Ignoring problematic situations in anticipation of them simply disappearing is a peculiar middle-class mindset that is extremely prevalent in the Pakistan of today. Such people, on the whole, consider the fast deteriorating economic climate as being nothing to do with them: neither is the political circus any of their doing, nor loadshedding, climate change, militant activity in all its nefarious guises, educational and medical shortcomings or any other 'ill' one cares to name. Like Pontius Pilate they simply wash their hands of anything untoward, laying the blame firmly at someone else's door and go back to waiting for everything to blow over. This time around, however, like it or not, they have no option but to face reality as the catastrophic flooding will soon, if it hasn't already, hit them hard where, to them, it matters most...their pocket. Anyone with even an inkling of common sense, an extremely uncommon mode of thinking as it turns out, should have known that food prices, irrespective of the advent of the holy month of Ramadan, would soar to previously, say a month ago, unimaginable levels but no, the middle-class, as per usual, refused to believe that the flooding could possibly affect them in any way whatsoever. "Why have vegetable and fruit prices gone up like this?" wails a housewife from an up-market area of Defence in Karachi. "There is no reason for this. It's just daylight robbery." The same woman had spent hours literally glued to the television screen over the preceding few days, watching in horror as millions of people lost their homes and prime agricultural land in Punjab and Sindh disappeared beneath rampaging flood water as livestock too was washed away. She even considered, albeit briefly, doing something to help but then conveniently remembered that a close friend's daughter is getting married soon after Eid and the cost of buying the obligatory gift, along with new clothes and maybe, just maybe, a new pair of gold earrings as everyone has seen the ones she has countless times, will stress the monthly budget to the point of no return and, as it stands, she may have to cut back on throwing lavish Iftari parties too. No way could she offer a helping hand, not even a single food parcel and anyway, plenty of other people would take action, the international community would help so...why worry? As the mega disaster unfolded on the television she, along with countless others, should have realised the obvious implications for the already fragile food security of the country. Crops have gone and cannot be replaced overnight as, even once floodwaters have receded, it will take time for the land to be ready for replanting and this, naturally, can only be done once people have returned, have shelter of some sort, have the means to pick up the pieces, get hold of farming equipment and even think of purchasing seeds, something they are highly unlikely to have money for in the foreseeable future anyway. On top of this, there is the question too of how many of these surviving people will be lost to the inevitable outbreak of a whole range of waterborne diseases including highly lethal, contagious plagues of cholera and typhoid to name but two? This is not to say, and it cannot be stressed enough, that people should rush out and hoard anything edible they can lay their hands on as such action would drive up prices even further, exacerbating the situation for those of limited income along with the millions eking out a meagre existence on, or below, the poverty line, let alone those personally affected by the disastrous flooding. What is needed is for people to act sensibly, accepting the fact that fresh food is going to be in short supply for the immediate future at least and, as a survival tool, those, like the woman mentioned above, boasting of showpiece gardens and lawns, need to give serious consideration to growing fresh produce for themselves. The authorities too need to look towards converting parks and other open spaces into vegetable plots: these being worked by their own staff or offered, in manageable plot size, to private citizens prepared to buckle down to task of getting their hands dirty and helping to feed the nation in the process. The alternative, as mentioned in last week's column, is possibly revolution: the hungry, poor, homeless and downtrodden rising up against those who they feel have access to all the things they themselves are denied and this prospect, particularly when looked at in conjunction with militant growth and expansion, will, if it comes into being, certainly not go away on its own no matter how dedicated the middle-class is to playing ostrich. The writer is a Murree-based freelance columnist.