Typhoon Haiyan: the pretence that there's always some way out | Simon Jenkins

The craving to help is the most benign human instinct and can't be suppressed. But some things are beyond our control

The horror of the Philippines typhoon evokes that of another recent human tragedy, the civil war in Syria. The pictures are similar, fleeing families, stunned, pathetic children. We see people enduring unimaginable privation through no cause of their own. The disasters are different, one natural, the other manmade. Yet we look at them and yearn to be empowered. We long to help....