Oprah Winfrey is doing more harm than good in Africa.

Education is never wasted, period. It's an ethical goal in and of itself, regardless of whether it is put to "use" or not.Aside from that - nothing will ever improve at all without education. You're operating from a false dilemma, assuming that the only two choices are A) uneducated bare subsistence living, and B) an American lifestyle. You don't need to live like a wealthy American to have improved over the status quo, which is an obviously attainable and worthwhile goal.Differences in culture are irrelevant to education: critical thinking skills, knowledge of science, history, mathematics, the ability to read, all are completely culturally neutral, unless your culture somehow idolizes stupidity.The only time education and culture conflict is when facts contradict long-held superstitions. Of course, eliminating superstitions and giving a greater understanding of how the world really works is part of the point, isnt it. Perhaps they'll take issue with Evolution vs their own flavor of Creation...but then, we have that problem here, too.

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When you know you're going to wake up in three days, dying is not a sacrifice. It's a painful inconvenience.

Mmmm hmmm.Improvements couldn't possibly be due to education, food supplies, or medicine. no, they must be due to the blessings of your "god."I will grant you that much of the charity work done in Africa is done by Christians in general, and Christian missions in particular.Of course, the AIDS epidemic in Africa has been drastically worsened by "abstinence-only" education and claims for instance that condoms somehow cause HIV and AIDS, and these teachings are religious in nature with no basis in fact.I'd also like to point out that Zimbabwe, a very Christian nation, is a shithole thanks to its president Mugabe. Their superstitions recently allowed them to be hoodwinked by a scam artist into believing that diesel fuel could come from a magic rock when struck with a stick, exactly as Moses did with water in the OT. Turns out a woman had found a misplaced tank of diesel and run a hose, and used an accomplice to turn on the diesel - but Mugabe and his goons bought it after observing the flowing fuel, and paid her a hefty sum of money before the scam was uncovered.Superstitions are bad when they conflict with objective fact, Buzsaw, bar none.

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When you know you're going to wake up in three days, dying is not a sacrifice. It's a painful inconvenience.

Is she forcing anyone? If not, then she most certainly is asking. Is she forcing conversions to Christianity? Is she moving people off of their land?Your comparison to the Australian aboriginals is one of apples to oranges. Setting up a school is very different from oppressing indigenous people.

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When you know you're going to wake up in three days, dying is not a sacrifice. It's a painful inconvenience.