From Social Indicator:

This study was designed by a team of Researchers which included a statistician. The sample size was determined in order to produce results within a margin of error +/- 3% and to make necessary disaggregation for the analysis intended. In opinion surveys, the minimum sample size required for a particular level of precision does not depend on the population size. In the sense, in a country like Sri Lanka, or even the US or India, polls conducted with a sample of 2000 could generate the results with the same degree of precision. However, if one wanted to make various levels of disaggregation, then the sampling size calculation should take that in to account.

In fact, in polling increasing the sample does not always mean higher the precision as non-sampling error increases with the sample size. This is why sample designing always looks for an optimum sample instead of a maximum sample.

Therefore, the sample size of this study is good enough to produce findings within a 3% error margin at 95% confidence level.

The conclusions on the responses are therefore insignificant and invalid.

If you keep switching fast enough between hands and feet, you won’t feel a thing : ) You may get a little dizzy in the process but hey, you’ll feel like it was all pre-1956.

@ Leon

It should read as, “Lies, damned lies and Central Bank Statistics…”

Dear Hikz,

Don’t know where you got your numbers from, but I hope I am right in assuming that you are aware that 25.8% + 41.2% + 80.8% = 147.8% > 100%.

If I have assumed correctly, for the sake of seeking truth from the facts, could you expand on how the different categories overlap?
You might also want to investigate why 19.2% do not think there will be any improvement; etc.

On the other hand my assumption might be wrong! 🙂

Ha…ha…ha…‘Vox Populi, Vox Dei’ –‘the voice of the people is the voice of God’…was well demonstrated by the Libyan people and the rebels a while ago… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14611549

…nothing is permanent. Qaddafi ruled for 42 years. Let’s see how long the Brothers & Sons will rule this country.

Or instead of making assumptions about what Tamils think and feel and pulling numbers out of nowhere, we could stick with what they actually thought: 25.8% said the situation was a lot better and a further 41.2% said it was a little better. 80.8% thought the situation will continue to improve over the next couple of years.

“Why “sinhalese” within inverted commas, Ravana?”

Let me tell you as succinctly possible, why? In the 1980’s I tried to persuade Tamils that they have the same heritage in common with the “Sinhalese”. They were irreconcilable and implacable. So I gave up. I was resigned to the possibility that Sri Lanka will one day be two nations (even though economically, politically and historically this seemed ridiculous. In the 1990’s genetic evidence also supported my thesis). Then in the late 1990’s, the small matter of “child abduction and recruitment”by the LTTE, turned me (not that I didn’t know they were an evil lot before; but now there were real people whose real children were cannon fodder under the LTTE jackboot. My heart had accept what my brain already said. These are my people.
Go forward a few year and we have the CFA. I told my wife (believing that the country will probably be divided- perhaps as a confederation) “now that the Tamils can be at peace, I can start to help my Sinhala people”. Quick as a flash she retorted “Don’t say that. I’m shocked! That’s racist!!” (my wife like my mother is an unassuming person with great wisdom).
Instantly, I realised how wrong I was. I owed it to all my people. What was sticking in my throat was the LTTE, whom I knew would betray Sri Lankans. Then the Ranil Wickramasinghe Government struck the first blow. By turning Karuna. I could see a gap. A possibility.
The rest is history as Sri Lanka had Sarath Fonseka to carry out professional task of eliminating the LTTE whilst a conglomeration of political forces including RW/UNP, CBK/SLFP, JVP, MR/GR converged to provide him with the support required at various times. Even when most of them (with the exception of JVP) went the wrong way or lacked courage there appeared intense pressure which provided the background to bring it to a close.
For me there was no doubt that a state-force was capable of doing this. However, the reason for supporting the war was that there was a greater prize to be won and a greater struggle for it after the war. The war against tyranny and corruption. This is not just my thought. Sarath Fonseka himself has stated that winning the war was straight forward but that fighting corruption is the greater challenge. There is one more caveat in this story. I like many others whilst supporting the war were more than a little perturbed about the fate of the child soldiers of the LTTE. It was very evident that these kids were pushed to the front lines as cannon-fodder. In Fonsekas own words, his strategy was to hit the strongest points of the LTTE, thus getting a high kill rate of elite LTTE cadres (with the price to be paid with lives of soldiers). We know that there were perhaps 20 000 child recruits. Of these one half were saved by this strategy as evident at the end of the war. I wonder how many more would have been saved if the Rajapkasa’s were not pushed by their masters in mid May?

So to come back to the point after this tortuous course; The “sinhalese” is in inverted commas because, it is not about them. The fight against corruption is always about minorities, the weak, those who need the protection of the powerful.

I said before about the wisdom of my wife. I also have a close group of friends who will not hesitate to point it it out if I ever tread the wrong path. I am blessed with their fierce loyalty.

DJ, are you a good friend to MR? :

“Are they a figment of someone’s imagination? Do they not exist? Why the lower case ‘s’? Are they children of a lesser God? ”

YES; No need to elaborate on this. I have stated why in many comments before. It’s a matter of coming to terms with it. “Nahayen andanna aepaa”.
This is the price you pay for being parrots.

“In any case, nobody starves in fertile Sri Lanka, man.”

I know that you know it was a figure of speech. Let me elaborate with a story.

One winter when it was drawing to a close, as is my usual habit, I stoked up the wood heater in my home before going to sleep. The reason for stoking the fire (which involves filling the cavity with dry hard wood and turing the fan and oxygen off) is that the wood would burn slowly all night leaving red hot embers to restart the fire in the morning. This night I had not kept replacing the wood during the evening. a result the embers were small in amount but still red. When I filled the cavity with large pieces of wood the embers were able to catch fire. I immediately closed the oxygen, expecting that the wood will slowly burn.
The next morning when I came to the wood heater to restart it with new wood, I was alarmed to see that all the wood was still there and the cavity full. The wood had not burnt as expected. But I noticed that there were still embers underneath in a gap. One of the big pieces had continued to burn but just enough to not affect the mass of the piece of wood. I rolled up two sheets of newspaper tightly and inserted them into the gap and lighted them. To my amazement the whole pile of wood lighted up within a space of a few minutes and was glowing red hot within 15 minutes. This would not normally happen with hard wood even if they are dry. There is a good explanation for what happened and would save $1000 per winter from then on.

In the case of Sri Lanka, the analogy is clear. All you need are embers far far smaller in mass than the great pieces of wood. And after a sufficient period all you need is a couple of sheets of newspaper to set it all alight!

Analyse That! BTW, in the great Southern Land called Australia in your favourite Latin, somewhere on the road between the Greatest cities, there is small place/village called “Badagini”. There is a legend that says the name was given by a Sinhala surveyor. You don’t need that legend to know that the Sinhala surveyors and purveyors get hungry all of a sudden!

“it is certainly also about the pronounced views of a vast majority of a vast majority.”

Well, you may have read what I said about the irreconcilable/inconsolable “Tamils” of the 1980’s. At the end of the war, there was a great opportunity for reconciliation to occur. Believe me when I say this. I have the expertise to know this. Sarath Fonseka would have wanted this, much more urgently than the Rajapaksas.
Now with CPA statistics (I have to concede this to you) you have just given the Eelam lobby the final brick in the wall.
This is what I dearly not want to happen. However, we have accept facts. Perhaps the Badagini, or the burning fire will save the day yet. Whatever the case, “sinhalese” are history!