Conflicted, but I don't really know why...

This morning on the way home from the Y, a story came across NPR. They were doing a story on Oprah and the $40 million school she built in South Africa. I must admit, I often have a knee-jerk reaction to Oprah and it's often not great. I can't decide how I feel about the school.

Actually, I know how I feel about the school. It's a fantastic thing. Educational opportunites for 150 7th grade-aged girls in Africa. Fantastic. Did I mention that another criteria for this school is that the family has to be under a certain income level. No doubt this school will be a great thing, and since Oprah owns...uh...earth maybe, it's great to see someone doing something with such a possibility of impact.

It's all the peripheral stuff that was in the report (and article in the local newspaper) that stirred the pot a little bit for me. The NPR reporter interviewed a couple of the accepted girls. Yup, Oprah hand selects all of the students in the school...all 150 of them. So, the girls get into the school and are asked a series of questions by the NPR reporters and their responses sounded so canned. Sounds insensative, I know, but they did. Each of the girls interviewed had aspirations to the presidency of South Africa.

On some level, it sounded like the girls knew what to say to Oprah to get in, and what to say to the reporters who were there at the opening. It almost reminded me of being in Mexico and having every person selling something, every child selling something even, saying the same thing. Even when one started to haggle with the owner of one of the markets, the verbage and pace and tone and everything was the same from person to person to person.

From all reports the facility has state of the art everything, and the idea for the place came from a conversation Oprah had with Nelson Mandela. Oprah even said in her speach upon opening the school that its opening was 'her destiny realized.' Of course, a new school should have state of the art everything. The library has books and computers and learning centers for the students to study...and fireplaces for them to read and study by...and a beauty salon...in the library. The rationale was that when you look and feel your best, you do your best. I can buy that...but not in a library. It toes a little too close to Starbucks in Barnes and Noble because people like to read with a hot drink in tow.

So, I'm conflicted, but not sure why. We should all expect a gazillionaire to give a little back, especially an American one since our great nation monopolizes so much of the worlds resources. Oprah gave back, and gives back time and time again. Shouldn't we in our own little corners of wherever we are?

Part 2 comes tomorrow: Why the church in its current state wouldn't probably be able to build something like this...

By the way, you can listen to the NPR report here or you can read the article here.