Protest

I haven't yet written about the tumultuous (non-Russian/Latvian) political situation in Latvia (largely because, to my embarrassment, I haven't been following the news). There is a lot going on politically, and today there was a hugely-publicized and extremely well-organized, though disappointingly small and tame protest.
Having not followed the news carefully, I may not relate all of the details correctly, but here is the situation, more or less...

It is generally accepted and criticized that there is a lot of political corruption in Latvia. Some years ago the Latvian government established KNAB - Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau of the Republic of Latvia. Until a few weeks ago, the head of it was, successfully, Aleksejs Loskutovs. Successfully, because he was doing something, including conducting an investigation into how much political parties had spent in the last election (the government had recently put a cap on each parties' campaign spending). The investigation uncovered that the ruling party, the People's Party, had spent three times the limit, and just before the report was to be released, Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis suspended Loskutovs. In response to this, Loskutovs has continued coming to work, Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks has resigned in protest, and there have been two mass protests calling for Loskutovs to be brought back and for the government to resign.

Today was the second protest, officially allowed, and it was expected to be enormous - 20,000 people (which is particularly large for a country as small as Latvia).
The Diena ("Day"), the biggest Latvian newspaper, had a huge announcement today calling people to protest:

For a truthful Latvia
For honest politics
Today on Dome Square at 11:00.

But actually it turned out to be quite tame. As Mike Collier wrote in the Baltic Times today, it was "less an outpouring of public anger than a polite agreement that all is not well in Latvia." (http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/19204/)
It's a perfect description, because while there was an estimated 9-10,000 people (not 20,000, but still), the speeches sounded calm and were full of platitudes (Laura, one of the Fulbright students whom I went with, translated), the folk music between speeches was cheery and pretty, not revolutionary, and the crowd dwindled tangibly as the speeches went on. Although there was the unexpected highlight of President Valdis Zatlers speaking (basically he said hello, I hear what you are saying, and goodbye; most people yelled for the government to resign). Also it was just cold, grey, snowy, wet and unpleasant, as today was the first day of winter weather, with fluffy wet snowflakes and big brown puddles.
But what I found interesting was that it was very different from American protests, because there was a real crowd, rather than people cordoned-in like sheep; it was in the Dome Square, a centuries-old meeting place; it was so well-organized - there was a lot of advertising beforehand, and at the protest there was a giant covered stage, like a concert stage, and somewhat bizarre flat TV screens, which showed the protesters and almost advertisement-like images, presumably of the government and various politicians, in bright colors; and it was almost entirely middle-aged and older people and practically no youth. Most importantly, it felt like a raw democracy. Though, like most democracies, it seems likely to be toothless and unable to create real change.