Corporate philanthropists and Southern Democrats to save the the world?? This is truly frightening. They are motivated by nothing more than a progressive version of white man's burden. Their endeavors will do little to truly change the system that keeps us in a toxic environment-enviromental, political and otherwise. They will all stay rich and the world will remain dependent on their benevolence. I guess Clinton's welfare-to-work mothers will be excited to hear that the food and water they STILL can't afford will be clean and safe. Sounds great! Leadership at last.

I wanted to support Pamela's response to Madonna's adoption.

The West has taken it upon itself not only to destroy and enslave countries of color , but then, to rush in and rescue the impoverished inhabitants with "first" world NGO dollars and Western economic schemes, money from benevonlent ex-Microsoft executives or intelligence

community-connected aid like USAID.

Madonna could have done a lot of things. But like most affluent (white) folks she adopted because poor Afica is " cool" these days. Of course it's also a cheap celebrity stunt to steal back the headlines for her sagging career, and to keep up with the celebrity Joneses.

One day I hope for a world where children are lifted from poverty and disease by community led international intervention aginst the white man's and women's military and economic war machine and their philanthropic cleaning crew.

I can't believe you wrote a three page article about a little white machine created to make money and keep people coming back for more brand worship.

An article about how Steve Jobs/ Apple will or should tackle the problem of high concentrations lead in his machines would be more worthy.

The ipod has impacted the way local communities who assemble (or strip) these little miracle machines fare in with regards to their health.

Dear Ms. Price,

I am glad you wrote about this topic because, as someone who travels quite a bit, it has been on my mind. You question that perhaps female sex tourists aren’t so icky because they don’t have that male physical and institutional power. However, you didn’t talk about the fact that race and not just economic or gender privilege play an enormous role here.

For centuries, whites have had the luxury to travel to other continents seeking the "exotic" and ever since white women began the long journey toward equality –with white men- they too have used people of color for their pleasure, whether it’s for Mexican holidays by the cabana, Kenyan sex, cheap childcare or celebrity photo-ops. Race IS power and white women wield it just as strongly and abusively as men, but we just don’t talk about it.

The US approach to incarcerated women and their children is no better. Here we separate the mothers and the children right away and often send these children to foster care where they live, often, in abusive, neglected, and cramp conditions. Many times, these kids never make it out of the foster care system and many times lose contact with their mothers.

Allowing mothers and their children to stay together in prison is meant to keep that early and important bond between mother and child strong and help ensure that they stay connected as the child leaves the prison. Foster care for its part, is meant to take care children- temporarily- who parents truly can't for what ever reason. Despite the major downsides to both, the point is that both ideas in principle are good ones but in practice, however they don't necessarily end up being good ideas. Our societies at large have done little to actually make these options safe and positive.

The answer? An end to the the prison industrial complex and the creation of a real system of rehabilitation for women who have made mistakes or have major problems in their lives, where they can keep their kids with them, safely. And, if that fails, a foster care system, that truly protects and nurtures children who should not be anywhere near their mothers for one reason or another or just need a safe and mostly temporary place to be while them mother gets help. Making sure this happen is up to us a society as a whole to fight for.

How many times do I have to read letters from "brilliant" special people who have had the opportunities of a lifetime, and otherwise fantastic lives, but who just can't stay with it. Are your panic attacks debilitating and lock you at home in you bathrobe and slippers? Would they stop you from running away to that exotic location again and getting top honors in some other degree? Are you living on the street? Are you poor? Cold? Hungry? Do you want for the basic necessities in life? No?

Get a grip. Take some zanax, or yoga or somatic therapy and be grateful for your opportunities. Take a breather, it's ok to go from thing to thing in your 20's. Be ready for anything and do everything with gusto, and perhaps something will come along that will keep you grounded professionally. Whine too much and you may just miss it.

So, give yourself a break! But also give the rest of us a break by not writing any more "poor me" letters.

This is most inane article I have ever read. It's not even funny! It's stereotypical to boot.