Martin Henry

They took my roll-on, they took my spray-on, they even took my toothpaste. Trouble is, this was on the way back. I had travelled forward through three checks without any confiscation.

Not a frequent flyer, I had not been into the United States since 9/11. I had just returned from London, one of my favourite non-Jamaican places, only a couple of days before 9/11. I was at home watching morning TV, a rare activity, when the towers came down like a movie, not news that would change the world.

The voice over the airport intercom sombrely warned that making inappropriate jokes and comments could lead to arrest. The police state implications of the warning may have escaped most travellers stressed with the security demands. But here is a law with no clear specifications which therefore can mean anything that the arrester chooses for it to mean. And had already told a travelling colleague that we had a lot of time to kill. That could well have landed me in an American jail to become a deportee after serving time for inappropriately remarking about killing. Never mind that the intended victim was only time.

Naked

United States Immi-gration has to be cleared shoeless. They didn't do that at Norman Manley. I felt naked. A safety marshal at one airport was so loud and boisterous in bellowing instructions like at a cattle auction that a colleague had to ask him to tone down so she could hear.

Immigration officers pack pistols. I wondered how those could be used in crowded concourses should a security threat arise. But then the United States Air Force has had orders to shoot down passenger planes that will not obey orders. Security for whom? How much collateral damage?

But pleasant surprises can come at the end of long, unpleasant journeys. Our destination at the end of three planes and 75 miles of ground transfer, was Oklahoma State University (OSU). In the midst of intensive discussions with fine hosts on a large, beautiful campus in the heart of America it turns out that OSU has strong ties to Ethiopia!

The story: after World War II, President Truman did not only create the better known Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of the defeated Axis powers, his administration created a four-point plan for using American technology to assist in the development of what came to be called Third World countries. USAID has grown out of that initiative. The American government challenged the universities, particularly the land grant A & M - agricultural and mechanical state universities to take up the challenge. Henry Bennett, the legendary and visionary president of OSU at the turn of the '50s was quick in leading his university into four-point action. And Ethiopia was their first stop. An agricultural college was built in Ethiopia. OSU, a strong agriculture school, sent staff there and transferred skills there.

Items, photographs

Several items of Ethiopian memorabilia, finely crafted, are on display at OSU. And several photographs or H.I.M. Haile Selassie I with OSU staff.

When I told the Coordinator of International Education and Outreach in the very impressive School of International Studies that our Jamaica had strong spiritual and cultural ties with Ethiopia, it turned out that this young American mid-west white man, like millions of others around the world was a serious Marley fan. For him Marley was a spiritual leader and prophet of peace and love. He spoke of the quarter century dead Reggae King in reverence and awe. Even Marley's early death was laden with spiritual significance for this man.

So, in between meetings at OSU crammed into our National Heroes' Day and tour-guided by two Jamaican students, I am photographed holding the Ethiopian flag and standing next to a finely crafted shield hundreds of years old. An Ethiopian student is introduced to us looking for all the world like a mix of Haile Selassie and Robert Marley. The Jamaican flag flaps proudly in front of the School of International Studies. Nearly 60 years after Ethiopia, Oklahoma State University is ready to do business with Jamaica. And we have a promise to fulfil: Marley CDs for our new friend at OSU's School of International Studies.