I just bought myself a new Porsche. It looks stunning from the outside. Inside, it’s a snug but supremely comfortable fit. The leather is glove-soft and oh-so-supple. The grippy low-profile rubber underneath is a high-tech asymmetric combination of smooth racing slicks and an aggressive unidirectional tread pattern.
Needless to say, it performs fantastically. I even brought it to Carmona Racing Circuit last weekend for a karting clinic with my kids where it got a few heads turning.
The best part is… I got it for a mere 3,600 pesos. (It was on sale, marked down from a retail price of P4,500.)
Typographical error? Missed a few zeroes? Peso appreciated 1,000 percent over the week?
Hardly. I’m talking about my new Porsche Design adidas driving shoes (and it really is a piece of work).
But why the heck would I waste precious column inches in a motoring section talking about an inconsequential topic such as shoes?
For the exact same reason that so many column inches have been wasted editorializing and philosophizing about the President’s recent purchase of a used Porsche, the news of which broke last week and sent too many unfortunate people on a downward spiral of moralizing and intrigue-sowing.
I admit I am actually wasting paper and ink talking about a subject that seems to have brought nothing but sanctimoniousness in otherwise well-meaning and intelligent people. And I promise that this will be the last time I will comment – on paper and online – about this matter.
I also sincerely hope that people will stop carping about said presidential purchase.
You see, what really gets my goat is how so many people are so quick to point out how “wrong” (or “insulting,” or “immoral,” or “unethical;” their words not mine) it is for a leader of a poverty-stricken republic to squander millions on a car when a Toyota Vios or Altis (heck, or even a Camry if you want to be a bit more generous) could very well do the same job of point A-to-point B transportation but with much less ostentation. Some even liken it to Imelda’s 3,000 pairs of shoes.
At face value, that kind of reasoning does seem reasonable and appropriate. But – even discounting the fact that I’m a diehard car enthusiast whose dreams, too, include owning a Porsche – that very rationale is itself fraught with self-righteousness and hypocrisy.
First of all PNoy, years even before he became president, has never hidden the fact that he appreciates cars. Secondly, the man can obviously afford it. I know several people who own these fine German sports cars and they’re not even remotely related to the Cojuangcos, let alone have that middle name.
And look, the guy bought a used Porsche (for whatever it’s worth, because I will not attempt to rationalize PNoy’s decision to buy a used car instead of a brand new one).
All I know is that once I’ve been able to save up roughly half-a-million pesos (which is less than the price of a brand-new Toyota Vios, the country’s best-selling car) of disposable income, I would immediately go out and look for a mid-80s Porsche 944 (assuming I’m equally successful at convincing my wife, which is probably harder than saving 500 grand), one of the best performing cars of its time – perhaps even today.
Why that car? Because I love Porsches (old and new) and because that’s the only Porsche I can realistically afford without having to win the lotto. Okay… and because I’m having a freakin’ midlife crisis, that’s what! Happy now? But before you think I’m a spokesperson for Porsche, I love Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Maseratis just as much; in fact since I was a kid. (The trick is finding a Vios-priced used Ferrari or Lamborghini…)
But does that make me biased with regards to PNoy’s Porsche purchase? Hell, no!
What it does is make me irritated with so many do-gooders who are so quick to point out the wrong-ness of such a presidential decision. Too many columnists and bloggers, in just about every broadsheet, tabloid and blog, have elucidated their views on its inappropriateness.
Most of them rationalize with this simplistic bottom-line reasoning: (Even if he can afford it), it sends the wrong message to the people.
Duh! What are we, a bunch of impressionable 8-year-olds?!? Double duh! This is precisely the kind of crab mentality that keeps us from achieving our true potential as a great nation.
“I can’t afford a Porsche so you damn well shouldn’t be buying one!” Is that how we should be thinking? Boy if that’s how Singaporeans thought about their leader Lee Kuan Yew, that tiny city-state, which has way fewer natural resources than our 7,000-plus islands, would be much poorer than us – not a fully developed First World state that’s the envy of the rest of the region.
Now Porsches are a dime a dozen in Singapore. You need to have a Lamborghini to be a “somebody” there.
But here in the Philippines, people are up in arms because the President bought a Porsche and – ¡Que horror! – is actually driving it on our city streets. Would they be spewing so much red ink if he spent the same value (I heard it was between P4-5 million) on rare Louis Vuitton trunks? Or if he bought the same amount worth of original masterpieces? Or four million pesos’ worth of vintage Rolexes?
I doubt it. I don’t even think journalists would try to scoop each other to break the news (as what had happened when people first heard about the then-rumored Porsche purchase). They might even compliment the prez for having fine taste in art or timepieces.
But a Porsche? “Masyadong mainit sa mata…what will people think?” Wow, I pity this country if the majority of opinion makers have this opinion. It’s pathetic. If that Porsche means so much to them, then they should vote for a monk who has taken a vow of poverty come next elections.
You say a President should be beyond reproach? You want a perfect President? Then vote for Jesus Christ. Because no man will ever be perfect. The most we can wish for is a reasonably competent President who will not enrich himself or his cohorts while in office – something that we certainly didn’t get with the previous administration.
Please, let’s not get fixated over a single car that was, in all likelihood, bought with legitimate funds – when past administrations have stolen billions of our hard-earned money right before our eyes.
I don’t know about those editorial do-gooders. All I know is I wasn’t born with the kind of wealth or inheritance that will allow me to buy such luxuries without having to work for it. Which is why I just work my butt off day in and day out to hopefully afford even a few of those luxuries someday. Don’t we all?
What I won’t waste my time on is wallow in envy and hypocrisy. Now stop whining and start working! Then when we’re all successful, we can honk and wave to each other from inside our Porsche 911 Turbos. Maybe.
Oh, and by the way, I didn’t vote for PNoy.