Oprah Winfrey Slams School Critics  1/6/07

Oprah Winfrey has hit back at critics who insist she should be using her money to open schools for children in the US instead of South Africa - but admits she doesn't talk publicly about her America-based good deeds.

The media mogul opened a $40 million school for girls in the impoverished nation Tuesday (02JAN06) and slams critics who claim she isn't doing enough in her own country.

She says, "First of all, I am doing a lot in the United States, I just don't talk about it.

"What is different about this country (South Africa) is that there is this desperate yearning to know better and do better that you just don't have in the United States.

"You just don't have it, because the opportunity has always been there.

"My idea was to understand, 'Yes, you come from nothing. But oh, what a something you will become if given the opportunity.'"