Myanmar

Even a calamity the size of Cyclone Nargis hasn't stopped construction in the newly built capital of Naypyitaw (nay-pee-DAW), Senior Gen. Than Shwe's extravagant vanity project. The junta leader and his team of generals have overseen its making since 2005.

Than Shwe's rising Shangri-La of officialdom contrasts starkly with the misery in the rest of the country, one of the poorest and most repressed in the world.