KUALA LUMPUR – A Facebook post by an official National Geographic account which had mistakenly identified Singapore as being in Malaysia yesterday sparked amusing responses from social media users who found humorous ways to heap scorn on the famous international organisation.
The account uploaded a picture of one of Singapore’s most famous landmarks, the Gardens by the Bay, with the accompanying text reading: “From the Archive: A family from India walks through the Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, Malaysia.”
By noon today, it had garnered over 5,600 comments and was shared over 12,000 times.
Even Tourism Malaysia’s official Facebook account commented: “Dear Sir/Madam, that is Singapore. This is Malaysia”, attaching a picture of Malaysia’s famous Petronas Twin Towers in the comments section.
Many others commented with pictures of various landmarks from different countries and intentionally identified them with the wrong country.
Even Golden Screen Cinemas jumped on the bandwagon and attached a picture of its cinema in Johor with the accompanying text: “Also from the Archive: An IMAX theatre built with Vibranium in Wakanda, Johor Baru.”
Politicians commented on the image as well. Luyang DAP rep Phoong Jin Zhe jokingly said: “Sabah and Sarawak be like: Welcome Back Bro.”
He included a quick history lesson by stating that Singapore was part of Malaysia from September 16, 1963 to August 9, 1965.
Some made fun of the post. Farhan Fader commented: “Dear National Geographic. Need to have more geography class for your interns”.
“Welcome home, negeri Singapura. Now you can enjoy our cheap petrol without feeling guilty,” another Facebook user Bob Razlan Issa said.
Despite the very high number of interactions for this particular post by National Geographic UK on Facebook, it seems to remain uncorrected. Was it done on purpose to invite clicks, or was it simply an honest mistake?
The Vibes recently reported that many locations in Sabah were showing up in Google Maps as being in the Philippines.
For example, Sandakan Airport was labelled as “Sandakan Airport of the Philippines” and Kota Marudu Hospital as “Hospital Kota Marudu Philippines”. – The Vibes, August 28, 2022
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