Celebrating the Rothko anniversary

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen discusses human rights in Rothko Chapel 40thanniversary lecture

A near-capacity crowd filled the Rothko Chapel Thursday night to hear world renowned economist Amartya Sen discuss human rights, their origin and relation to current issues such as health care and the Occupy Wall Street protests.

The 40th Anniversary Lecture was one of several programs the Rothko Chapel has offered this year to commemorate its founding in 1971.

Most of the lecture was gravely serious, which felt appropriate given the subject matter and surroundings. Rothko's 14 black-violet panels towered over the slight Sen as he discussed the relationship between human rights and legislation.

Sen defended the view of human rights as preceding and inspiring law, a view articulated by Thomas Paine in the late 1700's and realized in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

He also discussed the range of responses to the notion of human rights, from the skepticism of those who consider the concept “intellectually frail,” to the devotion of its champions who make the pursuit of justice their life’s work. Throughout his lecture Sen emphasized the importance of public debate about human rights.

While the hour-long talk was largely cerebral, there were moments of humor.

At one point Dr. Sen acknowledged his need to sporadically shake his right leg behind the lectern. In self-deprecation, he assured the audience that his agitation was due to a metal implant and not out of boredom with his own talk.

The question-and-answer session after his talk was also one of the livelier segments, featuring exchanges between Sen and a variety of audience members—an attorney, a doctor, a student and even an Occupy Houston demonstrator. In response to questions about health care reform, Libya and the Wall Street protests, Sen declined to offer political views, instead providing answers that expanded on his earlier comments on human rights.

An economist born in India in 1933, Sen is best known for his groundbreaking work on poverty and famine, issues marginalized by many of his contemporaries. Specifically, Sen’s development of the “capabilities approach” to understanding and measuring poverty has helped the United Nations and other groups more effectively gather information to improve the conditions of the world’s poorest individuals.

In 1998, Sen won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to addressing the causes of famine. He is currently a professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University and was included in Time Magazine’s “100 most influential people in the world” last year. Sen's books and papers have been translated into over 30 languages.

Sen will speak Friday at 6 p.m. at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy on “The Reach and Limits of Growth: Economic Recession, Development and Human Capability.”

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pet protection

What Texas pet owners need to know about the dangerous New World screwworm

Photo by Helena Jankovičová Kováčová/Pexels

Make sure these guys are up on their flea and tick meds.

Two New World screwworm cases in dogs are among more than 30 confirmed instances in Texas and New Mexico, prompting warnings Wednesday, July 8 from veterinarians and humane societies that pet owners need to remain vigilant to protect their animals.

The parasite reappeared in cattle in the U.S. in June, more than 50 years after it had been largely eradicated from the country. The pest is actually the larvae of the New World screwworm fly. It eats live flesh and fluids rather than dead material, as the larvae of most fly species do.

Here is what to know about the parasite, the threat it poses to pets and how to protect them:

Screwworm fly larvae can infest any mammal
The fly's migration north from Panama starting in 2024, and through Mexico in 2025, has agriculture officials warning that it poses a threat to the $113 billion U.S. cattle industry, but the larvae can hatch and breed in any mammal, including wildlife, dogs, cats and occasionally humans.

The problem develops when a female fly lays its eggs in open wounds and mucus. After the eggs hatch, the larvae feed for about a week before maturing, dropping to the ground and continuing to develop into an adult fly.

The American Veterinary Medical Association says newborn animals and animals with open wounds or who have undergone surgery or other medical procedures recently are especially vulnerable. Even a tick bite can host an infestation, Aaron Grady, executive director of the Houston Humane Society shelter, said during a webinar on the screwworm.

Screwworm fly The goal is to stop these flies from successfully breeding.Photo by U.S. Department of Agriculture

Infestation signs include restlessness and bad smell
Animal health experts say pet owners in areas where the screwworm is present — southern and southwestern Texas and southeastern New Mexico so far — should watch their animals closely and examine them for wounds, cuts and bites regularly.

Pet owners should look for any maggots or movement in a wound. Other signs include a foul smell and restlessness or anxiety in an animal, or an animal “hyper-fixating on looking or chewing in a certain area of the body," said Melissa Stansell, a veterinarian at the shelter Austin Pets Alive!

Any one of those is reason enough to go to a veterinarian. The affected animal is likely in a great deal of pain, and that can cause death from shock. The larvae also can cause death if they move into vital organs or by causing infections that turn deadly.

Flea, tick medications can stop an infestation
Humane society officials and veterinarians said shelters across Texas are trying to prevent infestations in animals by giving them prescription flea and tick medications. They recommend that pet owners do the same.

“It will kill the larvae as they ingest the blood and tissue,” Stansell said. “The chemical compositions of those products are what kill the actual larval stages of these flies.”

Veterinarians also can treat infestations and animals can recover if pet owners contact them quickly. Stansell said the treatment could include antibiotics.

“It is only fatal if left untreated,” she said.

An effort to eradicate the fly again is underway
The New World screwworm fly is a tropical species and decades ago would disappear each year when colder weather arrived with the fall or winter.

But state and U.S. Department of Agriculture officials aren't waiting for the weather to turn. They've returned to an eradication method that worked decades ago, breeding sterile male flies and releasing them into the wild. The female New World screwworm fly mates once in her monthslong life, and if her partner is sterile, her eggs won't hatch — causing the population in an area to drop and then disappear.

For years, the only factory breeding sterile flies in the Western Hemisphere was in Panama, but the USDA invested $21 million to convert a site in southern Mexico from breeding fruit flies to recently start breeding screwworm flies. The agency also plans to spend $750 million on a new fly factory in Texas, set to open next year.

screwworm fly pets