Hey, we love Pokémon too but you don’t see us slagging a whole country over it. One aspiring trainer who just really, really wanted to be the very best flailed (Normal-type move, inflicts damage) so hard that he got himself fired just weeks into his job.
Australian native Sonny Truyen had just joined the Eduardo Saverin-backed property search engine 99.co as its vice president of digital marketing, and was to be based here. But the expat proved he was the wrong man for the job when he totally failed at social media by getting himself into a flame war that ignited due to the inability of playing Pokémon Go here.
So furious was he about not being able to play the Augmented Reality game (it’s only out in the USA, Australia and New Zealand for now) that he called Singapore a “fucking shit country”. As you do, when you can’t catch ’em all.
From there, he engaged in a pitiful online spat with an Adelene Kong, calling Singaporeans stupid and illiterate in a nation lacking local talent. All this anger burgeoning from the fact that he can’t play some Pokémon, we remind you.
The Internet reacted in kind, and found his place of employment pretty easily. A multitude of posts were left on the 99.co Facebook page, all railing against their newly inducted director of marketing and SEO specialist.
Darius Cheng — 99.co’s CEO — was quick to respond, and appropriately, too. Apologising on behalf of the company, he assured that Truyen has since been fired due to his unethical language and behaviour.
Cheng went one step further, calling for folks not to stoop to Truyen’s level by carrying out categorical attacks on race and nationality.
“I care about my country, which is why even at the risk of provoking more anger, I ask for your assistance in not propagating messages of hate and division, but instead embrace our diversity,” he wrote in a blogpost on his website.
“It is within our power as citizens and residents of Singapore, to nip this at the bud and reverse the trend,” he said. Right on, guv.
Oh, and if Truyen really wanted to catch some Pokémon in Singapore, all he needed was to just read our guide.
