[ti:Community Built for Foreigners in Dubai to Be Torn Down]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]Jebel Ali Village, in Dubai, is a group of homes
[00:06.20]built in the late 1970s for European port workers.
[00:12.00]It has largely stayed the same over the years.
[00:16.60]Foreign residents still walk along quiet roads
[00:20.72]and play games at the clubhouse, a kind of gathering place.
[00:25.96]But now, large building machines
[00:29.44]are coming to tear the buildings down.
[00:32.64]Nakheel, the state-owned developer
[00:36.72]of Dubai's famous palm-shaped islands,
[00:40.00]is seeking to build a new gated community
[00:43.48]of costly two-story homes known as villas.
[00:48.52]Residents found 12-month eviction notices on their doors.
[00:54.16]An eviction notice is a document
[00:57.48]that tells someone to leave a place.
[01:00.56]Amanda James' British father first moved
[01:04.84]the family to Jebel Ali village in 1984.
[01:09.48]James, age 53, recently told The Associated Press,
[01:16.04]"I arrived here during the Iran-Iraq War.
[01:19.84]I stayed through both Gulf wars. ... We've had three generations.
[01:25.12]There's a history of people growing up,
[01:28.08]meeting each other, having their families right here."
[01:33.24]In response to an Associated Press request for comment,
[01:38.04]Nakheel said it informed the residents of its plans
[01:42.28]and has met all legal requirements.
[01:46.16]"We recognize Jebel Ali Village's importance
[01:49.92]to Dubai's history and its residents and, for this reason,
[01:55.16]have taken the decision to redevelop the community
[01:59.40]to preserve and enhance its longevity
[02:02.76]for many more generations to come," the company said.
[02:08.24]It argued that the planned pools, parks, sports courts
[02:13.28]and bike paths would bring residents together in new ways.
[02:19.36]During the 1970s, American and European employees
[02:24.56]of international oil companies moved to towns in the Persian Gulf.
[02:30.48]The foreigners, known as expats,
[02:34.64]lived with their families in communities across the area.
[02:40.24]Dubai did not have much oil,
[02:42.92]but used what it had to build Jebel Ali,
[02:46.60]the area's first major shipping center.
[02:49.88]Dutch and British port workers moved into houses nearby.
[02:55.24]As the neighborhood grew, a school opened.
[02:59.24]So did other places where residents met
[03:02.48]to tell stories over food and drinks.
[03:07.16]Donna Dickinson, a 40-year-old from Norfolk, England,
[03:11.76]spent her teenage years in the village.
[03:14.80]She moved back with her family last year
[03:17.96]"to replicate for my children the childhood that I had."
[03:22.76]"That sense of community is quite unique to this place," Dickinson said.
[03:29.36]Unique is a term that is used to describe something
[03:33.28]that is unlike anything else.
[03:35.88]"When you're an expat, having a sort of history to a place
[03:40.96]is quite a difficult thing," Dickinson said,
[03:44.68]as her 7-year-old son played nearby.
[03:48.20]Cory Rhodes is a 43-year-old community resident
[03:52.88]from the American state of Oregon.
[03:55.92]His home serves as his place of business
[03:59.72]as well as a home school for his daughter.
[04:03.88]Rhodes told the AP he is sad
[04:06.56]that the housing development is going away.
[04:10.92]"The emotional feeling you get from living here
[04:13.92]–you're just not going to get it anywhere else," he said.
[04:19.20]Amanda James wonders if Dubai may lose more than it gains
[04:24.12]by removing Jebel Ali Village.
[04:27.12]"My hope is that young people today
[04:29.68]don't think Dubai is Disneyland
[04:32.16]– because it's not," she said. "It had so much depth."
[04:38.00]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM