Program 279: Visiting Post-Tsunami Japan; Living in the Arab Awakening

Guests from Egypt and Morocco discuss the "Arab Spring" movement and explain what the upheaval is about from an insider's perspective, and Rick chats with a Japanese-American tour organizer who's sending Americans to visit the region of Japan that was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami a year ago.

• Sho Dozono, CEO of Azumano Travel, and organizer of the Flight of Friendship trips to disaster zones
• Colin Clement, translator, tour guide, and antiquities expert with the French Archaeological Mission in Alexandria, Egypt
• Aziz Begdouri, tour guide based in Tangier, Morocco

• Sho Dozono is partnering with the non-profit relief agency Mercy Corps, which is providing ongoing relief work to the area of Japan that was affected by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster: http://www.mercycorps.org/countries/japan
• Sho Dozono's travel company is Azumano Travel, where he has an online profile: http://www.azumano.com/ and http://www.azumano.com/about/sho_dozono.html
• Colin Clement has written an article explaining the international effort to uncover ancient underwater ruins near Alexandria. It's on the website for the public television program Nova: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sunken/mapping.html
• An NPR correspondent based in Beirut describes what it is like for her to try to cover the continuing civil protests in Syria: http://transom.org/?p=24035&hq_e=el&hq_m=1559147&hq_l=28&hq_v=6926ae0c6f