In many ways yes, but in other ways no.
Yes she is pretty exceptional with her language skills etc and her determination was very strong but she did lack the x factor, she had very little self drive on the tasks and was overwhelmed by every one else so what hope had she got with suralan?

I'd take issue with that.

I think Mona was wildly inconsistent. Very good at some things, terrible at others.

On the plus side, she was wonderful at the individual face to face selling. She worked well with most people. The language skills are impressive and she made good choices in the product selling task.

On the minus, her presenting was atrocious. She could also completely lose the run of her people skills when she was forced out of her comfort zone (as seen in her interview with the trans-sexual, but also when she harrangued a customer in the very first task). She admitted quite openly that she lacked creativity (which is a considerable failing if you ask me). Most importantly, as M. Tourette states, she lacks a certain authority and stature. She's very easy to overlook and overwhelm. She never struck me as much of a leader.

I don't get how picking a gay theme is heterophobic?!

I agree with this - you can see from the response of the others in the house that they thought she was one of the stronger candidates. Some of them thought James would go, others thought it would be Debra. I even think that Ben went so far as to say he hoped James would come back as from a selfish point of view he'd rather a stronger candidate went.

Yes, but I was talking about her appearance.

Someone called her shabby and that's absurd.

Lorraine, maybe, but not Mona.

Shabby in her performance not her appearance, I don't believe anyone said she looked shabby just she performed shabbily.

They said she was 'shabby', not that she behaved 'shabbily'.

People complain about pedants but if they use an adjective where an adverb is needed then it alters the meaning of what then intended to say.

Well if you're talking about appearance I completely agree. She always looked amazing, I loved her clothes.

Yasmina is a good dresser too.

Charlie Brooker called the women's 'look' this season 'power bitchwear'. I like it.

Actually the original comment (in #496) was referring to the BBC as "shabby":

"It would be pretty shabby had she been sacked for making the original alleged comments, and then the BBC not even referencing this at all... "

This little sub-thread has been full of misunderstandings.

Actually, the comment to which I was refering was:



Well, you just added another by referencing the wrong post.!

Although she didn't pick products that would sell well to the clients Sir Alan had prepared, and I think that counted against her despite the win.

Her language skills were impressive if you made allowances for English not being her first language. To me she often came across as inarticulate or too wordy, rarely clear and concise. It'd be unfair to hold that against her as a person, but it made her the wrong candidate, eg to be doing pitches. In fact I wonder whether any candidate can do well in The Apprentice without better English skills than she showed.

When I wrote, "the original post", I meant, well, the original post, the one that first used the word. I referenced that correctly. I know it wasn't the one you were replying to, but I still thought it amusing that the "shabby" subthread had been sparked by a misunderstanding.

Why is it a "considerable failing" . . . not everyone can be creative?!

Being able to thinking creatively is a massively important skill in business. How could anyone argue otherwise? I'm not talking about making sculptures or anything, but coming up with fresh, innovative approaches to problems, products, strategies etc, etc.

I know you don't mean "making sculptures", but I think people are over stating the importance of creativity in business particularly if you are pretty much a "sales person".

Yes, there is a creative team behind products, they come up with product, adverts etc.

But, there is also the analytical and strategic side which is about money, numbers and figures. And sometimes being detached from the creative side helps with this because there is no emotional attachment.

When they came up with the "gay holiday destination" idea, they weren't being creative they were being analytical and strategic and thinking from a financial stand point - "gay people spend money".

A more creative idea would be trying to appeal to a cross section of families not just straight white male-female families, which interestingly enough Mona talked about in an interview.

I think the whole idea of being "creative" would not have crossed many people's minds if Sir alan hadn't mentioned it.

Well I guess if it was the other way 'round and the candidates picked a 'straight' theme then people would say it was a bit prejudiced.

But I'm not basing it on my opinions, just how things could be misread.

The family theme was a 'straight' theme, it just doesn't need to be marketed as such.

... no.


Newsflash: not being comfortable with gay people - note the only given factor is that they're gay - IS homophobic. An irrational reaction based on sexuality? Yup, that counts.


I know! I've been seeing this argument more and more in various places recently, and it's just mind-blowingly stupid. The idea that people should be tolerant of intolerance is just so warped that I can't understand how someone can even formulate it in their mind, whilst having the ability to catch a bus and go down the shops.

If people are tolerant of intolerance ... well, what does tolerance even mean? Tolerance is not a platform for everyone to say what they like and be respected for it; if the platform is inherently hateful or irrationally prejudiced against a particular group, that would rather defy the entire point.

Which is why I said it "fair game" to use against her, whether or not it was true .... is another matter.

Yup, I left the wrong quote in there. My response was coloured more by your follow-up:

"She wasn't comfortable around gay people - Oh she must be Homophobic, everyone will condemn her if that is alleged."

As that's not so clearly written, it can be read in different ways, but since you've cleared it up, that's fair enough.

this seems to be a way for the homophobes to be unopposed, bigots don't like being challenged and think that they should get away with evils

Fired 'Apprentice' denies gay row report
Thursday, May 28 2009, 05:56 BST

By Alex Fletcher, Senior Entertainment Reporter

Fired Apprentice candidate Howard Ebison has denied reports that he experienced homophobic remarks on the show.

Earlier in the series, tabloid reports suggested that the 24-year-old business hopeful was offended by comments from fellow candidate Mona Lewis.

It was alleged that Lewis didn't back Ebison's plans for a gay theme on their Rebrand Margate challenge, while one newspaper claimed that she told contestants that she wouldn't want her son to visit a gay holiday resort.

When she was fired from the show in week eight, Lewis rubbished the stories, insisting that she had a "good gay friend" who spent time with her child.

Speaking about the rumours, Ebison told DS: "I've not been upset or experienced any homophobic remarks at all on the show.

"I have no issues with any candidate."

The retail business manager also accepted that Sir Alan Sugar may have picked the right person for the axe this week, after the multi-millionaire accused him of being "ordinary".

"What he said about not taking risks was a fair comment. My jobs to date have been about implementing very clear strategies and not deviating from them," he said.

"I could certainly do with being more maverick in the future."

The Apprentice continues next Wednesday at 9pm.


http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/theappre...ow-report.html

Thanks for bringing that to our attention.

I think that given the way Mona was crucified here by a group of people only to ready to believe any scurrilous tittle-tattle in the gutter press and get into a self righteous frenzy on the basis of it there should be some posters with very red faces around now.

Poor Mona

People really shouldn't be so quick to believe the tabloids