Everybody is a Free Agent (standard:non fiction, 850 words)
Author: Juggernaut	Added: Feb 03 2014	Views/Reads: 9281/1831	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
The original concept of Free Agent was invented in India; read about it.

Everybody is a Free Agent 

Subba Rao 

In sports world, a free agent is an athlete released by his 

team for whatever reason and allows the released athlete to join any 

other team that offers a contract to play on their team. The concept of 

free agent working for money to provide a service with any team was in 

practice in India for a long time, but not in the arena of sports but 

in every area of employment. 

At railway stations, bus depots and airports, from porters to 

ticketing agents though salaried workers demand pay off to deliver 

services from the customers. 

Politicians of all parties in the country once elected 

automatically becomes a free agent to demand exorbitant shake down from 

citizens and business people to get things done. The so called 

permitting process to start a business is the stepping stone for 

corruption. Elected official and the civil servants' opportunity for a 

shake-down at every stage of the permitting process to move forward. 

Everybody in the regulatory body from peon up to the top was free 

agents free to collect bribes. 

A news paper reported that the city municipality workers in 

charge of disbursing monthly free government pensions for the poorest 

of poor amounting to 10 dollars a month kept the pension money to 

themselves frustrating the poor people. How this could happen without 

free agent mentality? 

Some years ago, in southern state, all the medical schools in 

the state individually affiliated to local universities were brought 

under one medical university, a dumb idea. The main objective is to 

control the medical school admissions and other health facilities in 

the state by a political group. These people acted like free agents to 

do what is best to them for their own private gains.  The sad part was 

nobody from these medical schools and universities protested the 

measure. Now, the medical schools in the state were mushroomed into 

several dozen each with their own management. The entire medical 

education and corporate hospitals' operation went wild with no quality 

control. 

At a city or state level, whether in private or government 

sector, the employees were all free agents demanding fee to deliver the 

services. It is their right to collect tips or bribes or shake downs or 


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