It’s been more than a week since Facebook vlogger Nas Daily arrived on our shores for a series of his massively popular one-minute videos about Singapore. So far, the 26-year-old Israeli-Palestinian has come up with a total of nine videos set here, with content revolving around dumpster diving, Changi Airport, the Semakau Landfill and how Singaporeans actually aren’t that crazy rich after all.
But the very nature of his relentlessly positive vibes and inspirational videos perhaps brushed some people here the wrong way. According to Nas (whose real name is Nuseir Yassin), he’s been receiving tonnes of comments online that accuse him of getting paid — by corporations or the Singapore Tourism Board — to help promote Singapore to the world.
This, Nas assures, is untrue.
“My videos in Singapore are 100% not sponsored by anyone,” he wrote in a targeted post that’s only visible to Facebook users in Singapore.
“I came here by myself, spent my own money, to make my own videos about your country. And I need to make sure everyone is aware of that”.
It’s unclear how many people have tried to “discredit” his work, but it seems like a volume high enough for him to craft a long, defensive post. It should come to no surprise that people could believe that he’s getting sponsored — dozens of local corporate Facebook pages jumped on the opportunity to contact him as soon as he announced his arrival in Singapore.
“No one should take credit for these videos except the people that follow my videos and come to my meet-ups. These videos I made for you — not for any government, company or tourism board!” he exclaimed.
Singaporeans explained to Nas that we’re quite a negative bunch (true-ish).
Speaking of which, Nas also announced that he’ll be holding his last meet-up in Singapore this Sunday before he departs. Presumably to Indonesia, because The Straits Times reported that he’s only here momentarily to shoot some videos while applying for a visa to the neighboring country. Since he has an Israeli passport, he definitely doesn’t have access into Malaysia anyway.