top of the world. And I was part of that world,” she explains.

Only three years into her stay, from the newspaper, television, and her mother, Fisher heard the news that South Africa would hold free elections. Although abroad, she fantasized immensely about destroying apartheid and said she always prayed for its demise.

Fisher’s visions came true hours after she awoke one snowy Wednesday morning. She applied a simple amount of make up to her face, brushed her curly brown hair, and threw on her ‘really posh’ three-piece suit. Saying a little prayer, she grabbed her briefcase and embarked on the fifteen-minute speed walk to the Jubilee station. Although these rituals were characteristic of a typical morning, they were being exercised in the spirit of an epoch.

“That was the day I was representing my country, so I really wanted to look good,” Fisher elucidates. “Healing had finally come about for my people in South Africa. There are a lot of people who have prayed and worked for the struggle, people who never give up hope. And I just felt very proud to be voting for the first time.”

After a twenty-five-minute tube ride, she passed the 149-year-old fountain in-between the stone steps of the Trafalgar Square South African Embassy, which up until the day before would have been filled with protesters against apartheid. Excitement filled the air. But as she stared at the backs of the two white men walking out from the polls, it all felt surreal. The flock of reporters rushed up to her and surrounded her. “That’s when I realized I was the first colored voter,” she confesses.

“I feel great and proud to be representing my country,” she recalls saying into the news cameras. “We must unite if the country is to reach its potentials.”

“Even months later, my mom’s phone would not stop ringing,” Fisher chuckles. “I guess they showed those clips of me over and over and people from my village just couldn’t believe it was all really happening.”

She continues: “I was a poor black woman leaving South Africa with only a suitcase in hand and I put myself through University, got a job at a top corporation, Anderson Consulting… enough cash to purchase my own Westhampton apartment, and was able to gain my country freedom in casting that first black vote. I always believed I could do it, and it has turned out a pretty remarkable story.”

One year later, the free spirit pierced barriers again by throwing herself into California’s uninhibited way of life.

Fisher gained individual freedom before that April 27, 1994 legendary vote, but her situation remains rare. Even with improved freedom, black rights, electoral systems, and basics (like sanitation), South Africans are still wrestling oppression. Nearly six million South Africans suffer the world’s largest AIDS epidemic, and twenty million battle poverty. In a recovering economy that is increasingly hurting from the global recession, lack of access to aid, education, and medicine are impeding the progress necessary for South Africans to follow in Fisher’s footsteps.

Reversing the social order constructed around whites, for instance, has over-empowered blacks to the point of marginalizing coloreds and Indians, experts say, which needs re-examining.

According to Fisher, the reason her Zulu mother earned ownership of her childhood home under the new constitution is because the Indian landlord, like many non-blacks, was forced into a rural area.

Even after serving twenty-seven years in prison for “sabotage,” or organizing against apartheid, unifying and giving voice remains the goal of the “father of South Africa.” Nelson Mandela’s devotion to unifying the ravaged country is exhibited through acts like commending South Africa’s mainly white national rugby team, the Springboks.

Similarly, Fisher takes immense pride in inspiring everyone back home to nurture each other into achieving their dreams: from still struggling Wentworth locals to the legendary Mandela family, whom she visited in Soweto Johannesburg.

In addition to always responding positively to adversity, Fisher, says: “The most powerful and important thing is to remember that united we stand and divided we fall; and for our country and world to remain strong, that is what we must do.”

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(Right) Jean Fisher, 52, poses for a picture at Lake Merced in San Francisco, California.

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This story is written by Lea Wiviott and photographed by Maria Evangelista, SF State journalism students, and was originally published in [X]Press Magazine.

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WANT MORE?

For a detailed timeline about South Africa’s history check this out!

For information about tourism in South Africa check this out!

For an update on the state of South Africa check out this video from BBC and this one from Unreported World!

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