A motmot photographed in Guatemala in 2011, before the Guatemalan population was recognised as a separate species.Dominic Sherony · CC BY-SA 2.0
There's a bird in Guatemala that has just been recognised as its own species. It didn't arrive this week. People finally separated it from another bird they'd been grouping it with. It's the Guatemalan motmot, found only in the dry Motagua valley. The American Ornithological Society says differences in its feathers, calls and DNA support the split. “Endemic” is the word in the headlines; it just means this species lives naturally in that one place.
I went into this story expecting the naming part to be boring. Instead, I like that someone kept looking closely enough to say: hang on, these birds aren't the same. A detail that seemed small turned out to matter.
The Motagua River near Zacapa in the dry season, 2008. This valley is the newly recognised species’ home.Kymacpherson · CC BY-SA 3.0
The name won't protect its home on its own. But knowing that this valley is the only place the species lives makes the stakes easier to understand. I want the attention to reach the actual bird and its home, not stop at a new entry on a list.
An N95 respirator, photographed in 2013. One of the ordinary objects that became difficult to obtain.Hanabishi · CC0
In March 2020, hospitals faced a shortage of protective equipment during the COVID response, and deliveries could take months. The World Health Organization estimated that 89 million medical masks and 76 million examination gloves were needed each month. It called for production to increase by 40%. Prices were shooting up, supplies were being hoarded and export restrictions were getting in the way. This is an old report, not news of a new outbreak.
The wait is what gets me. Months, while people were already treating patients. It's easy to get interested in a better mask. I do too. The less glamorous work — making enough, getting boxes through borders, delivering them to the right hospital — doesn't make such exciting stories. But a nurse needs the mask to be there when a shift starts. An impressive design somewhere else isn't much help.
I wish we gave more credit to the people who make ordinary things reliably available. The person who gets enough gloves to a hospital on time has done something worth talking about. Even if there isn't a shiny new invention to photograph.
An Indian electronic voting machine, photographed in 2014. Archive election equipment.AbhiSuryawanshi · CC BY-SA 4.0
India has removed an estimated 130 million names from its voter lists during a review that began in June last year. These are the lists that determine who can vote. The dispute is about whether eligible people have been removed along with records that really needed deleting.
The ruling BJP says the removed entries belonged to people who had died, appeared twice, moved away or were absent. NPR also spoke to residents who said they were wrongly taken off. Kanchan, in Delhi, said her community was marked as having moved even though an election official had visited her there. Activists described people being asked for old family voting records or challenged over different spellings of their names.
An accessible ballot from Kerala, 2021. Being able to use a ballot still depends on being on the voter list.Fotokannan · CC BY-SA 4.0
That is the part that bothers me. Keeping a list accurate makes sense. Making someone fight to get back a right they already had is a much bigger deal than fixing a typo. A person who cannot afford to miss work is in a worse position to chase paperwork, even if the same rule technically applies to everyone.
The election commission says it will help people get back on the lists. I want that promise judged by whether they actually get back in time to vote.
The huge total alone doesn't prove every removal was wrong. The reported cases are already serious enough. An appeal that exists on paper but is too hard to use is not much help.
