Families of the World: Family Life at the Close of the 20th Century, Vol. 2

Margaret E. Kidd, formerly the Co-ordinator of the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute’s Daycare Centre, is now associated with the Child & Family
Services Review Board in Toronto.

This thoughtful presentation of the everyday lives of people from East
Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific combines careful organization with
perceptive understanding. Hélиne Tremblay did her homework before she
set out to visit 33 families in 30 countries. With assistance from the
United Nations and local social agencies, she selected families to
represent the characteristics of each country according to detailed
statistical profiles. These statistics included housing, language,
modern history and prehistory, economic conditions, and ethnic groups,
as well as information regarding communication facilities such as radio,
newspapers, and tv. With only brief preparation for her arrival, the
families invited Tremblay to share their daily lives, from the slums of
Manila to the royal palace in Bali to the small islands of the Solomons,
Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

The book contains photographs of each family and its home, and a
population map of each country. We are guided through the events of each
day by following a time schedule, from the 6:30 am wakeup call on the
Manchurian pasturelands to the 10:30 pm return of the Singapore father
from a community meeting. The times and dates noted helps readers
compare the happenings in each family with those at corresponding times
and dates in their own family, culture, and country.

Brief comments on typical behavior add interest and a very human
dimension to the information. We learn the responsibilities of the
various members of the family. We are informed about diet differences
and available food—some families even send out for take-out food! In
some societies certain daily household tasks require two hours of
walking. In Manila they must buy water to do their laundry.

Tremblay includes a look at the lives of the thousands of refugees and
displaced persons who are spending years of their lives in camps in
Kampuchea (Cambodia), near Thailand.

One of this book’s strengths is its wealth of documentation and
photographs. We gain a balanced idea of how different people live: their
religious observances, their educational goals, their child-rearing
practices. Facts on the availability of electricity and access to safe
water give another perspective. Worthy of note is that in most of these
countries 50 percent of the population is under 20 years of age.