According to local lore, the tradition began as a way to prevent hyenas from attacking local children by keeping them outside of the city. Today, it’s a way to make a living from Ethiopia’s small tourist trade.

Worldfocus correspondent Martin Seemungal reports from Ethiopia’s coffee country, where farmers are deciding to plant corn and khat, a leafy drug that is chewed with stimulating effects somewhere between caffeine and cocaine.

For more on Worldfocus’ coverage on Ethiopia, click here. Listen to Worldfocus Radio on Entrepreneurship in Ethiopia. Watch the PBS Wide Angle film “The Market Maker” about one woman who has created a commodities exchange and revolutionized agricultural distribution in the country.

For more on Worldfocus’ coverage on Ethiopia, click here.

For more on Worldfocus’ coverage on Ethiopia, click here.

As Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal reports, even building a subway in Rome is a delicate journey through ancient treasures.

Also, explore an interactive map of Rome’s Metro.

But as Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal reports, the costs of maintaining it all has some Romans worried it could break the bank.

For more, experience ancient Rome in recreated virtual world.

Worldfocus was nominated for an Emmy in the “Best story in a regularly scheduled newscast” category for our coverage of the “Crisis in Congo” (Executive Producer: Marc Rosenwasser, Correspondent: Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center, Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Taylor Krauss). The “Crisis in Congo” videos also won the 2009 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the international television category.

Pascal and Vestine are alive, but still not home

Rape as a weapon of war

Worldfocus was also nominated for an Emmy in the “Outstanding feature story in a regularly scheduled broadcast” for our coverage of “21st Century Africa” (Executive Producer: Marc Rosenwasser, Correspondent: Martin Seemungal, Producer: Yuval Lion).

China strengthens trading ties in Africa

Middle class sprawls in Nairobi, Kenya

Tech advances rev up across Africa

Rwanda aims for one laptop per child

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal reports from Spain.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal traveled recently to southern Spain, to the region of Andalucia, where he discovered that almost that almost no one is immune from the global recession — not even the many olive growers there.

Worldfocus correspondent Martin Seemungal reports from the town of Vila Real in eastern Spain, where many people make their living making tiles. Suddenly, no one wants or needs what they make.

Martin Seemungal took to the skies with one of Spain’s budget airplanes.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal writes about what it’s like to be a mobile journalist and vents about his luggage in Spain.

I’m a frequent traveler, but rarely fly on budget airlines. But when I learned an upcoming assignment would be in Spain, a friend told me ”Fly with Vueling!” It’s the Spanish version of Ryanair or Easyjet…and so began my experience with a so-called “budget” airlines.

I had heard many stories about flying with budget airlines: The mad scramble for the elusive seat was a particular favorite and always somehow reminded me of the running with the bulls — only a lot less romantic.

But the crux of this whole matter is luggage. In general, when it comes to budget airlines, it seems you can’t take very much of anything. You can’t take much on the plane and you can’t put much in the plane down below.

When you start the whole process with Vueling, there’s a bunch of rules and regulations — the ones few people read — and somewhere in there is a number 20Kg, which is associated with a word: Suitcase.

You begin the booking procedure, departure and return dates, and then there’s a little box titled “suitcases for check in” which allows you to book/buy a suitcase, should you wish to. If you click on the dropdown you’ll get the option of choosing how many you would like to book/buy.

Now, I’m a television journalist and I travel with two checked bags. So, I chose to pay a small fee for two suitcases. Somewhere in all the warnings, you’re told that if you show up at check-in without paying for whatever it is you’re carrying, you will be charged more. I bought my ticket with two suitcases, confident I had covered all the bases.

Two and a half weeks later, I showed up at the check-in desk in Barcelona with the same two bags, armed with my computer printout. I put my bags on the scale and was immediately told “You have more than 20kg; you’ll have to pay for 25kg excess.”

At that point, I whipped out my printout and pointed to the fact I had already paid for two suitcases. I was prepared to pay for 5kg extra but an additional 20kg was outrageous.

It had no effect. I was told that each passenger is only allowed 20kg of checked baggage. “But I paid for two suitcases — surely that means another 20kg,” I argued.

But I was told that the number of suitcases has “nothing to do with the weight you are allowed.”

I was stunned. “You can’t be serious,” I said. But she was.

“Did you check the FAQs?” she said. “It’s all there.” I went to the relevant bit of the FAQs and came away no further ahead. Passengers can check in up to 20kg of luggage at a cost of 10 euro per flight and suitcase it stated. It then goes on to say that the maximum checked-in weight per passenger is 50Kg. I found it all ambiguous at best, misleading at worst.

I asked to see the supervisor. Despite my protests, he confirmed that, yes, that was the rule — 20kg per passenger, and you have to pay extra for every kilo above that. In the heat of our discussion, he then came out with a line I will never forget: “Sir, you can buy six suitcases if you want, but you’re still only allowed to take 20kg of checked luggage.”

I waited a moment before saying anything, hoping the silence would help amplify the insanity of his remark.

“Well, who would do that?” I said quietly. “Who would buy six suitcases to carry 20kg?”

“Sir, you’re not the first person who has had this kind of problem. Technically you’re supposed to fly back on your return flight under the same conditions as your outward flight. Of course, if you want to fly with the extra weight you’ll have to pay, but if you contact the airline maybe you’ll get a refund.”

I had no choice but to pay the equivalent of about $260 U.S. I later went online and filed an official complaint stating the process is misleading and asking for a refund.

It seems it wouldn’t take much to clear up the ambiguity. Somewhere near the part where you have the dropdown to buy one or two or FIVE suitcases. There should be a clear explanation that in fact: “The number of suitcases has no relation to the amount of checked luggage you are allowed.” Something like that. Or “You can buy all the suitcases you want but we strongly advise you not to put anything in most of them.”

I think if people saw that, they’d make sure to buy one suitcase and one suitcase only and fill it with 20kgs and only 20kgs.

I still haven’t heard back from Vueling, but I did get one of those automatically generated survey things telling me I was a valued and esteemed customer and asking me to comment on my recent flight with Vueling.

They can’t be serious!

- Martin Seemungal

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Dr. Jaus under a Creative Commons license.

A sign outside a restaurant in Madrid says “Here, you can smoke.”

In 2006, Spain banned smoking in offices, hospitals, schools and enclosed spaces. Worldfocus correspondent Martin Seemungal is currently reporting from Spain. He writes that three years after the law banned smoking, the air is still thick with smoke.

Spain — a nice place to visit and a great place to live.

That’s certainly the impression you get speaking to just about anyone who has ever been here. They talk about the food, the wine, the weather, the friendly people and the atmosphere.

All that is true. But there’s one little tidbit of information they seem to have left out: The smoke.

Amid great national debate, Spain “imposed” a smoking ban three years ago. You’d never know it. Traveling around in Barcelona, Valencia and down in Andalusia, it’s not easy finding a smoke-free environment to eat in. As far as I can tell, virtually all the bars and cafés are smoke-filled, not smoke-free.

As it turns out, it’s the law’s fault. It gives restaurant and bar/café owners an option. They can, if they wish, declare their establishment “smoke-free.”  Or, they can put up a sign making it clear that “smoking is permitted.”

Of course, they have to clearly demarcate smoking and non-smoking sections, but in tiny Barcelona cafés — in winter, with the doors and window shut — it makes no difference.

I travel a lot, and in recent months my travels have taken me to France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy. I have never had to leave a place because a smoker “lit up” next to me, or walk in only to have to turn around and walk out again because of thick cigarette smoke. In Spain, I spent nearly an hour once trying to find a smoke free place to eat.

I believe there may well be more smokers in Spain than anywhere in the world. That’s certainly the way it seems. And they’re not all Spanish: I listen intently to the accents and have heard those of many different nationalities, many of them from European countries with strict smoking laws.

Of course, this is all very serious to organizations like Spain’s National Committee for the Prevention of Tobacco Addiction. It has released figures which underscore the impotence of the smoking ban. In the three years since the “ban” came into place, the number of adult smokers in Spain is pretty much the same — it’s gone from 24.2 percent to 24.1 percent.

The number of smoking-related deaths is also incredibly high at 50,000 every year. Given the way things are going in sunny Spain, that seems unlikely to change.

- Martin Seemungal

Watch for Worldfocus’ upcoming series on Spain in the coming weeks.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user DavidDennisPhotos.com under a Creative Commons license.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal explores the rising poverty in South Africa’s white community.

Mob violence in cities like Cape Town and smaller communities has led to the creation of camps to which foreigners escape for safety. Tracey Saunders volunteers at these camps and speaks about South Africa’s difficulties with cultural integration.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal explores the ongoing problems faced by South Africa’s immigrants.

Listen to an extended interview with Dr. Xolela Mangcu of the Platform for Public Deliberation. He discusses the widening class divisions in the country. Some footage in the below video is courtesy of Filmmakers Against Racism.

Dr. Xolela Mangcu of the Platform for Public Deliberation and the Social Cohesion and Identity Research Programme discusses this divide and the failure of a liberated people to meet the demands of the Mandela promise.

Mobile testing units like the one featured in the video below offer free test results and spread the message that living with HIV is not a death sentence, but a chronic disease.

Worldfocus correspondent Martin Seemungal’s signature story “AIDS ravages 1,000 per day in South Africa” explores South Africa’s AIDS epidemic in further detail.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal, who has covered Africa for almost 20 years, explores the stigma and denial of AIDS in the province of Kwazulu-Natal in South Africa.

Also, watch the web original video: Fighting the stigma and treating HIV across South Africa

But a gap still exists today between have and have-nots, and many of the poor are black. They may be equal on paper, but because of impoverished conditions, many still feel unequal.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal takes look at the “new” South Africa, beginning in Soweto, a former black township in Johannesburg that came to symbolize the repressive “old” days.

Below, bloggers in South Africa and elsewhere discuss the state of race relations in the country. Also watch an extended interview: Class divisions widen in racially free South Africa.

Blogger “Ellie” at “PostBourgie” writes about what Barack Obama’s election meant to black South Africans:

Being abroad for Obama’s election was bittersweet. [...] True, the country has only been free from apartheid for 15 years, but the level of physical segregation and economic disparity are shocking by any standard. Life in the townships, where most Blacks and Coloureds are relegated, is a life of poverty and little opportunity, especially with regard to education.It’s often hard to see change coming; in one city, I saw a segregated toilet facility at a gas station. At least 20 women were in line waiting for the one toilet for Blacks, yet the Whites Only toilet remained locked and unoccupied, guarded by a Black employee. When I asked her how this could possibly exist, she told me that Blacks deserve this treatment because “we’re dirty and we don’t know how to flush.” I wanted to tell her that she was beautiful, and just as good as anybody else, but all I could do was walk away in shock. Black South Africans may be in charge of the government, but White South Africans control the two most important things: the money, and the minds of a people who have been taught to think of themselves as an inferior race.

Still, South Africans have an incredible sense of optimism and hope. This became especially clear to me after Obama was elected. [...] Why are South Africans so excited about Obama? Because, deep in their hearts, they are yearning for their own campaign of change, unity, and hope. Black presidents in South Africa have brought an end to legal racial segregation, but have failed to lift the overwhelming majority of South Africans out of dire poverty. What many South Africans are looking for is a candidate who won’t win the Black vote because he’s Black, or the White vote because he’s White, but a candidate whose vision of a better country inspires everyday citizens across color lines. That’s what Obama has done, and that’s what South Africa desperately needs to begin to heal the racial wounds of the past.

A blogger at “SA Expats” writes about why s/he moved away from the country, as one of many white South Africans who have left:

Granted, there are scores of white South Africans that left purely on racial grounds. Good riddance for SA, bad for the places they are staying know. However if you are still under perception it is only white people leaving SA, you’ll be sadly surprised.

The fact is more and more educated South Africans of all races find it hard to make ends meet in SA. When more than a third of your work forcé are unemployed, they need to do something…

I purely left because of a better work opportunity. I was reaching a stage in my professional career where affirmative action was stopping me from progressing. Although I understand the economic need for affirmative action and redistribution of income, I need to feed myself and my family and wasn’t going to “take one for the team.” Why should I, whom had no say in the previous apartheid regime, suffer for the sins of my forefathers? I wasn’t ready to live a life of poverty and constant struggling for the “greater good.”

I was also constantly concerned about safety in SA. You all know how it is. Yes, people say, “we should work together to make the country a better place.” I agree, we should, but it doesn’t seem the criminals care to much about that sentiment.

In her recent introductory post, South African blogger “MizzLee” paints a glowing image of progress since apartheid:

I’m a South African and as a South African I face many little “landmines” everyday. . . .Taxi’s, The Ekhuruleni Town Council, Potholes and power failures. As a way to passively get rid of all my frustration and perhaps get some insight I have decided to start blogging. Not only for my own sanity, but also to show the world how truly wonderful South Africa is, how far we’ve come since apartheid, how rich we are with culture and diversity and last but not least how South Africa truly is the best place on earth

However, in a later post, the same blogger deplores rampant crime and ineffective police:

My family and I have been living in the same house for just over 4 years now. The area is good and crime is relatively low in comparison to our neighbouring suburbs, but all that changed last week when the family 2 houses from me found themselves tied up and all their possessionswhere being loaded up into their own car by the thieves. [...]But as we all know South Africa is the land of crime with out punishment.

A map at United For Africa invites South Africans to document continuing xenophobic attacks in their country.

In Wide Angle’s Road to Riches, learn about Uthingo, the consortium of black-empowerment companies that manages the national lottery.

The One Laptop Per Child program (OLPC) launched in Rwanda in October with the aim of providing computer access to the country’s 2.3 million schoolchildren. President Paul Kagame has supported the program and efforts to expand schooling and educational resources in the country.

Worldfocus correspondent Martin Seemungal travels to Rwamagana, Rwanda — once a site of the country’s 1994 genocide, now the site of technological transformation.

Below, read what bloggers are saying about the laptop initiative from Rwanda to Peru.

Blogger “Brian,” an OLPC intern, posts his account of bringing laptops to children in Kigali, Rwanda.

Blogger “DSD” — another OLPC intern — writes from Ethiopia, describing how the laptops excite children in the country’s bare schools.

From Peru, blogger “Ivan Krstić” returns to the town of Arahuay one year after OLPC brought laptops to children there, writing that despite his skepticism, the program has brought about real change.

However, some bloggers express continued doubts about the OLPC program’s effectiveness.

The “Hyper Edge” blog argues that money could be better spent on food and infrastructure projects.

The “Thoughts on Freedom” blog writes from Australia that the program is flawed, as it does not take into account long-term maintenance costs and more pressing needs in rural communities.

The price of the so-called “$100 laptop” has in fact grown to over $188 in past years, though OLPC plans to introduce a newly-designed laptop at a cheaper price by 2010.