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"People like Nas Daily are the new wave of colonialism in todays world" Louise De Guzman Mabulo

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I’ve held my silence for 2 years, however in light of recent news, it’s high time I break it.
In 2019, Nas Daily had come to my town to cover my story on The Cacao Project— at the time, I was a huge fan, watching his clips with my Dad daily. 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.

My family took him and other content creators in as welcome guests— with typical hospitality we are known for. However in so little time, I was disappointed to learn that the man I’d looked up to for years was not the bearer of good news he’d misled his followers to believe he was.
I watched him imitate and mock the local accent and language, vocalising Tagalog-sounding syllabic phrases saying it sounded stupid. He repeatedly said that the people of my hometown “poor”
“farmers are so poor!”
“why are Filipinos so poor?”

He said no one wants to hear about farmers or farms, it’s not clickable viewable content. 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.
My family received no greetings nor any thanks from him when we’d received him into our home, going on to say we were only wasting his time. He refused to eat food my mum had spent the whole morning preparing for him knowing that he’d be tired or hungry.

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, he was disappointed that my work wasn’t the perfectly packaged story he’d pre-determined and imagined— I mean what visual popcorn can you create out of a farm?

At the end of the day, I was exhausted, I had no patience left, and I’d worn out every last dreg of my tolerance. He refused to let anyone take a break or eat, and he blamed his lack of “presentable click-worthy content” on me and claimed that everything is not clickable or viewable.

I was fully transparent on our phone call that I didn’t think my work would be something he’d be able to visualise, and that there’s too many factors to the work I do that wouldn’t possibly be covered in under a minute— and that maybe it would come to be the kind of content he wanted in five years time, but not now. In his story, he assumed that I’d replaced coconuts with cacao— when in reality, this was unrealistic and absurd, and not the goal of my venture, which is to diversify income streams for farmers. We mutually agreed it was best he should just leave.
I should have known better, that this man was exploitative and fueling a neocolonialist narrative using our need for foreign validation. I’ve stayed silent because I knew that I would face backlash for calling out on this man— after all, it’s easy to take Nusseir’s word over mine. And I’ve been haunted with the knowledge that he could manipulate years of my work with a single carelessly misinformed video— I chose to stay silent about it. I would not risk my hometown, and the farmers here who benefit, over an affront by some influencer.

I told myself, that if he really was like this, it would come to light eventually.
And now, he has overstepped and had the audacity to do the same to Whang-Od and the Butbot Tribe. Yet I still see Filipinos defending Nas despite the statements from Gracia, a fully able bodied representative of her tribe and of Apo Whang-Od, our most revered and iconic artist.

Gracia, you did what I never had the courage to do until today, and if you ever read this, you are not alone in your experience. I stand with you, and hope you can get justice and the compensation your tribe deserves from exploitative content creators.

The fact that he refused to take down the course until Gracia took her post down is a clear sign of systematic silencing, and the hope that they want to continue their money-making from our 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.

Filipinos should stand together on this— 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.

People like Nas Daily are the new wave of colonialism in today’s world, and I’ve been silent since 2019, but I cannot for the life of me sit silently any longer over this.

I’ve threaded this into my message for years— support local, support local farmers, take action to aid marginalised groups, protect the vulnerable and empower them to stand for themselves too. We can only ever set the ground and pave the way for others.

This has always been my belief, and ever since this experience, I have been mistrustful of anyone who would want to cover or feature what I have done. 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. Gracia had the steel to do what I couldn’t back then— to call out the injustice brought about by exploitative behaviour Nas Daily had normalised, and her people did not deserve.

And now I speak up to amend my silence and put this resolve into action. Let’s support our kababayans and rid ourselves of neocolonialism or colonial mentality. Nas chases Filipinos for content because he knows his validation of our country gives him fame. We dictate the tide. We dictate the trend and virality.
Let’s put our own forward instead, Filipinos have the ability to make our country great if we set aside our differences, refuse exploitation like this, and work in the interest of the Philippines and the Filipino.
Thank you Shai for shedding light on this.

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unti unti na tayong sinasakop ng di tuwiran. #FilipinoPride
 
wow,I never thought that he will be like this from the beginning, I always watch him since the first quarantine days
I thought he was cool but didnt know he's just using us filipinos for content/views as we call pinoybaiting.
 
Simula palang nung content nya about sa philippine culture. Nanonood nako. Kaso puro pala pang-gagatas lng lahat at peke😓 D na sya nahiya.
 
Filipinos are being exploited for views. Views are money. We're one of active on the internet, according to the survey. Vloggers like "Nas Daily" understood that and took advantage of that by featuring some Filipinos on his YøùTùbé channel. He only cares for views and money and not for the developing country who look up to developed countries. Idiot!
 
May nakita din ako about sa ginawa nila,tama nga naman parang ginagamit lang tayo nitong dalawang kumag nato,sorry for the words pero totoo naman,at salamat po boss Draft ikaw lang ata nakapag pabasa ulit sakin ng ganito kataas na englishan,nakakaintindi pa pala ako🤣
 
I was thinking he did the same thing to other Asian country. He plan to sell out our culture for his personal interest. Hindi talaga makatarungan ang ginagawa nya. Maganda sana mga video contents nya pero habol lang pala ay "fame and money".
 
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Nakita ko na original post nito.Already unsubscribed to them,Nas daily,project nightfall, everything that related to nas. 😡 Mas naniniwala parin ako sa kababayan ko.
 
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May pa crash course pa nalalaman si Nas Daily. Hindi naman pala totoo yung Whang-od tattoo course. - Scam para kumita
Hindi aware si Whang-od sa contract habang kumikita ang Nas Academy.
 
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Dear Louise,

I have also kept my silence for 2 years out of respect to you. But I can't let you share falsehoods on the Internet for free.

I was very inspired by your story. In fact, I was so inspired by what you achieved that I flew in from Singapore to the Province in the Philippines just to SUPPORT YOU.

As you can see in the picture, we are trying to tell the world about your story. By the way, no other media did that. They just report from their fancy offices. But we wanted to go the extra mile for you.

We spent 2 days flying and we were very excited for your story of how you "revolutionised the cacao industry in your province" according to the Internet. We know the "story" already, so that's why we flew in to come meet you.

To my biggest sadness and surprise, your story was not true on the ground. Once we arrived at your plantation, once we saw the village and talked to the farmers, we came to the conclusion that there is no story here. That the awards on the Internet are just that...awards.

Our investigation has made it clear that your story in the media is false. And that there are no "200 farmers" that you work with, and there are no Cacao plantations that you don't personally profit from.

Even though we flew in for 2 days, we had to pack up and leave because I will never ever put Fake News on Nas Daily. I was so sad because we have invested tens of hours to support you.

When we told you in person that we believe your story is not true, you understood us and you bid us farewell. We thanked you for your time and your hospitality and we went back to the airport. In fact, we took nice pictures with your family before we left.
The Cacao project you mentioned is a family business which you profit from.

I flew back to Singapore disappointed. But of course, I didn't want to hurt you. I would never want to do that. I flew in to support you in the first place.

So I kept my silence for 2 years. But now that you speak up about it, I have two advices for you:

1) Be truthful about your work. The Cacao Project is not as truthful as the media says it is.

2) Do not share online falsehoods. That is borderline îllégâl. Everything you said is with malicious intent and it is clearly not how I speak. We have 5 years of evidence to back that up. 40% of my company is Filipino. Our actions back up our words.

From making Nas Daily, I have learned that sometimes good intentions do go unnoticed. In fact, good intentions get punished sometimes. But examples like yours will never stop us from believing in the good of humanity. We will continue to support the Philippines and we will continue to promote people who need their story told.

Hopefully one day, I can come back and tell your story again. You are, after all, an inspiring individual.

-Nas Daily Tagalog
 

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