Natalie Schlater razed to the ground after post on rice workers
Natalie Schlater got wind of it after posting a “numb” post online while on holiday on the Indonesian island of Bali. The criticism was so severe that the Swedish influencer even decided to close her Instagram account. “How different my life is from the man picking in the rice field every morning”, the influencer leveled to the ground after holiday post
The young woman from Stockholm had already collected more than 12,000 followers, and they faithfully followed her actions. But that ended abruptly.
On vacation in Indonesia, she posted a picture of herself in a bikini on the edge of a rice field while she watched a man working. “Thinking about how different my life is from the man picking in the rice field every morning,” Natalie Schlater.
The criticism came quickly and was very loud. “Coming from an ‘influencer’ this sounds like boasting,” someone wrote in the responses. And also: “This is a combination of narcissism, stupidity, and apathy”.
Some went a step further with statements like: “she probably does have self-respect” and “incredible how you have to stand in your underwear to have deep thoughts”.
“Wow, this is one of the worst I’ve seen,” it sounded too. “If she really was an influencer, maybe she could have asked the man to help him and put herself in his shoes for a day. And maybe she could have asked him if it was okay to post a picture he was standing on, with a deeper text about how his life really is. This is more of a ‘My Life is better than his, look at my ass’ picture.”
Others reversed the perspective: “Imagine you are a humble rice farmer, who has to get up at dawn so that he can collect enough rice to feed his family, and maybe a little more to give to his neighbors or to sell on the market. Imagine looking up to wipe the sweat off your forehead and watching that horrible white bitch watch you work hard.”
Natalie Schlater later posted a statement in which she said she was “terribly misunderstood.” “I am very aware of my privileges and I am very grateful for everything I have in my life. I just wanted to share how hard the people of Indonesia work and how incredibly sweet they are. It was never my intention to appear disrespectful. I am sorry if I hurt someone because that was not the intention.”
Compassion
She also told the Bored Panda magazine that she is “working very hard” to get the money she needs to travel and that she is not “rich”, “although it may seem like social media. But not everything is there as it seems.”
“I don’t want pity, but my post just meant that the man has worked so hard all his life for so little,” she said. “And I wanted us all to realize that we too often take everything we have for granted. I wish I had put it differently.”
