By Esteban Israel

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's legislature will ratify a new leader on February 24, and for the first time in almost half a century that person may not be Fidel Castro.

But few Cubans appear to be aware of the prospect of the ailing 81-year-old leader, who has not appeared in public for 19 months, actually retiring from the political scene and those who are aware say it will not change their lives.

"I had no idea. I'm disconnected from that world. I don't watch the news," said Jose Carlos, 15, a student lying in the sun on the Malecon, Havana's weather-beaten sea wall.

Even if Jose Carlos had been watching the news, he would not have gleaned much about Cuba's political future.

As Cuba prepares for the National Assembly meeting that could make Castro's brother Raul, or a younger leader, the country's next head of state, there is no discussion or even a mention of the alternatives in Cuba's media.

Apathy and resignation reign in the communist island nation where waiting for slow public transport or finding deals on the black market to supplement low wages or pay for costly and scarce consumer goods are major pastimes.

"This system has good things and bad things, but I don't see a future for myself in Cuba, and I'm not speaking badly about the government. It's a reality," he said.

Jose Carlos will not have to pay a cent to study to be an engineer at university, or for universal free health care, but he complains his father had to pay $15 (7.50 pounds), equivalent to the average monthly salary, for the flip-flops he is wearing.

"Everyone knows that nothing is going to happen. Everything will continue the same," said his sister Zuleyma, 22, a medical school student.

Like 70 percent of Cubans, she was born after Castro seized power in a 1959 revolution and has known no other leader. "I've no idea what it will be like without him," Zuleyma said.

A few blocks away, on the stairway of Havana University where Castro made his first speeches as a law student in the late 1940s, Communist Youth leader Carlos Rangel says getting people involved in politics is an uphill battle today.

"That is one of our challenges. People are not aware of what we are going through ... they are more concerned with their own economic situation than the direction of the country," said the student leader.

Rangel, 21, said Cubans have not fathomed yet the "deep" meaning of Raul Castro's speeches as acting president.

RAUL RAISES HOPES

Since Fidel Castro underwent intestinal surgery and delegated power to him in July 2006, Raul Castro has encouraged debate among Cubans on the inefficiencies of Cuba's socialist system and what should be done to fix it.

In July last year, the younger Castro, 76, acknowledged that wages were "clearly insufficient" in the Cuban economy, which is more than 90 percent owned by the state.

Though he has delivered little so far, his comments raised expectations of economic improvements among Cubans such as Maylin, an accounting student at Havana University.

"The question is will it be Fidel or Raul. I think this is a decisive moment," she said, hitching a lift to class.

Maylin has pinned her hopes on Raul Castro, who she says has shown a "different line" and could bring some changes.

Older Cubans expect little in the one-party state born of Castro's 1959 revolution.

"This system will not collapse and can't be fixed, so one just has to fend for oneself," said retired professor Angel, 64, who struggles to feed himself. "I won't believe in change until I see it on my table."

Pepe Berros, who mends punctures for 50 cents a tire, cannot see Raul Castro mending Cuba's economy enough to abolish its main injustice: Cubans get paid in pesos but have to buy consumer goods in a second currency worth 24 times more.

Once a revolutionary who was beaten up by the police of U.S.-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista, Berros lives with eight other families in a dilapidated mansion built by a count in Havana's Miramar neighbourhood.

At 76, he is ready to throw in the towel and join a growing number of Cubans emigrating illegally by sea to Miami, where he believes it would be easier to work, even at his age.

"They don't let people do anything here. Cubans want to work, build, repair ... if only the state would let them."

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)