Gulag reality tours in Croatia?

The following comes from the "Readings" section in the June 2005 issue of Harper's:

From a proposal by the tourist association of Rab, an island off the coast of Croatia. After breaking with Stalin in 1948, the Yugoslav dicta­tor Tito used Goli Otok, an island near Rab, as a labor camp for political prisoners. It was aban­doned in 1989. Translated from the Croatian by Ajla Grozdanic.

Young people today, especially young men, are seeking new challenges. Nothing is dangerous or attractive enough unless it in­volves pushing oneself to the limit by testing endurance, strength, skills, and all other indi­vidual accomplishments and abilities. Goli Otok has a lot to offer for this type of tourist. The island's most valuable "asset," its dark past, could attract a great number of tourists and other curious individuals. We're going to offer an entirely new form of ex­treme tourism.

We all know what has become of former prisons elsewhere in the world; however, as far as we know, nobody has organized volun­tary imprisonment with payment—yet. We're proposing that tourism be arranged on Goli Otok exactly as described by those who were real prisoners, without force or particular strain unless requested, and then confined to the limits of each individual's physical abili­ty. If our top actors can put on plays about Goli Otok, why could not amateurs do the same on Goli Otok itself, experiencing the everyday reality of the island for themselves, paying in advance for their stay?

There will be a book of regulations by which, after choosing the category and type of stay, participants would voluntarily abide, while having the option to leave. At the end each individual who completes all agreed-upon assignments will receive specifically de­signed awards and certificates stating that he passed all the tortures in one of Europe's most infamous jails.

We would like to remind those who might criticize this proposal that young people like to compete, as they've shown in the numer­ous and often life-threatening ways they try to break all sorts of records. When there are no wars, and various forms of adventure and extreme adventure tourism are expensive or impossible, our form of extreme adventure tourism can easily be made attractive and profitable.