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Nas Daily is “exploitative” and fuels a “neocolonialist narrative”, slams founder of The Cacao Project

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3 years ago

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Nusseir Yassin of Nas Daily is “exploitative” and fuels a “neocoloniast narrative”, said the founder of The Cacao Project Louise Mabulo in a Facebook post on Thursday (5 Aug).

As the content creator came under fire in recent days about his alleged exploitation of revered Filipino tattooist Apo Whang-od Ogga, another Filipino has come forth to share her experience with Mr Nussier.

Recounting her own experience with the creator of Nas Daily from when he visited her hometown back in 2019 to cover her story on The Cacao Project, Ms Mabulo said that she was a “huge fan” of him back then.

The Cacao Project is an initiative that provides farmers in the Philippines with cacao plant seeds, and teaches them how to sustainably and responsibly produce cacao. It has helped over 200 farmers and has aided in reforestation efforts.

“At the time, I was gaining some press exposure and building up on opportunities thanks to UNEP’s recognition of the work I do in my hometown for my farmers. It was enough that a friend, Shai Lagarde, had referred Nas Daily to us,” said Ms Mabulo, who made it to the ‘Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2020‘ list.

She went on to recount how her family took in Mr Nusseir and his fellow content creators as guests, but things turned sour fast.

Ms Mabulo described watching him “imitate and mock” the local language and accent, and insulting Tagalog-sounding syllabic phrases as “stupid”. He also repeatedly remarked that the people in her hometown were “poor”, she claimed.

According to her, the man behind Nas Daily was appeared to only be interested in whether the content would attract viewers.

“He said no one wants to hear about farmers or farms, it’s not clickable viewable content,” Ms Mabulo recalled.

She continued, “He didn’t care about making change or shedding light on real issues— he only wanted content, a good, easy story to tell that would get him more Filipino views.

“He even joked at the start of the day that all he needed was to put ‘Philippines’ in the title, and he’d rack in millions of views would and the comments would come flooding with brainless ‘Pinoy pride’ comments.”

Ms Mabulo lamented, “I’ve worked with journalists, documentary-makers, professors, who have seen my work, interviewed me, and even featured us, and have had no negative experiences that could ever brush up to what I saw that day.

“Blatant discrimination of my people, no regard for local customs or cultures, and he’d built a story in his mind without meaningfully understanding the context of what he was going to cover.”

As a result, Ms Mabulo noted that he was disappointed that she wasn’t the “perfectly packaged story” that he had imagined.

Shockingly, she also described how the content creator had even “refused” to let anyone take a break or eat, and that he blamed his lack of click-worthy content on her, claiming that everything was not viewable or clickable.

Ms Mabulo reiterated that she was “fully transparent” in her phone conversation with him that she didn’t think her work could be visualised and that there were too many factors to cover in under one minute.

They eventually agreed that he should leave, she said.

“I should have known better, that this man was exploitative and fuelling a neocolonialist narrative using our need for foreign validation.”

Ms Mabulo went on to say that she feared backlash from the whole encounter, which is why she kept silent all this while, not wanting to risk her hometown or the farmers who have benefitted from The Cacao Project over a falling-out with an influencer.

“After all, it’s easy to take Nusseir’s word over mine,” she said, adding that she has been “haunted” by the knowledge that he could manipulate years of her work with a “single carelessly misinformed video”.

In her post, Ms Mabulo urged fellow Filipinos to stand together on this issue.

“We are not content to be exploited. We are not culture to be capitalised. We are not people to be romanticized. Or poverty to set the scene for ‘Benevolent Saviors’. We are more than what the world thinks of us,” she asserted.

Describing Nas Daily as a “new wave of colonialism”, Ms Mabulo expressed that she has been “mistrustful” of anyone who wants to feature her work after this experience.

“I have looked at everyone with more suspicion, and I resolved myself to hold no tolerance for affronts of this nature because I refuse to expose the people I care about to discrimination or exploitation in this way, and I have absolutely no filter for anyone who tries to anymore,” she remarked.

The Apo Whang-od controversy

On Wednesday (4 Aug), Gracia Palicas revealed in a now-removed post on Facebook that her grandmother, commonly known as Whang-od, had never agreed to teach an online class that was being offered by Nas Academy, an offshoot of the Nas Daily brand. She called it a “scam”, and urged people not to support it.

Ms Palicas, a tattooist, said that her 104-year-old grandmother did not sign any contract with the brand, and pleaded with readers to help them stop the “disrespect” to the legacy of Whang-od.

The course has since been removed from Nas Academy, however, a statement from Nas Daily claimed that it was not a scam and that Whang-od fully understood and consented to the contract. The statement was accompanied by a video showing the revered tattooist affixing her thumbprint to a contract.

In her post, Ms Mabulo also praised Ms Gracia for having the courage to speak up about the exploitation of her grandmother and culture, and assured her that she was not alone in her experience.

“I stand with you, and hope you can get justice and the compensation your tribe deserves from exploitative content creators,” said Ms Mabulo, as she lauded Ms Gracia for calling out the “injustice” of the behaviour Nas Daily has normalised.

Commenting further on the incident with Whang-Od, Ms Mabulo described Mr Nussier’s refusal to take down the course until Ms Gracia had removed her post was a “clear sign of systematic silencing” in hopes that they can continue making money from the Filipino culture.

“And now, his response to the issue illustrates a video of Apo Whang-Od signing a dubious contract— the same strategy colonizers used to mislead indigenous people to sell off their land, happening now action in the 21st century, except instead of land, it’s data and content and tradition being sold,” she added.

Nas Daily follower count drops by more than 340,000 amid controversy

Meanwhile, it was reported earlier today (6 Aug) that Nas Daily’s Facebook page has been experiencing a massive drop in followers amid the whole controversy.

True enough, at the time of writing, data from Facebook analytics tool CrowdTangle revealed about 340,000 users have unfollowed the page within the last few days.

Source: CrowdTangle

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Hotel Properties Limited suspends trading ahead of Ong Beng Seng’s court hearing

Hotel Properties Limited (HPL), co-founded by Mr Ong Beng Seng, has halted trading ahead of his court appearance today (4 October). The announcement was made by HPL’s company secretary at about 7.45am, citing a pending release of an announcement. Mr Ong faces one charge of abetting a public servant in obtaining gifts and another charge of obstruction of justice. He is due in court at 2.30pm.

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1 hour ago

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4 October 2024

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SINGAPORE: Hotel Properties Limited (HPL), the property and hotel developer co-founded by Mr Ong Beng Seng, has requested a trading halt ahead of the Singapore tycoon’s scheduled court appearance today (4 October) afternoon.

This announcement was made by HPL’s company secretary at approximately 7.45am, stating that the halt was due to a pending release of an announcement.

Mr Ong, who serves as HPL’s managing director and controlling shareholder, faces one charge under Section 165, accused of abetting a public servant in obtaining gifts, as well as one charge of obstruction of justice.

He is set to appear in court at 2.30pm on 4 October.

Ong’s charges stem from his involvement in a high-profile corruption case linked to former Singaporean transport minister S Iswaran.

The 80-year-old businessman was named in Iswaran’s initial graft charges earlier this year.

These charges alleged that Iswaran had corruptly received valuable gifts from Ong, including tickets to the 2022 Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix, flights, and a hotel stay in Doha.

These gifts were allegedly provided to advance Ong’s business interests, particularly in securing contracts with the Singapore Tourism Board for the Singapore GP and the ABBA Voyage virtual concert.

Although Iswaran no longer faces the original corruption charges, the prosecution amended them to lesser charges under Section 165.

Iswaran pleaded guilty on 24 September, 2024, to four counts under this section, which covered over S$400,000 worth of gifts, including flight tickets, sports event access, and luxury items like whisky and wines.

Additionally, he faced one count of obstructing justice for repaying Ong for a Doha-Singapore flight shortly before the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) became involved.

On 3 October, Iswaran was sentenced to one year in jail by presiding judge Justice Vincent Hoong.

The prosecution had sought a sentence of six to seven months for all charges, while the defence had asked for a significantly reduced sentence of no more than eight weeks.

Ong, a Malaysian national based in Singapore, was arrested by CPIB in July 2023 and released on bail shortly thereafter. Although no charges were initially filed against him, Ong’s involvement in the case intensified following Iswaran’s guilty plea.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had earlier indicated that it would soon make a decision regarding Ong’s legal standing, which has now led to the current charges.

According to the statement of facts read during Iswaran’s conviction, Ong’s case came to light as part of a broader investigation into his associates, which revealed Iswaran’s use of Ong’s private jet for a flight from Singapore to Doha in December 2022.

CPIB investigators uncovered the flight manifest and seized the document.

Upon learning that the flight records had been obtained, Ong contacted Iswaran, advising him to arrange for Singapore GP to bill him for the flight.

Iswaran subsequently paid Singapore GP S$5,700 for the Doha-Singapore business class flight in May 2023, forming the basis of his obstruction of justice charge.

Mr Ong is recognised as the figure who brought Formula One to Singapore in 2008, marking the first night race in the sport’s history.

He holds the rights to the Singapore Grand Prix. Iswaran was the chairman of the F1 steering committee and acted as the chief negotiator with Singapore GP on business matters concerning the race.

 

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Chee Soon Juan questions Shanmugam’s $88 million property sale amid silence from Mainstream Media

Dr Chee Soon Juan of the SDP raised concerns about the S$88 million sale of Mr K Shanmugam’s Good Class Bungalow at Astrid Hill, questioning transparency and the lack of mainstream media coverage. He called for clarity on the buyer, valuation, and potential conflicts of interest.

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2 weeks ago

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23 September 2024

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On Sunday (22 Sep), Dr Chee Soon Juan, Secretary General of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), issued a public statement on Facebook, expressing concerns regarding the sale of Minister for Home Affairs and Law, Mr K Shanmugam’s Good Class Bungalow (GCB) at Astrid Hill.

Dr Chee questioned the transparency of the S$88 million transaction and the absence of mainstream media coverage despite widespread discussion online.

According to multiple reports cited by Dr Chee, Mr Shanmugam’s property was transferred in August 2023 to UBS Trustees (Singapore) Pte Ltd, which holds the property in trust under the Jasmine Villa Settlement.

Dr Chee’s statement focused on two primary concerns: the lack of response from Mr Shanmugam regarding the transaction and the silence of major media outlets, including Singapore Press Holdings and Mediacorp.

He argued that, given the ongoing public discourse and the relevance of property prices in Singapore, the sale of a high-value asset by a public official warranted further scrutiny.

In his Facebook post, Dr Chee posed several questions directed at Mr Shanmugam and the government:

  1. Who purchased the property, and is the buyer a Singaporean citizen?
  2. Who owns Jasmine Villa Settlement?
  3. Were former Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and current Prime Minister Lawrence Wong informed of the transaction, and what were their responses?
  4. How was it ensured that the funds were not linked to money laundering?
  5. How was the property’s valuation determined, and by whom?

The Astrid Hill property, originally purchased by Mr Shanmugam in 2003 for S$7.95 million, saw a significant increase in value, aligning with the high-end status of District 10, where it is located. The 3,170.7 square-meter property was sold for S$88 million in August 2023.

Dr Chee highlighted that, despite Mr Shanmugam’s detailed responses regarding the Ridout Road property, no such transparency had been offered in relation to the Astrid Hill sale.

He argued that the lack of mainstream media coverage was particularly concerning, as public interest in the sale is high. Dr Chee emphasized that property prices and housing affordability are critical issues in Singapore, and transparency from public officials is essential to maintain trust.

Dr Chee emphasized that the Ministerial Code of Conduct unambiguously states: “A Minister must scrupulously avoid any actual or apparent conflict of interest between his office and his private financial interests.”

He concluded his statement by reiterating the need for Mr Shanmugam to address the questions raised, as the matter involves not only the Minister himself but also the integrity of the government and its responsibility to the public.

The supposed sale of Mr Shamugam’s Astrid Hill property took place just a month after Mr Shanmugam spoke in Parliament over his rental of a state-owned bungalow at Ridout Road via a ministerial statement addressing potential conflicts of interest.

At that time, Mr Shanmugam explained that his decision to sell his home was due to concerns about over-investment in a single asset, noting that his financial planning prompted him to sell the property and move into rental accommodation.

The Ridout Road saga last year centred on concerns about Mr Shanmugam’s rental of a sprawling black-and-white colonial bungalow, occupying a massive plot of land, managed by the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), which he oversees in his capacity as Minister for Law. Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, also rented a similarly expansive property nearby.

Mr Shanmugam is said to have recused himself from the decision-making process, and a subsequent investigation by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) found no wrongdoing while Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean confirmed in Parliament that Mr Shanmugam had removed himself from any decisions involving the property.

As of now, Mr Shanmugam has not commented publicly on the sale of his Astrid Hill property.

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