I shouldn’t still be amazed, but I am. I live in a foreign country for several months, a year maybe, and still discover words and “systems” that are completely new to me. Why? Because I didn’t think to ask about it.

Here’s what I’ve found so far. If you’ve got other sources where telediol has been mentioned or, even better, studied, please please let me know. It’s completely fascinating.

From today’s NYTimes (2010):

Bit by bit, though, the individual losses are coming into focus for Haitians finally ready to grieve. Many victims were not accepted as dead until the search missions were over, and many bodies were never recovered or were dumped in mass graves. But belatedly, funerals and memorial services are taking place daily, and the traditional word-of-mouth network known as telediol has reawakened, delivering death notices.

And then, following the telediol link, I found this (1994)

Millions of Haiti’s people live beyond the reach of newspapers, television and even radio, but everyone here, from illiterate peasants to the rich, has a lifetime subscription to the flourishing word-of-mouth network known as “telediol,” or “mouth television.” Part rumor mill, part oral news service, telediol is one of the most accessible and effective means of communication for Haitians.

The importance of the medium was demonstrated again last month when the number of people leaving by boat for the United States suddenly surged, threatening to wreck the Clinton Administration’s policy on Haitian refugees, and then just as quickly dropped to a trickle. In both instances, Haitians and foreign diplomats say, people were responding to information obtained via telediol. Word Spreads Fast.

From Time Magazine (1964):

The victims-were Louis Drouin, 28, a short, stocky mulatto, and Marcel Numa, 21, a tall handsome Negro, both members of a 13-man guerrilla force that landed on Haiti’s southern coast four months ago. Operating independently of other scattered bands in Haiti, they ambushed troop columns, encouraged peasants to defy their Duvalier overseers. Papa Doc had no trouble finding out who they were; in tiny Negro Haiti, the word gets around fast by telediol grapevine.

In retaliation, Duvalier’s secret police slaughtered whole families and even distant relatives of the rebels. Drouin’s family was marched naked through the streets of their home town and “removed” at a nearby army barracks. Meantime, Duvalier’s rag-tag army was killing off the miniature force one by one. The government bragged that only Drouin and Numa remained.

Washington Post (1996):

Everyone seemed to believe the latest story sweeping the Haitian rumor mill: Hillary Rodham Clinton was about to sneak into town for a secret voodoo ceremony to bring good luck to her husband’s presidential reelection bid.

Never mind that the story had no basis in fact and no one knew how it got started. Once it hit the telediol, Haiti’s informal news system, it attained instant credibility. Telediol, which literally means “ear to snout” in Creole, is what Haitians call the pervasive word-of-mouth news network.

From International Medical Corps:

This is a society and culture bent by a failed state to not trust what they could not see. I would visit each center and ‘report’ back to the hospital.  ‘Reporting’ used a phenomenon called ‘tele diol’ or word of mouth.  It found most the centers calm, well staffed, and appropriately equipped.  Upon return I would have one of the local Creole translators tell one family member, ˝the ‘Chinois’ doctor just came back from the rehabilitation center and he thinks it is very good.˝  By the next morning, nearly all were willing to go. Just remember, ‘tele diol’, it can be used for good or for bad.