Thank God that’s over…the Johnny Depp defamation case, that is. Or, more properly, “cases”, since both Depp and his wife Heard were suing each other. The lurid trial, with its not unexpected salacious and scandalous details of the high-profile couple, transfixed an audience larger than the Super Bowl for over SIX WEEKS!! Then the jury had to deliberate another 13 hours to reach a verdict!! During that time, most folks got to know more about defamation and libel that they probably cared to know.
Mostly because most had already made up their minds, depending on whose fans they were!! As such, in the court of public opinion, Depp had loooong been the winner!! Did you see his fans from Australia to Zimbabwe pouring out in support?? And you really think they were swayed by the evidence that came out in Court?? Gwan da side!! Your Eyewitness won’t even get into the merits or demerits of the cases. One reason being that defamation in jurisdictions like ours, that follow English law and precedents, are quite at variance with the Yanks’!!
In America, they place much more weight on “freedom of speech”, and must less than the British on the rights of the person who’s at the receiving end of the “free speech”. While this was a civil trial without any “guilty” or “not guilty” verdicts, the amount and type of the damages awarded give us a clue as to who was more “wronged”!! That Depp received US$15 million – with US$5 million of that being PUNITIVE – and Heard only US$2 million clearly shows the Jury felt that Depp was more wronged!!
And this brings us to the point that your Eyewitness wants to make. This case was all about “Intimate Partner Violence” (IPV), which – as we should know – is a mega-problem in Guyana. We know that while there ARE a few men who’re abused by their female partners, in the vast majority of IPV cases, it’s the women who’re abused. And fully aware of this reality, Heard’s lawyers made their case about men abusing women writ large. But all cases in front of juries have to turn on the facts presented, and the jury would have been charged to ignore what they knew about OTHER abuses. But most folks don’t listen to the “fine print”.
As such, Heard has done a disservice to so many women who’re being abused by men but who will now be seen by many as “taking advantage” of the laws that “favour” women. Which is as far from the truth as is Andromeda from Earth!!
So, with the Depp verdict, let’s not make one bad Heard spoil the all-women’s IPVs.
…on the oil money
We were just advised we’ll be making our second oil lift – this time from the second FPSO, the Lisa Unity. That’s a million barrels to be auctioned to the highest bidder. But we know it’s gonna be more than the present Brent light US$115/barrel! With the world scrounging for oil and the EU being dragged, kicking and screaming, to impose more stringent sanctions on Russian oil, the experts are looking at US$123/barrel!! So, we’re talking about US$123 million smackeroos pouring into our account at the NY Fed – with increasing frequency, as the other FPSOs start to kick in!!
Now the whiners are complaining they didn’t know how the money’s being spent. Well, duh!! Are they still whingeing about the folks who were appointed by the same institutions that were identified by the PNC’s NRF Bill? Which they’d rushed through when they were illegally occupying the Government?
Well, it’s being put into the Consolidated Fund, and they can track it from there!!
…on the Ukraine war
From Guyana’s interests, the Ukraine war’s good for our oil. Before the war broke out, Brent light was US$96.84. At US$123, we’ll be doing US$26M better – more than the PNC’s bonus!!
