Lloyds TSB in the UK have come up with an innovative new business model: Islamic Financial Services. Whilst this is probably nothing new in the Muslim world, i’ve never seen it advertised by a Western bank.
The idea is truly brilliant. ‘Shariah approved money management’ means that no interest is paid on your bank account – since in Islam you should not make money from money, only through “legitimate trade in goods and items” – where you share the risks and rewards.
For Lloyds it couldn’t be better: they save money on unpaid interest, provide services for a sizeable market, and that means more money for the coffers. That’s what I call a plan!
Those interested should also note that Lloyds also provide Islamic Home Finance – an alternative way to finance your home purchase.
I wonder when banks in China will start offering Communist Friendly Banking. Presumably this means dividing your riches between all other bank accounts. It’s a shame this isn’t yet available: with the amount of money I have, i’d gain from it for sure!
General |
Posted by Terence
Jun
22
2006
I’ve owned my Macbook Pro for three months.
I’ve used it for one and a half.
The remaining time, it’s been sitting at an authorised Apple Service Provider in Hong Kong.
The Macbook Pro is a very nice machine: it looks gorgeous, it’s powerful, it runs both Mac OS AND Windows, it’s got a light-sensoring backlight under the keyboard, a well thought out magnetic clip for the power adaptor… and it’s fully featured with camera, bluetooth, Wifi… everything you need all under the same bonnet. But my new laptop, it seems, has been marred with problems from the very beginning. Nevermind that it runs extremely hot and has an annoying yet constant buzz coming from the speakers – the machine also failed frequently to wake up from its slumber, and would periodically lockup when entering screen saver mode. So far this machine has, regrettably, not been worth the price paid for it.
Apple are now in their fourth revision of the MPB. Mine, unfortunately, is version 1. Since purchasing the machine it has been under repair for a month – my first attempt at collecting the ‘fixed’ machine resulted in my departing the service centre empty handed : I reproduced the problem at first try. Several days later I collected the machine… five minutes ago, it just locked up entering screen saver mode.
As it turns out, I have been without a laptop for half the time I owned it. Had I waited a couple of months, I can now own a fourth revision macbook. That is the disappointing fact. Also worrying is that it took several weeks to “fix” my problem – yet it’s still not working properly. At this point Apple can exchange it, fix it, I don’t care… but what I paid for should at least work. The sad thing is I love this notebook… now if only it can start to function like one!
This weekend we went to HuaiRou (怀柔) and MiYun (密云), both North East and in the outskirts of Beijing. We stayed overnight at 山吧 (wooden huts built on the mountainside) and also had lunch/dinner there. It was very nice, and relaxing – certainly a pleasant change from the craziness of Beijing.
The previous week we made a trip to BeiDaiHe (北戴河) in Hebei Province (河北省) – where I saw stars for the first time in… well… a very long time in China! I would warn against swimming with a mobile phone however – it’s not good for the phone! Driving the highways in China can also be an ‘interesting’ experience, though possibly more frustrating.
In any case, summer has now arrived, and that means so has the traveling season. This coming weekend i’ll be in Shanghai (上海), followed the next week by Sanya in Hainan (海南). I’m definitely looking forward to clocking up some mileage… but only if I can ignore my depleting bank account in the meantime.
