The Last Wild Virus

Abstract

There presently exists a very small and exclusive international association and although there are no officers, annual dinners, headquarters, tax-deductible subscriptions, or conferences, the members insist that they are incredibly privileged. The chances of meeting a member are remote for, in numbers just over seven hundred, they are scattered over the face of the earth — from the Philippines to Senegal, from Thailand to Colombia — in refugee camps or in health organizations. In the lapels of their jackets they wear a badge: less than a thumbnail’s width in diameter, as small as the Légion d’Honneur and worn with equal pride, it was designed by two Americans in Dacca, Bangladesh.

All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don’t know by what you do; that’s what I call, “Guessing what was at the other side of the hill. “It has been a damned serious business — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.

The Duke of Wellington on Waterloo, Croker Papers (1885), Vol. III, p. 276