Singapore – Nuseir Yassin, popularly known as Nas in his social media handles, has taken on a different approach for his latest video. Amidst criticisms that his videos tackle difficult topics with a simplistic and somewhat insensitive and aggressive approach, he focuses on segregation and racism with an apology.
“Dear Facebook,
I want to start this with an apology.
I’m sorry – I have become extreme with my views and extreme with my videos. I have lived through tens of years of segregation, and I think my frustration is slowly showing in the videos.
If you think my approach to this topic is too extreme or simplistic, then I understand. I can see why. But I strongly believe the problems we face today need strong solutions. And I’m more than happy to start the debate.
Enjoy watching the video. It took me years to muster the courage to do it,” read the caption.
In his video, Nas, who is Arab, shared that he grew up not having a balanced view on diversity because of his environment. He didn’t have a Jewish friend not because he had poorly thought of them, “but because Jews don’t want to live with us.” The same applied to Arabs not wanting to live with Jews.
“This is segregation, and this is why I am angry,” said Nas.
He added that segregation is a problem in every country. Take London, for example.
Despite being one of the most diverse cities in the world, the different races live separately,” said Nas.
“In the US, entire neighbourhoods are dominated with a particular ethnicity.”
While it is mainly no one’s fault that segregation occurs, since humans tend to gravitate to the same culture, it can become dangerous.
He shared that when a particular culture exists on its own in a certain part of a country, it becomes a “country within a country.”
“Society will break apart and disintegrate. And racism will grow.”
Perspectives, beliefs, values, religion, and country begin to clash among the different groups.
“But segregation can be fixed,” noted Nas.
“Just look at places like Singapore,” he added.
“They have a diverse population of Malays, Chinese, and Indians, and 81% of them live together in public housing.”
In Singapore, it is impossible to have public housing that is 100% occupied by one race.
“This didn’t happen by chance – it is the law,” said Nas.
He featured Housing and Development Board (HDB) representative Jun Xiang in the video who said that social mixing is encouraged “so that people from different racial groups stay together and understand the lifestyle of each other.”
“We now have a stronger society because of the policy,” he added.
Nas then continued to say that if Singapore could do, so can the rest of the world.
The video garnered much positive feedback, stating that it was one difficult topic that Nas was able to tackle well.
A certain Marcus Aurelius Capaldi commented that he now wanted to visit Singapore because of the video to which Nas replied, “There’s a reason why I moved there.”
Watch the video below:
Dear Facebook,I want to start this with an apology. I'm sorry – I have become extreme with my views and extreme with my videos. I have lived through tens of years of segregation and I think my frustration is slowly showing in the videos. If you think my approach to this topic is too extreme or simplistic, then I understand. I can see why. But I strongly believe the problems we face today need strong solutions. And I'm more than happy to start the debate. Enjoy watching the video. It took me years to muster the courage to do it.
Posted by Nas Daily on Friday, 14 June 2019