Motherhood for the Phobic

After decades of living in and associating with Africa, I've gotten to see to some talented dictators do their thing.  It looks pretty fun (for them).  I remember the first time I saw Kenya's President Moi ride by in his motorcade.  I was sitting there minding my own business in 4th grade, when all of a sudden, our teachers ushered us outside and down the road to the main highway.  "President Moi will be coming by soon," they said. "You must wave and smile and shout 'Nyayo' [his nickname, which means something like peace and unity. So cute and inspiring and ironic]." OK, I thought, I can do that.  A few minutes later, there he was, standing up through the sun roof in his limo, waving his super fancy, extremely official ceremonial stick at us while we cheered.

That's got to feel good.  Especially giving yourself a flattering nickname that pretty much denies the whole reality surrounding you and pretending everyone has gotten together and decided…