Like many other purpose-built administrative capitals - Brazil's Brasilia, Burma's Naypyidaw, Pakistan's Islamabad - its high-design layout hasn't managed to capture the heart and soul of the country it rules.
Burma's highly mobile migrant population may already be spreading the drug-resistant strain around the world.
The recent violence in Burma's Rakhine state makes it even more unlikely that they can return.
Ultimately, Burma's reforms will succeed or fail based on the efforts of the Burmese people themselves.
It comes from The Sound the Speed the Light, Mission of Burma's third post-reunion album, out Tuesday.
They also say they have learned that front-line forces in Burma's border areas are still on full rations.
BBC: Burma soldiers 'refusing tasks in pay, rations protest'
This visit has been interpreted as another sign that Burma's ruling generals want to lessen the country's international isolation.
Aung San Suu Kyi will try to win a seat in Burma's parliament in forthcoming by-elections, her party has confirmed.
The EU statement said visa bans would be suspended for Burma's President Thein Sein, vice-presidents, cabinet members and parliamentary speakers.
Burma's domestic industry - hampered, but also sheltered, by the years of isolation - now faces the chill wind of competition.
The World Bank expects Burma's economy to expand by 6.3% in the financial year 2012-13, up from 5.5% in the previous 12 months.
Five years ago, Cyclone Nargis struck Burma's Irrawaddy Delta region, killing at least 140, 000 people and leaving three million in urgent need of assistance.
Burma's economic isolation over the years has meant that a large part of its labour force has not been able to upgrade its skills.
Last year, Mission of Burma's original albums got the reissue treatment, and with that as a backdrop, the band has rounded into to form.
If the level of fighting does fall, then this just might be the beginning of the end of Burma's most active ethnic conflict, he says.
BBC: Burma government, Kachin rebels in deal to hold more talks
The former Bristol University student, a citizen of Britain and Australia, was arrested last year in the town of Tachilek, on Burma's border with Thailand.
Both Shan and Kachin states border China, Burma's biggest economic ally.
Her popularity also comes in part from being the daughter of General Aung San, a hero of Burma's campaign for independence from British rule in the 1940s.
Earlier, Burma's new parliament approved a motion calling for a ceasefire and peace talks to end the 18 months of fighting between the military and Kachin rebels.
With Burma's economy plunging deeper into crisis, the government acted to counter the threat and has, for the first time, officially outlawed forced labour and circulated the directive throughout the country.
Burma's new military-backed civilian government - which has embarked on a series of reforms since elections in November 2010 - has pledged to resolve conflicts in border areas with ethnic minority groups.
Burma's prime concern is the preparation for entry into the ASEAN Free Trade Area (Afta) and ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), as well as wanting to take its turn as ASEAN's chair in 2014.
As well as a being another sign of Burma's normalisation, the public new year celebration is also a reminder of the country's tantalising investor potential, the BBC's South East Asia correspondent Jonathan Head says.
Asia is one area where the smart power approach has paid off - a delicate balance between diplomacy, military ties with allies and support for reforms and reformers such as Burma's Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
Diplomats have routinely expressed concern about the safety of Burma's domestic airlines, which have been unable to modernise their fleets because of sanctions, and whose safety checks are not published, the BBC's south-east Asia correspondent Jonathan Head reports.
Last month, the US relaxed restrictions on investments and named Derek Mitchell, the State Department's coordinator for Burma policy, as the first ambassador to the country in 22 years.
At the top of Mrs Clinton's agenda here was North Korea's nuclear programme and Burma.
Hundreds of people in Burma have attended the country's first public gay pride event.
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