Never before have we, the citizens, been traumatized so much. An uncertain future is knocking at our door since 2009 but with the floods in August this year, the knock is now loud as the death knell. The worst floods in living memory have uprooted an estimated 20 million people in this country. They are lying on roadside facing hunger and disease. A lot of organizations are ramping up emergency operations to ensure that the most vulnerable among them continue to receive life-saving food assistance and other aid for sustenance and their children do not get afflicted by malnutrition. In times of troubles of this magnitude, food assistance promotes peace and stability better than all other measures put together, creating reassurance that creates calm in the face of volatility caused by the most fundamental of human needs. These hopeless millions have to be given strength, moral and mental, that only hope can provide. And hope is promise of bread to eat in these times. If that hope dims out in their eyes, we have a cause to fear. Thousands of flood-stricken families from the interior Sindh are daily making their way to Karachi these days. Karachi, not quite stable itself with a crime rate exceeding all modern metropolis and justice unavailable, would be a fiery melting pot for these people. A fight to prevail between 'we-dont-know-what-forces is on in this city in which everyone is seemingly free to act violently, often with shocking cruelty for the human kind. What should one expect from these people that are homeless, hungry and with only a dying glimmer of hope in their eyes? They have to be provided emergency food assistance as a national emergency. And yet, the distribution of food is, to say it mildly, not taking place in all areas. There are still thousands, and there are many who might dispute that figure, that are still begging for food even after a month. Their lives are under threat. They should be the prime most responsibility of us allgovernment of Pakistan, political parties, NGOs, common masses, everyoneto strive as hard as we can to get food to these poor victims of 2010, as soon as we can. If denied their bare bit of food they deserve, Karachi would become the worst place to live anywhere. Let us not deprive them of the right to live because with out that we may not have any ourselves. -NABIA SIDDIQUI, Karachi, September 9.