Corruption that stinks to high heaven!

"What?! $25,000 for what?" I asked, shocked at the sudden and unexpected mention of a large sum of money, of over US$800.

"It's a fee," the agent for hiring a foreign carer said.

"That much?" I was livid. All this time j was under the impression that all I needed was get mum's neurosurgeon to fill in a assessment form and that the hospital would then give the ok to hire a stay-at-home carer to attend to mum's needs should she need help as the mobility of her hands and arms deteriorate. But now I'm being asked to make a "contribution".

"And where does the money go to?" I demanded. My respect for the agent skydived to contempt. I was disgusted. Perhaps I am too innocent of the ways of the world, and perhaps In particular, innocent of the ways of the "Eastern" world (for there are those who accuse me of being "whitewashed"...), but never have I encountered such a blatant demand for a bribe.

"To a hospital administrator," the agent said. I wanted to ask the name, but I doubt I would get it. I don't know for sure, but suspect that most likely the agent will take a share too. And to think this is a public hospital, one that is well respected in the region for its art, one that was voted "Most Trusted Brand" by Reader's Digest... Despite all those government campaigns with, for example, the symbolic image of a "rotten apple", to alert people of the ills of corruption, here I was being told that I need to engage in a little "kicking back", I have to add some "oil to grease the cogs".

I have heard of scandals before involving high profile politicians, but really I am disgusted that as a normal civilian, as someone just trying to get approval for my own mother to hire a foreign carer, I will have to endorse such a despicable practice. Has the agent no shame? Has the faceless administrator no heavy conscience when he takes the "brown envelop" and puts it in his own pocket? As i said to mum, it is these corrupt scum who turn this country into such a disappointing mess. Disgusting, absolutely disgusting, cursed blood-sucking leeches that really taint the reputation and good name of a hospital I till now have held in such high esteem.

"It's the way to do it," the agent said as-a-matter-of-factly, which made me even more livid.

"Is this the way you do things? Do we have to do such things?" I told him I've been in touch with another agent, and that there was no mention of such "fees". He told me I can go to that agent, and our conversation ended there and then.

I immediately called the agent I have been dealing with before mum found another one today recommended by her youngest sister. Hitherto, the guy has asserted that in my mum's case it should not be a problem to get approval to hire a foreign carer. And I asked him what if it is a problem. "Then we'll have to find an alternative way..." he told me. And I understood what he meant.

"So how much? How much do we need to pay?"

With this one, it was NT35-40,000 (US$1200-1500). I again became insulted, for it was simply robbery in broad daylight, and I was not going to take any part of this. I told him, in an attempt to humiliate him, that the previous agent I spoke to was cheaper.

There must be an alternative, an alternative other than having to pay money-greedy agents and administrators who have no soul, right?