Talk:Alan Sugar/Archives/2014

Jewish?
"Sir Alan Michael Sugar (born 24 March 1947 in Hackney, London) is an English businessman of Jewish descent."

Is it really necessary to put "of Jewish descent"? Is his religion important to his business decisions? Has he been an activist Jewish member of his synagogue? Has he taken particular political stands that were impacted by his religion?

I think this is a case of labeling which serves no purpose other to pigeonhole people.

Would we write "Michael Eisner is an American businessman of Jewish extraction"? How about Maurice Béjart is a Muslim choreographer...?

Totally useless labeling.

Now if we were to say President George W. Bush is a born-again evangelical American president, there would be a point to it. If we were to say Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Jewish writer, there would be a point to it. we can see that throughout sir alans business decisions we can see alot of jewish influence, for example him doing the apprentice is just another way of making money- he even said 'if i was to invest into apple about 10 years ago do you think i would be doing this!'

But this automatic ethnic/religious branding is divisive and uninstructive.


 * Totally agree with the above comment. It's changed. Rollo 09:45, 5 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I also totally agree with the comments concerning the religion of AS. I believe too much emphasis/comment is placed on a person's religion.  Heleshap 30 August '06


 * While i agree that it's unnecessary to begin the article like this i think being reacting so harshly against it is also unnecessary. Plenty of american media articles (and i would say almost all american wikipedia articles/ edited by americans) start this way. It's just something that has become relativley typical, probably due to the extent to which the US is an imigrant nation. I am however, going to add his jewish background back into the article if i can find a reference. It's just as "irrelevant" as a lot of other peices of biographical data. Amo 23:02, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

The "Alan Sugar story" makes a point of AMS upbringing as a jew and that this is an important piece of what made him what he is


 * His religion is integral part of his life and I don't see why it should be censored from his encyclopedia entry. It is on the same level of importance than his nationality, name or real name, parent origin, date of birth, etc,etc... (perhaps even more important in some cases) and most other personalities have their religion mentioned when possible. That's why I think his religion should be mentioned in the article. There's no reason to hide it just because some people think it could be used for prejudice. It might be important to some people's research. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.31.68.214 (talk) 21:13, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

If he's jewish then why is he mentioned as being atheist in the right hand box? I am not interested either way whether the fact is mentioned immediately after his name, but if the man is jewish, then why is this not reflected in the aforemetioned box? I don't understand that.Pheasantplucker (talk) 12:57, 5 May 2009 (UTC)


 * His autobiography "What you see is what you get" makes it clear he is an atheist. From the beginning of Chapter 4 "Who is going to pay you on Friday?": "Being Honest Al, I would reply, ‘Well, not really. My mum buys kosher food, but to be honest we don’t go to all the trouble of separate knives and forks and all that stuff. And no, the last time I was in shul it was for someone’s wedding. I don’t go. I find it boring. In fact, sorry to say, I don’t believe in God." Pgquiles (talk) 20:26, 18 November 2012 (UTC)

Although in his autobio he states he does not believe in God at one point, his being of Jewish descent is mentioned as a factor of importance a lot of times in the book, such as in reference to racism in the workplace, difficulties growing up and so on. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.216.253.138 (talk) 20:44, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Disk Drives
In Sugar's autobiography he stated that there were two companies with faulty drives - one was Seagate, the other was Western Digital. (so it should be amended to state both companies). He lost the legal case against Western Digital - those drives were also faulty but the judge ruled in Western Digital's favour as the company was small and Amstrad was large (according to the autobiography What You See Is What You Get). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.216.253.138 (talk) 20:41, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Tottenham Hotspur
In his autobiography Sugar stated it was not his decision on Sheringham related to Sheringham's age, but that he was instructed not to sign him past 34 years old by the manager (a football-related decision). He added in the autobio that Sheringham himself later played past 34 and proved himself. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.216.253.138 (talk) 21:01, 6 January 2014 (UTC)

Amshold
Shouldn't Amshold get a mention in this article? Spymo (talk) 16:52, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

It should.--Wavedvales (talk) 14:05, 13 May 2014 (UTC)