That's the point, isn't it? Hopefully citizens in those countries will wish that they weren't embargoed and put pressure on their government to change.

I understand that not everyplace has a representative democracy with regular, free elections like the US, but except for the worst dictatorships that rule by force, the government must remain popular with the people!

I second that.
I learned on regular Basic...I know they are an anachronism but line numbers really helped me - they help bring some order into a bizarre coding universe. GOTO 100 is pretty easy to understand...and once you "get it", getting rid of line numbers in favor of subroutines, etc. is not too tough.