I was very privileged this morning to appear as a guest on C-Span's Washington Journal talking about foreign policy in the 2012 election. We had some great questions on immigration, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, as well as one dude who is currently bragging to his friends that he managed to drop an F-bomb on live television.

Check it out!

In other FP media news, on yesterday's Meet the Press, David Gregory pressed Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to respond to comments by Bill Clinton, first reported by my colleague Josh Rogin. Not too shabby!

The Dalai Lama shook up 370 years of tradition last March when he announced that he would step down from his post as the political leader of the Tibetan government in exile. Over the weekend the Nobel laureate shook things up again, saying: "When I am about ninety I will... re-evaluate whether the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue or not."

But Beijing and Dharamsala don't see eye to eye on much, and reincarnation is no exception. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hong Lei told journalists on Monday that "the title of Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government and is illegal otherwise... the reincarnation of any living Buddha, including the Dalai Lama, should respect the religious rules, historical standards and state laws and regulations." China claims authority over this process based on the histories of its ancient emporers, whereas Tibetan's believe in finding the manifestations of the continuous mindstreams of their leaders.

Recently, China has asserted itself on the issue by appointing its own successors to Tibetan positions. Today's Panchen Lama, currently nominated for the Chinese version of the Nobel prize, was appointed by the Chinese government days after they arrested the Dalai Lama's own appointment (who hasn't been heard from since 1995.)

In handing off political power, the Dalai Lama hoped to prevent any instability his death and reincarnation might bring to Tibet. But China seems intent not to let him off that easy.

Chinese ambitions in Africa have been no secret to Western policymakers. In the past 7 years, Beijing has devoted over $14 billion dollars to Africa, through a mixture of aid for resources packages and direct investment. However, the outcome of this weekend's Zambian presidential election could be an indication that the policy is beginning to backfire. Four-time candidate, and former train station sweeper Michael "King Cobra" Sata, was confirmed as the winner last Friday.

The Global Post reports:

Sata referred to Chinese investors as "infesters." He called for Chinese migrant workers to be expelled from Zambia. And he described Taiwan as a country, breaching Beijing's obsessive "one China" policy, which considers Taiwan a rogue province rather than an independent nation. China threatened to cut ties with Zambia if Sata won.

China responded to Banda's defeat with the same pragmatism as it had toward the loss of friendly regimes in South Sudan and Libya: It tried to befriend the new boss.

"As a friendly country of Zambia, China respects the Zambian people's choice and would like to work with Zambia to promote friendship and expand mutually beneficial cooperation across the board," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in Beijing.

But privately, the Chinese government must be worried. Sata has said he may implement capital controls aimed at keeping foreign-exchange earnings in Zambia, Africa's biggest copper producer and a country that has seen strong economic growth averaging 6 percent over the last three years. Foreign-exchange controls would prevent Chinese companies from sending their profits home to China.

China relies extensively on its investment and foreign aid apparatus to bolster its soft power on the continent. A white paper released this past April by the Chinese government went into more detail about the different components and extent of their operations. A significant portion of the monies are channeled through various Chinese state owned corporations and banks to the countries that they have ties with, including resources hubs Angola, D.R Congo, Sudan, and Zambia.

It will also trouble China Inc., as the election served as a vote of no confidence against their existing projects within the country. As the Economist covered in April, the reputation of Chinese companies has been slowly crumbling with the regular reports of poor working conditions, routine bribery and environmental damage. In Zambia, a Chinese built road was washed away by rainfall.

While Sata's election will not deter  the Chinese from further investing in Zambia, it could signal the beginning of a trend in African politics for candidates to run on anti-Chinese platforms.  Much in the way that prominent Latin American leaders such as Hugo Chavez ran on U.S-bashing platforms, African countries could see the beginnings of a similar type of movement to protest the wider abuses stemming from Chinese involvement. How it affects further economic relations will be seen in the coming months.

Thanks to a sluggish economy and slightly less astronomical Wall Street bonuses, New Yorkers apparently no longer move snowflakes by the OZ. The New York Post reports:

Cocaine-related emergency-room admissions, overdoses and requests for rehab have declined since the economy started its 2008 decline, according to data obtained by The Post.

“It is sort of on a slight but steady downward trend,” said Dr. Stephen Ross, director of NYU’s Langone Center of Excellence on Addiction. “I treat patients in private practice. Many cocaine addicts tell me stories they don’t have enough money to buy it anymore.”

There were 478 “accidental” deaths in which cocaine was a factor, typically overdoses, in New York City in 2006, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

That number plunged to just 274 in 2010.

Powder-cocaine addicts typically shell out $60 to $80 a gram, so perhaps the high cost of blow is why also a smaller number of people -- 7,693 -- sought treatment for cocaine addiction in New York City last year, according to the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services. That number is a drop from 9,654 in 2008.

Decline-o-meter score: 3

This might be an indicator of a slower economy, but it also might not be the worst thing -- for their own health and the global economy -- for aspiring masters-of-the-universe to lay off the nose candy. 

Mexican President Felipe Calderón said at the U.N. last week that the United States and other consumer countries are "morally obliged" to reduce the demand for narcotics. Perhaps the recession may help accomplish that. On the other hand, as White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske told FP in an interview this year, "We've become much better at producing drugs in the United States." American jobs!

Hat tip: Mike Nizza

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - SEPTEMBER 22: South Korean prostitutes hide their identities as they participate in a rally on September 22, 2005 in Seoul, South Korea. Nearly seven years after tough laws began driving thousands of South Korean prostitutes out of business, sex workers of the red-light district are fighting back, spurred by what they say is an unprecedented campaign of police harassment.

This past weekend, Bill Easterly, author and former World Bank Economist, put out a challenge over his Twitter to create "witty decoding for development buzzwords" based on the 40 Publishing Buzzwords. That challenge rendered the AidSpeak Dictionary, a compilation of some of the words that Dr. Easterly picked out and put on his website. Some of the highlights include:

"civil society involvement": consulting the middle class employee of aUS or European NGO -@dangay

 "field experience" : I can't bear DC anymore -@MarianaSarastiM

"innovation" : we're sexy, you want to be associated with us -@DarajaTz

"sustainable" : will last at least as long as the funding -@thejoeturner

"tackling root causes of poverty" : repackaging what we've already done in a slightly more sexy font -@thejoeturner

The dictionary comes in time for this weekend's IMF and World Bank meetings. Look for more definitions from Walter Russell Mead's blog or from Dr. Easterly's Twitter.

Here's another entry from the world of advertising. This time it's a new ad for the Audi A6, via Jalopnik:

Voiceover: The road is not exactly a place of intelligence. Across the nation, over 100,000 miles of highways and bridges are in disrepair. Add to that, countless distractions every mile, millions of ill-equipped vehicles, half-a-million cubic yards of debris, and the 38 million drivers who couldn't pass the drivers' exam today... even if road signs actually did make sense. 

This is why we engineered a car that analyzes real-time information, reads your handwriting, and makes 2,000 decisions every second. 

The new Audi A6 is here. The road is now an intelligent place.  

Decline-o-meter score: 1

Good lord. Not only is a car commercial -- traditionally the domain of brash, fist-pumping Americana or at least salt-of-the-earth populism -- built around the downbeat topic of America's crumbling infrastructure, but it's a commercial for a German car! The message seems to be, America's roads are so bad, it's no longer safe to drive American cars on them. The post-apocalyptic hell-scape we call a highway system is only navigable in a high-end European luxury sedan. (As a side-note, I'm not really sure how a car that can read your handwriting is supposed to help you avoid distraction, but this isn't really my area of expertise.)

Addendum: Continuing with the car theme, one of my coworkers nominated Heinz's new Dip & Squeeze ketchup packet, made for less messy ketchup consumption while driving, as a sign of decline. But I see it as a sign that America's boundless ingenuity is still alive. Rating: 5