‘No Now, No LAH, No CDC’: Kovan drinks stall’s quirky signs tell customers it’s cash only
“When you have to answer that dozens of times a day, how can you not get annoyed?”
💵 https://stmp.sg/KfMQ
@stompteam
Here's the full story with all details explained 👇
📰 Viral Sign: "No Now, No LAH, No CDC — Only Mr Yusof Bin Ishak"
📍 Where & When
- Stall: Drinks stall at Kovan 209 Market & Food Centre (Block 209 Hougang Street 21)
- Went viral: Sep 13, 2026 — photos posted on TikTok by user @manistripping
- Published: Sep 16, 2026, by Stomp/AsiaOne
🪧 What the Signs Say
Sign Meaning
"No Now" No PayNow
"No LAH" No PayLah!
"No CDC" No CDC Vouchers (government digital vouchers)[__LINK_ICON]
"Only Mr Yusof Bin Ishak" Only cash — Yusof Ishak is Singapore's first president, whose portrait appears on all Singapore currency notes
"No Di Luo Here" No Kopi Di Luo — thick, undiluted coffee (like espresso)
"No Small Cup" Large cups only
"Cash Only" Explicit confirmation
💬 Why Cash Only?
- The stall is run by the owner and her 80-year-old mother, who uses an old-school phone and doesn't know how to use digital payments: "She can't even write her own name, how will she know how to PayNow?"
- Despite clear signs, customers still ask for cashless options dozens of times a day: "When you have to answer that dozens of times a day, how can you not get annoyed?"
- Owner believes cash is more reliable — digital systems can fail; gave the example of 10¢ coin toilets: "If you urgently need to go to the toilet, will you PayNow them?"
- Acknowledges cash handling is "troublesome" but prefers it
☕ Why No Di Luo?
- "Di Luo" means undiluted, concentrated coffee
- Owner says customers may not be able to "handle drinking espresso"
- Her coffee powder costs over $10/kg — uses premium ingredients
🗣️ Public Reaction
- Sparkled debate: some support cash choice; others say they carry no cash and find ATMs inconvenient
- Many amused by the creative, Singlish-style wording
Source: stomp.sg, Sep 16 2026
NUS academics distance themselves from study on civil servants' home purchases near unannounced MRT stations
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/civil-servants-nus-professors-psd-housing-data-mrt-6386491?cid=internal_sharetool_iphone_16092026_cna&fbclid=IwdGRjcAUW7n9jbGNrBRbuYXBkb2YFZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEesv3JG-7vO3pReRTCW1Ge3lxZiO7WB5P37HUY3KiDUd0uNu4-BzY4mIjBetM_aem_Qz4CfvuOHeCV0IKqwZPVuA
Here’s the full detailed account from the report and related developments:
📰 NUS Academics Disavow Study Alleging Civil Servant "Informed Trading" Near Unannounced MRT Stations
Published: 15 Sep 2026 10:51PM / Updated: 16 Sep 2026 10:50AM | Source: CNA
📄 The Paper
- Title: Do Social Norms Substitute for Enforcement? Evidence from Public Officials' Home Purchases in Singapore
- Released: Sep 2026 as NBER Working Paper No. 35756 — not peer-reviewed
- Authors: Tomasz Piskorski (Columbia), Jian Zhang (HKU), Amit Seru & Chun Zhao (Stanford)
- Core claim: Civil servants bought private homes near planned-but-unannounced MRT stations at significantly higher rates than demographically matched controls, concentrated 1–2 years before public announcements
🔍 Methodology
- Linked 1995–2019 private property transactions (Registry of Land Titles) to the Singapore Government Directory Interactive to identify civil servants
- Built control group matched on age, gender, marital status, ethnicity
- Defined "target properties" within 1km of future MRT stations; tested other radii for robustness
- Sources: SGDI, Council for Estate Agencies register, proprietary 2013 resident demographic dataset
📊 Key Findings
- ~50 extra purchases 2 years pre-announcement; ~63 extra 1 year pre-announcement vs controls
- Effect vanished after announcements — behaviour matched controls
- Civil servant buyers held properties slightly shorter (suggesting profit motive; authors note small post-sale sample caveat)
- Pattern strongest among mid-level officers and agencies connected to rail planning; also visible among relatives (consistent with information leakage)
- Estimated ~221 excess transactions, ~S$270m gross acquisition value
🏛️ Official Response — Public Service Division (PSD)
- 14 Sep 2026: PSD announced review of data & methodology
- Statement: "We take any integrity concerns extremely seriously… will refer to CPIB if there is a material basis to do so."
🎓 Academics Named — Reactions
NUS Faculty
- Ivan Png (Distinguished Prof): Knew nothing — "I do not know the authors… provided neither comments nor data" — asked for name removal
- Jessica Pan (Vice-Provost): Name appeared by "mistake"; unaware until publication; requested removal
- Sumit Agarwal / Wenlan Qian: Referred queries to authors
- David Reeb: May have commented years ago at a presentation but recalls no details
Other Acknowledged Scholars
- Chang-Tai Hsieh (Chicago): Discussed paper at conference but questioned results — argued private housing is farther from stations than public housing, so gains from inside info would be much smaller
- Luigi Zingales (Chicago), Li Shengwu (Harvard), Jesse Shapiro (Harvard): CNA contacted; no replies as of report time
- At least 16 others thanked for comments; some cited in bibliography
✍️ Author Contacted
- CNA reached out to all four authors; no statement included in article